Thursday, November 21, 2013

Antartica

I made it back from Antartica yesterday. I can still feel the boat rocking. Antartica was a dream.


 We left on the 11th from Ushuaia. Shortly after, we made a stop at Puerto Williams, and continued on past the infamous Drake passage for 2 days.


The Drake was kind to us on the way there.
We made our first landing at cuverville island, saw some penguins, and a seal. The penguins fight for rocks. It was mating season.





We had the chance to cruise down some straights on zodiacs.


At one point we got off on some sea ice to take a group pic and play.



We had a BBQ out on the top deck one evening and saw some orcas (whales) the same night.



The next day we stopped by port lockroy, a museum/post office. It used to be a British base.
Later we actually got on the mainland, saw more penuins, had a snow fight, and slid down a mountain.

We stopped by Ornu harbor the next morning and saw a lot of penguins. I think it is the second biggest colony of penguins in the world. The sound was like a constant car motor running.  


The final landing was on deception island, which is an active and water filled volcano. There is old whaling equipment there. We had the chance to go swimming.



This is just a short summary of what I experienced on the trip, words can’t really do it justice. This was certainly a highlight in my travels. I made some beautiful new friends and the food was good too.