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What is a day like in Antarctica?

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Our lovely expedition leader welcomed the day with her enthusiastic morning call at 7:00am through the PA system informing us about weather conditions outside: Temperature: 1ºC, Wind: 29 knots. A little windy, but still safe to make our first landing. Even though it was cozy and warm in the cabin, we were so ready to start our adventure outside that getting out of bed was not a difficult task. A delicious buffet breakfast was served from 7:30 to 9:00 am in the restaurant – everything from scrambled eggs, salmon and bacon, oatmeal and cereals, French toasts and fresh fruit and much more.

The day before, our expedition team had organized all the passengers in two different landing groups. This would ensure that not more than 100 passengers would be on land at the same time (in accordance with IAATO regulations) and guarantee that all passengers would have the chance to participate in both landings and zodiac excursions. While one group (the yellow +blue) was geared up and ready for the landing, the other group (red+ green) would be starting their zodiac cruising excursion. After an hour, groups would swap.

As we finished breakfast, announcements indicated that we should be ready for our first excursion of the day in Wilhelmina Bay. In the mudroom, geared up with our expedition parka, snow pants and waterproof gloves and boots, we were ready to get into our zodiacs, start cruising the gorgeous bay and encounter the first creatures that call these latitudes home. We marveled at the presence of blue icebergs all around us, while spotting blue-eyed shags, Gentoo penguins and a few Antarctic skuas. Our zodiac driver was the ornithologist of the expedition team, and he was more than happy to answer all our questions regarding these fantastic birds. Our whale whisperer (a marine biologist) was driving a zodiac close to us when a minke whale playfully got close to our zodiacs. No need to say that we were all amazed to witness the whale’s presence so close to us.

Wilhelmina Bay is a bay 24 km wide between the Reclus Peninsula and Cape Anna along the west coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-99 led by Adrien de Gerlache. Wilhelmina Bay is dubbed “Whale- mina Bay” for its large number of humpback whales. It is a popular destination for expedition ships to Antarctica due to its abundant whale population and spectacular scenery.

After an hour of zodiac cruising the bay, we went back to the vessel, grabbed a cup of coffee and delicious cookies (free of charge 24/7) and went to the main lounge to enjoy one of the many interesting lectures from our expedition team. This time, we had the opportunity to learn about the polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott and their stories and relevance on the “Battle for the South Pole” more than 100 years ago during the “Heroic Age” of Polar Expeditions.

At 12.30pm we all headed to the Restaurant were an appetizing lunch was waiting for us. Mouth-watering desserts tempted more than one passenger! Waiters were always attentive and ready to fill our glasses of water or whatever we had chosen to drink!

Right after lunch some of the passengers who have chosen to participate in the snowshoeing adventure option headed to the bistro to have a short briefing!

At 2:30pm passengers were once again called by groups to go down to the mudroom and get ready for our second excursion. This time we headed to Danco Island. We had to wait a little in the mudroom as it started snowing copiously, but about 10 minutes later, we were out with our experienced zodiac drivers. The scenery was beyond words. We landed in Danco Island where our expedition leader was waiting for us and helping all of us to get out of the zodiacs safely. Along with other expedition team members we were guided to follow the red flags along the path we were to follow to visit our first Gentoo penguin rookery. A beautiful pristine land awaited us with the most welcoming birds. IATOO regulations establish that visitors should be at least 5 meters apart from these creatures in order not to disturb them on their natural habitat. Nevertheless, as you may imagine, these birds do not know about distances and limits and they were free to approach us while we were sitting on the snow, speechless and marveled for about an hour. A wondrous 45-minuted zodiac excursion followed this landing and as snow continued to fall, we were all ready for a hot chocolate and teatime back on the ship!

Danco Island is a 2 km island lying in the southern part of Errera Channel, off the west coast of Graham Land. It was charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien de Gerlache, 1897-1899. Danco Island is a breeding ground for Gentoo Penguins and gulls. Danco is home to approximately 3,000 pairs of Gentoo Penguins and boasts a bit of ice free land on the north slope that can offer us a chance to stretch our legs and hike to the island’s 150m low summit. A clear day will offer glorious views of the nearby Rongé Island and Danco Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. We had some free time to put on some comfortable dry clothes and were invited to the main lounge for a recap following a “plans for the next day”! Two of our expedition team members also gave a brief presentation on Ancient Cartography and Glaciology! At 7.30pm we were all ready to enjoy another plentiful dinner, this time á la carte.

In the main lounge, we were invited to participate in a Sing or Dance game. The bar was open and some of us enjoyed the cocktails prepared by the amazing bar staff. The midnight pitch black night as we know it in other latitudes of the world doesn’t exist in Antarctica during the summer, so it is easy to go to bed late at night without even noticing. After a full active day, we were ready to take a shower and rest and reenergize for another day on the White Continent!

 

 

 

 

What is a day like in the Drake Passage?

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They say that you can have a “Drake Lake” or a “Drake Shake”, but either way you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy from the different activities and presentations your expedition team will offer you while crossing this mythic passage.

Right after breakfast, our expedition photographer invited us to join him in the main lounge to give us all the tips regarding bird photography! Many seabirds follow the ship on its way down and up the Drake Passage so you better know the photography basics to make the best out of your time on the decks.

After the presentation, naturalists were out on decks to help us spot and identify birds and whales. Other members of the expedition team invited us to take part on a variety of citizen science projects.

Binoculars for Antarctica expeditions are a ‘must have’ to take a closer look at the beautiful wildlife and icebergs along the way!

At midday the restaurant staff have everything ready for us to enjoy another delicious meal.

Lunch is served from 12:30 to 2:00pm and afterwards we had some free time before the next presentation or activities started. This time, the crew and staff invited us to join them at the Bistro for a Dumpling making. Chefs and staff helped us get ready with our aprons and hats before explaining us how to make them. With good music and great company and guiding making the dumplings was not a hard task, but you do need some practice if you want to make them appealing! The idea is that we all eat them for dinner along with all the other options the chefs prepared for us.

 

Another day on the Drake Passage our expedition crew taught us how to fold towels!

 

In the meantime, some of the passengers were cozy and comfortable at the cafeteria sharing some hot beverages, playing cards and discussing the many ways the same game can be played depending on your nationality. Time for alliances and rivalries, but in the end, we are all –literally- on the same ship!

Everybody loved teatime -delicious cakes and scones tempted more than one every afternoon and being on these cold latitudes one can indulge a craving for sweets!

Our creative Freestyle travelers organized a treasure hunting and we were all in to some explore and discovery. This was almost a quiz on how well do you know your ship and guaranteed we do some exercise after so much eating!

At 6:00pm we had a wonderful lecture on Oceanography and our expedition leader invited us to join her at the daily “recap + plans for tomorrow” talk!

After dinner, some went to the bar to have some drinks and chat all about travel and remote destinations while others participated in the Trivia Game the team prepared for us. Some nights at the main theatre, we had wildlife documentaries + popcorn, Trivia games organized by our expedition staff, games such as Bingo or Stop (word categories game) organized by our amazing host!

Do you need a visa to travel to Antarctica?

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If you are planning to embark in an amazing polar expedition, one of the most important things to have ready for the adventure is the necessary documentation to travel. When you are traveling internationally, a passport is essential! Make sure your passport is valid not only for the duration of your trip, but for at least six (6) months following your intended travel dates.

Although a visa is not required to set foot on the White Continent, most expeditions depart either from Ushuaia, Argentina or Punta Arenas, Chile. Hence, you might need a visa while you are in transit, or if you want to spend a couple of days in any of these countries before or after your voyage. Depending on your citizenship you might need a visa, so it is strongly recommended that you check with the local embassy to make any necessary arrangements ahead of time.

Note: The information below is valid at time of writing (July 2018), but these visas & fees change frequently. We recommend you re-check before traveling!

 For stays of three months or less in Chile or Argentina: US, UK, Australian, Canadian and Chinese citizens do not need a visa. Since regulations change frequently we recommend you double check they prevail when you intend to travel.

Some countries may not require a visa to enter, but they may charge tourists a reciprocity fee. Make sure you have checked if you need to pay a reciprocity fee, because some countries such as Argentina require you to pay it online before arriving to the country.

US, UK and Canadian citizens are exempt from paying this reciprocity fee when entering either Chile or Argentina. Nevertheless, Australian citizens have to pay a USD $117 reciprocity fee at the airport when they arrive in Chile by air (notice that when traveling by land this payment is not required). In Chile, this fee can be paid either by credit card or in US dollars.

As we’ve said a few times, these regulations change frequently, so this is just a guide! Our team is here to help you make sure you have the correct documentation before you come south.

Transitioning to Antarctica: What It’s Like to Sail the Drake

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Author Melissa Goldin on a zodiac excursion in the white continent.

It was the raviolis that broke me.

“If I have to throw up, where should I do that?” I asked Andy, one of the three crew members aboard our 19-day sailing expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Nonplussed, he pointed outside. I nodded, but didn’t get up. It seemed unlikely that I’d be able to get my coat on, wriggle into my lifejacket, and attach myself to the deck before my lunch ended up all over Icebird, our six-passenger, high-latitude sailing yacht. Andy seemed to sense this in my hesitation.

“Do you have time?” he asked. I shook my head. “Go, just go,” he urged me, and I stumbled out the door, onto the deck of the pitching vessel.

As I emptied my stomach over the port side, Andy grabbed the back of my sweatshirt so I wouldn’t follow my upchuck into the waves. Once the nausea had subsided, I sat on the deck, staring vacantly at the horizon, my lifejacket finally on and hooked to the boat.

The Icebird on its way to Antarctica across the Drake.

This is life on the Drake Passage — 600 miles of tempestuous waters connecting Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America, to Antarctica — one of the roughest bodies of water in the world. It’s unavoidable for most tourists unless they fly round-trip to the great white desert. In a large cruise ship, a crossing typically takes two to three days. It took us six — six days of hardly anything but ocean, birds, and sky; six of the most tedious, most soul-sucking, most uncomfortable days of my life. But it was worth it.

In the midst of a solo, five-month journey through South America, I’d shown up in Ushuaia, Argentina on the off-chance I would be able to find a discounted, last-minute trip to the seventh continent. Luck was on my side: I scored a spot on Icebird, sight unseen, with just three other passengers.

I knew the Drake would be rough, especially on a small boat, but I saw it as a means to an end — a challenge on the way to our destination. Instead, it was a period of transition that set the tone for the entire trip. I was quickly removed from the modern world and transported to an alternate universe with no Internet, no distractions and no one but the strangers with whom I was traveling. My perception of reality slowed and I started to focus on minute details with unrelenting concentration — how the cape petrels would take a running start on the water before taking off and how the never-ending ocean made it feel like we were literally on top of the world (or perhaps the bottom). World War Three could have started and I wouldn’t have known.

After three days, we saw another sailboat. The mast was only a thin, black line on the horizon at first, but it was my top priority for half an hour as we watched it draw closer at an excruciatingly slow pace. I wondered who was on board and whether they were as excited to see us as we were to see them. It was my tether to the rest of the world, a much-appreciated break in the waves, until it disappeared to the north.

“That was the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me,” I said to no one in particular as it passed.

But the novelty of the Drake soon wore thin. I got so fed up with the nothingness that I started cursing out the bathroom every time a big wave threw me off the toilet and napping as much as I could so as to simply do something other than stare out the window in a stupor. We were tossed around so much I could barely read or write and my hair got greasier each day I had to go without a shower. The monotony was broken only by good meals and when idle chatter turned deep (or silly).

Arrival in Antarctica!

And then everything stopped. There was no more rocking, no more splashing, no more nausea. Gentoo penguins squawked no more than 30 feet away, the bright reds and blues of two small buildings contrasted with the pure white of the snow and a cruise ship lingered in the distance, obscured by fog. It had never taken me so long to get anywhere and I thought about the early Antarctic explorers who’d really had it rough what with scurvy, starvation, and countless other hardships. Compared to them, with our GPS, motor and fresh vegetables, we’d gone for a pleasant jaunt around the lake, but it still felt as though we’d earned our anchorage.

As our plane back to civilization landed in Punta Arenas, Chile two weeks later I marveled at the miracle that is modern air travel. It took us six days to get to Antarctica and only two hours to get back. I had no desire to return to the Drake and was grateful a hot shower was finally within reach, but our arrival felt like a non-event — merely a blip on the way to my hostel. We were getting convenience over self-reflection. The nausea, however, was not missed.

Melissa Goldin is a writer and editor from Brooklyn, N.Y. who just returned home from a five-month trip through South America and Antarctica. You can contact her at goldin.melissa@gmail.com or learn more about her at melissagoldin.com.

Antarctica Bases to Know!

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Freestyle Team at Argentine Base Camara

As protected terrain, Antarctica remains largely untouched by humans. Yet the coldest, driest, southernmost continent still boasts a population of a few thousand, depending on the time of the year. Scientific researchers and base staffers occupy small settlements both winter and summer alike. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to disembark at one of these isolated points of civilization on your Antarctic voyage.

There are dozens of bases on and around the Antarctic Peninsula, run and maintained by many different countries. In the South Shetlands, you might visit Argentine Base Camara or Chilean Frei Station. Or, farther south on the Peninsula you might visit American Palmer Station or Ukrainian base Verdansky. All of these outposts are an interesting look into life on the White Continent.

Here are three bases to learn about before you go!

PORT LOCKROY

A historic base with a gift shop and a post office, this is a popular disembarkation spot for Antarctica cruises. The fresh waters of the small natural harbor made this an ideal environment for a whaling station from 1911 until 1931. In 1944, the British government established a military base — Base A — in the east of the harbor as part of Operation Tabarin, a wartime mission to establish a British presence in Antarctica. After the war, the base operated as a research station until 1962, where researchers investigated botany, geology, meteorology, and the ionosphere.

In 1994, Base A was recognized for its historical significance, and in 2006, it opened its doors as a living museum for Antarctic travelers. A team of four maintains the base during the summer months, taking care of historic huts, running the gift shop and post office, and collecting data (mostly penguin poop!) about the effects of tourism on penguins. They stay pretty busy – the post office sends over 70,000 postcards a year!

If the weather permits a stop at Port Lockroy, make sure to get an Antarctica stamp in your passport, and send a postcard to your friends at home!

BROWN BASE

An Argentine scientific research station in Paradise Harbor, Almirante Brown Station is an excellent stop for Antarctica travelers – and a continental landing! Cruise-ship passengers may climb to the lookout point at 84m and then slide down the human bobsled course on their stomachs, and then walk to see the gentoo penguins.

Legend has it that the base’s doctor burned down the station in 1984. Outraged that the team had been asked to stay for the winter, he waited until the last supply ship was about to leave, and then burned down the building so that the ship had to take them back to Argentina.

The base was originally a naval station and meteorological observatory from 1951-1960, but then the Argentine Antarctic Institute established a full biological laboratory there in 1965. Two decades of successful research were curbed by the 1984 fire, but the base reopened for the summer season in the following years. The unique gentoo penguin species have reclaimed the area, creating a unique fusion of wildlife and human presence in Antarctica.

HOPE BASE

Though not the most common tourist destination, this Argentine research base has quite a unique story. One of just two civilian settlements in Antarctica, Hope Base maintains a population of 55 during the frigid winter months and is home to the southernmost school in the world!

Hope was founded in 1953 as a military base. Fifteen years later, seven families (researchers and technicians) formed a small community by the bay, and a school opened up to educate the youngest members of the settlement. And on January 7, baby Emilio Marcos Palma became the first person born on the continent. During the rush to lay (symbolic) claim to Antarctica, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to Esperanza Base in retaliation to a visit to Antarctica by Augusto Pinochet, then dictator of Chile.

Today, the Escuela Provincial Nº 38 Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín is an Argentine school educating students from daycare through high school through a long-distance military education program. The base’s young residents also participate in the world’s southernmost scout troupe, Grupo Scouts 1556.

Each Antarctic base has a story of its own, and a visit to these stations is often a highlight of a voyage to the peninsula!

24 Hours in Punta Arenas

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Punta Arenas, Chile, a port city in the Magallanes region of Chilean Patagonia, is the second most important access point to Antarctica in South America. Antarctica voyages depart here to the South Shetland Islands via charter flight. A colorful town along the coast, Punta Arenas is the perfect place to enjoy a day or two before embarking on a trip to Cape Horn or a fly-trip Antarctica. Here are some things to do before you embark!

WALK THE TOWN

Take a stroll around the city center to see the historic Plaza de Armas. Make a wish and kiss the foot of the famous “Indio Desconocido,” an enigmatic indigenous man fabled to have miraculous powers. Enter the Palacio Sara Braun museum for $2,000 Chilean pesos to learn more about the city’s early history. Stroll up the Avenida Cristobal Colón, and find a full view of the city at the top. Punta Arenas is also full of street art, so keep an eye out for the many murals you’re sure to find!

Don’t forget to apply sunscreen before your walk – there’s a hole in the ozone layer above Punta Arenas, and the sun hits strong!

EXPLORE THE CEMETERY

If you’re a fan of ornate Latin American cemeteries, you’ll love the municipal cemetery of Punta Arenas. Lose yourself among the tall, oblong cypress trees that line mausoleums dotted with flowers and pinwheels. Visit the resting sites of the region’s most influential pioneers and immigrants, as well as monuments to fallen soldiers and the “Indio Desconocido.” Note that this is not just a historical cemetery, so be respectful to visiting families!

WALK AMONG PENGUINS

For many visitors, the 4-5 hour excursion to the penguin colony of Magdalena Island is a highlight of their stay in Punta Arenas. A ferry cruise will bring you past sea lions to a colony of over 150,000 Magellanic penguins – a species found only in this part of the world and in the Falklands. For penguin fanatics, this is a great opportunity to see this unique species. But if you’re on a budget, skip the tour and get excited for the great variety of penguins you’ll see in Antarctica! Cape Horn travelers: you’ll stop at Magdalena Island on your journey.

GO SHOPPING

Punta Arenas has a large tax-free commercial district, ideal for purchasing last-minute Antarctica gear or stocking up for camping trips after your journey. It’s quite a bit cheaper than shopping in Argentina and also offers a wider variety of imported products. For longtime backpackers, this is a great place to find food products (read: peanut butter) otherwise scarce in Latin America. Visit the Líder supermarket (Chilean Walmart) for all kinds of cheap buys, and then head down to the Zona Franca shopping complex for a variety of goods, including camping supplies, electronics, imported chocolates, and just about anything else you might need.

ENJOY A MEAL

Treat yourself to a dinner at the lively La Marmita – with a colorful interior, plenty of vegetarian options, and delicious cocktails, this is a great spot to enjoy an evening. Don’t forget to bring cash!

For a cheap meal, head over to the home-y Sabores de Mamá, where you can get an appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage for $5,000 chilean pesos. Their cozy atmosphere and warm service make for a delightful experience.

Take a break in a café for a couple hours: Imago Libro Arte Café, right on the shore, offers gorgeous views and a shelves full of books to peruse, or take advantage of the free Wifi and yummy pastries at Café Tostado.