Antarctica

Majestic icebergs, silly penguins, and awe-inspiring whales highlighted the past 10 days aboard the Polaris - a 64 passenger, double hulled cruise ship built for ice-strewn arctic waters and recently brought down here to the Antarctic. The ship, we're assured by one of the expedition staff aboard, has the highest rating available for those traveling in iceberg filled waters. He also noted, with a small grin, that the Explorer also had this high rating. The Explorer, as everyone aboard was well aware of, was the ship that sank in Antarctica back in November. Many were acutely aware of this as they were originally booked on the Explorer. As that ship is now 1100 metres deep in icy waters, Gap, the company that owned the Explorer, had to find a new boat quickly to accommodate the passengers that had already booked. Though I normally prefer traveling independently, that is not exactly possible here at the bottom of the world. Fortunately, I was able to do the next best thing by traveling with Gap. They are an 'adventure' travel company that focuses on sustainability and their staff made great efforts to share those philosophies with us - especially important or relevant in this precious place. They, along with the Russian crew were a lot of fun.

Basically our trip consisted of traveling for 2-3 days across the Drake Passage to get down to Antarctica, spending 4 days making landings on the continent and then a couple days back. Our landings were made by rubber boats called Zodiacs and would have us getting out into a foot or two of water on the edge of the ice or land. On these landings, we were treated to one spectacular scene after another...elephant seals weighing up to 5000 pounds, penguins chasing each other around the ice, watching from a cliff as whale after whale breached the surface of the icy waters below and many more.












One day we stopped at a Brazilian research station called Feraz which gave us the opportunity to talk to people that actually live on Antarctica year round - crazy, as it was really cold there now which is the middle of the summer. In addition to absolutely incredible scenery, it was great to spend 10 days with the same group of people(from 15 different countries), many of which I am certain I will see again somewhere in their home countries or in the states. Probably my favorite part of travel is meeting people from all over the world and while normally new people come and go every day or so it was kind of neat to really get to know folks.









Many hours were spent on the ship`s bridge hanging out with the Russian crew looking out for whales, icebergs and whatever else one looks for from a ship's bridge.

A trip to a place called Whalers Bay was a highlight for me, though I was a little disappointed that this was actually a place where they did a lot of whaling and not the summer home of America's favorite hockey team. We also determined that Scotch does indeed taste better when served over a single (large) Antarctic ice cube that is hundreds or thousands of years old. Mmmmm. Oh yeah, about half of us also went for a (brief) swim at one of our Antarctic landings.

Unfortunately photos can not do this place justice, but here's a glimpse (i took well over a thousand photos)....