Day 6 The weather took a turn for the worse over night. I got up early with hopes to see the sunrise, but found a cold misty sky accompanied by a fierce wind. In the distance, ahead of the boat, I saw a large set of rocks pushing through the…
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Perfect
Day 5 I got up around 6:30, which turned out to only be 15 minutes ahead of Stephen’s early morning announcement. In the morning light, the staff had spotted a couple humpback whales out in front of the boat. I When I got out on deck, it was still really,…
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Deception
Day 4 “Bing Bong”… I hadn’t slept overly well, as the boat had been swaying all night as we passed from the South Shetlands through the Bransfield Straight toward the Antarctic Peninsula. I must be getting some sea legs though, as I was actually feeling decent this morning. In his…
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Zodiac
Day 3 The boat was still rocking at 7:30 in the morning when Stephen’s kind voice again came over the intercom and said “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, good morning!” It really wasn’t a good morning. I felt exactly the same as I had 10 hours earlier. Would this never…
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Drake
Day 2 I awoke at 7:30 in the morning to the sound of the ship-wide intercom system – a gentle “Bing-Bong”, followed by the voice of Stephen, our expedition leader. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, Good morning,” he opened in a super friendly and calming voice. “We are in the…
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Explorer
Day 1 My eyes opened around 7:15 am (which by Ushuaia standards is before the crow rises), and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get them to close again. It was like I was 8 years old on Christmas morning. “I’m going to Antarctica today!” I repeated to…
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Antarctica
I write this initial entry as an explanation – a guide of sorts for the next few entries. Encapsulating the experience in Antarctica has been the most difficult of tasks – evidenced by my tardiness in posting a new tale. It has been by far the hardest writing I’ve done…
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Waddle
On Tuesday morning, I got up early – about 7:30 (In Ushuaia, anything before 8:00 is considered ridiculous) and took advantage of the free breakfast at the hostel. It consisted of watery OJ, small pieces of dry toast and some really, really good croissants. There were some condiments as well…
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Unseasonable
After reading some stuff in my guide book and visiting the tourist office on Sunday (which was a rainy, boring day), I got up Monday morning ready to do some hiking. With all these mountains around, how could you not? Scaling up a mountain to see the nearby Marital Glacier…
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Bottom
My flight to Ushuaia was to leave at 8:50 on Saturday morning. I shared a taxi at 6:00 from the hostel to the airport with a Norwegian dude named Daniel. Having already toured the airport the day before on my little parcel quest, I knew exactly where I was going. …