ANTARCTICA
Cooper. It’s
the end of the world! Antarctica really is the end of the world. In Canada,
it is winter now, but down here in the southern hemisphere, it is summer.
However, when you usually think of summer, you think of a nice warm day,
t-shirts and shorts, but in Antarctica, you’re wearing all of your layers to
keep warm. My dad and I took a boat down to Antarctica, while my mom stayed
back in Buenos Aires, Argentina, because she made a promise that she would go
nowhere near winter during our year of travel, and Antarctica in the summer
still counts as winter.
To get to
Antarctica we flew to Ushuaia, which is the southernmost city in the Americas,
so that was already cool (both types of cool). From Ushuaia, we then took a ship
two days across a stretch of ocean called the Drake Passage, which is known to
have horrible conditions at certain periods of the year. Luckily it was good for us on the way there. And then we were in Antarctica!
While we were
in Antarctica, we set foot on land six times.
At other times we cruised around in a small boat called a Zodiac to get
up close to water wildlife and icebergs. Each time was fantastic. We were
guaranteed to see two types of penguins: Chinstrap penguins (my personal
favourite), and Gentoo penguins. But we were lucky and saw two more types of
penguins: a Macaroni penguin, and an Adelie penguin. Here is a picture of the
Macaroni penguin (which the staff on our boat have named Kevin)
Along with
the different types of penguins, we also saw many different types of seals (no,
not sea lions). One type was the Elephant seal, and the baby ones are so
cute with their big eyes.
On the last
day of our Antarctic stay, before we went on the Drake Passage, we visited Danco
Island, which had a very long, and very steep hill on it, and we all hiked to
the top. After we spent some time up there, we had to come down, which would
take about 10 minutes to walk, so my dad and I took the quickest, most direct, and
awesomest way down the snowy hill: on our bellies like a penguin! It was so
much fun!
After sliding
like penguins, we got back on board and set off to a bay where we anchored the ship.
With icebergs all around, the bitter cold air, a thin amount of ice covering
the surface of the water, and lots of snow falling from the sky, it was the
perfect place to go jumping into the freezing cold water. My dad and I did it
of course, along with about 60 others (with a total of 170 passengers, lots of
them were chickens for not doing it). The water was COLD, only 1
degree above freezing! Here is a picture of me jumping into the bitterly
cold Antarctic Ocean!!!
The Drake
Passage was not nice to us on the way back, and my dad, being prone to
seasickness (along with 100 other people) really didn’t feel that great. I
even got seasick, and it’s rare for me to get seasick. After our survival of
the two days across the Passage, it felt really good to be back on solid ground
in Ushuaia.
To see more pictures
from our world trip so far, click this link:
Vern. Our voyage to the 7th Continent aboard a Quark
Expeditions ship was outstanding.
The Antarctica landscape is amongst the most stunning I have ever visited. We saw dozens of glaciers, hundreds of
icebergs, and thousands of penguins and not once did I tire of the sights. (Well, OK – a lot of the penguins do look
alike.) The Quark staff were truly phenomenal, and they all paid special
attention to Cooper (the only minor on board).
The food and service were top notch.
Our waiter, Vlodomyr, performed a different magic trick for Coop almost
every day. The expedition staff (and
most of the passengers) all knew Cooper by name and on the last night he was
brought up on stage to be a part of the nightly entertainment, participating in
“The Ice Show”.
Yes, travelling aboard the Ocean Endeavour in cruise ship
cabins is a long way removed from the forays of Amundsen, Scott and
Shackleton. Plenty of smoked salmon and
fresh-made omelettes; no need to consider eating sled dogs, staff or other
passengers.
The only (slightly) negative part of the trip was the
crossing of the Drake Passage; that dreaded stretch of sea between the tip of
South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.
As I wrote parts of this entry, my chair often slid away from the table
and I had to fight my way back to the keyboard.
Despite the seasickness pill and my wristbands, I was still a bit
off. The laptop was facing the window,
where I could type while staring at the horizon; it helped. The ship was very quiet and few people were
in the lounge, which was telling. Even
Cooper was feeling ill and laid down in our cabin, barf bag on hand, waiting
for the seasickness tablet to kick in.
We had several good whale sightings of humpbacks; well worth
getting geared up and braving the wind and cold on deck. We’d also been very lucky with penguin species
– we saw four out of the eight species in the Antarctic: Gentoo, Adelie, Chinstrap and Marconi. Plenty of Gentoo (i.e. thousands), same for
Chinstraps (though their colonies are only in the north), and a single confused
Marconi along with a single Adelie spotting.
Happily, I have pictures of all.
The tall and colourful Emperor and King penguins live further south than
we’d travelled.
Cooper and I partook of the “Polar Plunge”. Staff and passengers alike were once again
impressed with Coop; however, there was no question that we were going to do
it. And yes, the water was very
cold. For safety reasons, jumpers are
harnessed should they need to be pulled out of the ocean.
I would do this trip again and go down to the South Georgia
islands. A longer trip, but the scenery
and history are worth it. And the food
isn’t half bad either! :)
To see more pictures from our world trip so far, click this link: