Antarctica, The 7th Continent

Well, here we are, the true end of the world (well at least one of them). Sadly, I don’t know what I could say about Antarctica without feeling totally inadequate. My impression of Antarctica is almost like that of a waking dream; you realize that something profound has happened but you’re not quite capable of truly comprehending it. There is no place like it on earth, and while you can technically say that about many places it’s never seemed quite as true as it does now. The pictures will tell it best, but suffice to say that it’s a magical place.

So we started in Ushuaia and set out our first evening to head across the Drake Passage for Deception Island and Cuverville Island. Deception Island didn’t offer much of a view due to heavy cloud cover, but in Cuverville we got our first chance to get out in the zodiacs and get a closer look. This time it was only a zodiac cruise, so we’d have to wait one more day before actually laying foot on the continent.

The next day it was on to Port Lockroy where we would finally have a chance to get on land and wander around a penguin rookery and see some Antarctic wildlife up close, not to mention some pretty cool looking whale skeletons. The weather was still a bit dicey, snowing off and on, but we were obviously so excited to get close to some penguins it didn’t really matter.

Port Lockroy would also be where we kept anchor over New Year’s Eve and celebrated Antarctica style. In a bizarre and very nice twist of fate at about 9 in the evening on the 31st we got our first clearings of the weather and we ended up having an absolutely gorgeous New Years. And of course, aside from being in Antarctica for New Years we also had the unique experience of ringing in the new year in daylight, the only place in the world where that is possible.

On New Years Day it was up nice and early for some more penguin action, this time in nearby Paradise Harbor. Sadly we had reverted to our snowy weather, but oh well. One of the best parts of the Paradise Harbor excursion was the fact that we had to navigate a very dense field of icebergs to get to the actual landing, so we snapped off some fun shots of icebergs along the way.

The following day was set to be our last day in Antarctica with an excursion to Half Moon Island, but sadly the weather was too bad for us to use the zodiacs so we couldn’t get off =( We passed right by Half Moon Island and into the Drake Passage steaming our way back towards Ushuaia. After a long and rocky day and a half across the Drake Passage we hit the final spot on the tour, Cape Horn.

Not the most scenic place in the world, but maybe if you could look at the ocean floor you’d see something more interesting considering the number of shipwreks around that little piece of land.

So after a few more days in Ushuaia we went back to Buenos Aires where we are currently relaxing for a few days before we head for the final stop on the trip, Bogota, and then it’s back home. sigh.

Happy Holidays from Ushuaia

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Eventhough we couldn`t be home to celebrate with you all, we had a relaxing time drinking lots of wine and watching cheesy 90s movies with some friends of ours in Puerto Natales, Chile. The gorgeous Patagonia mountain backdrop definitely made for a memorable Christmas location.

We are now in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. It`s a cute little harbor town with mountains all around. Although it`s a bit touristy as many cruise ships pass through, it still has an Argentine feel.

We set sail today on the Marco Polo to Antarctica…

Happy Holidays to all and we`ll be back online in a week…