antarctic adventure

rough swells along the drake passage

our first landing on the shetland islands

both penguin species we saw

gentoo penguin

this ice is slippery 

chinstrap penguin

how can we get on that boat, fellas?

march of the penguin

penguin colony

wing man 

slip n' slide

emil says:

not what i had expected. i doubt this place is like anyone expects. antarctica is surely not a flat white snow covered beach with 3 penguins blankly looking at one another. this is a fierce awesome place. moon-like labyrinth of active volcanoes, glaciers, ice floes, and icebergs the size of several football fields.  colonies of hundreds of thousands of squawking and nastily fighting nearly-loveable penguins scrambling to find prime nesting real estate. it’s a zoo out there. more life than i had expected but at the same time much more hostile an environment than imagined. one stands upon just a seriously unforgiving, phenomenally wicked terrain and then one spots a bunch of seals yawning away. and penguins seem to be smiling the nastier the weather gets. not a lot of grey area here.  a certain species will either thrive in this environment or not.  we are of the latter group. the air is so clean and so devoid of dust particles that objects actually appear closer than they are (the opposite of your car’s side view mirrors). at night the stars don’t twinkle as there’s just not enough dust to distort the light from the shining stars (pretty cool).  when i stared out at the vastness from land or sea it just made me smile ear to ear.  it just feels so awesomely indestructible.  it feels tremendously bigger than humanity. tough to find the adjectives to describe such a space. i walk away just excited about how enormous and how unspoiled and purely virginal this land is, and hopefully remains. 

not photoshopped

deteriorating whaling boat at deception island

deception island cemetery

on the caldera at deception island

remains of old whale oil tanks

monster leopard seal

one too many buffet meals 

200 yard long iceberg

sea ice

boat hidden by heavy ice floe

zodiac cruising 

snow petrels chillin'

laurel says:

we live in a world where few mysteries still exist.  it seems the human footprint has traversed nearly every inch of this earth.  antarctica remains the one exception.  in fact, it was just 100 years ago that the first polar explorers staked out the south pole. 

it is an honor to visit the white continent and one that must be earned by enduring the volatile drake passage- the body of water which separates south america from antarctica.  two full days at sea with rolling 20 foot waves.  it was commonplace for china and glassware to come crashing off the table in the ships dining room.   then you take your first unforgettable glimpses of the frozen tundra and realize all the motion sickness pills were worth it.  antarctica is far from the white plateau i had envisioned.  instead, snow capped mountains jut up thru the ice, meeting the crisp blue sky.  icebergs frame the sea in shapes you never knew existed.  raw, rugged, untouched by the human hand and completely breath taking.  it is difficult to describe just how stunning the landscape is.  greeting you upon your zodiac boat arrival are thousands of penguins, awkwardly making their way across the ice.  bloated seals rest leisurely on the snow, digesting their daily catch.  bright blue glaciers float by along the sapphire waters.  it is sensory overload.   a night spent in hurricane force winds while our ship anchored in the volcanic caldera at deception island.  observing humpback whales dive for krill sheer feet from the boat.  stepping foot where the likes of shackleton spent time.  plunging into the -1 degree celsius waters of the southern ocean.  these are memories that will not be forgotten.  

our tiny zodiac near iceberg

humpback whale 

pacific life ad

arrival on antarctica mainland

argentine research station surrounded by friends

laurel celebrating her 7th continent

taking the polar plunge

crazy style points