Consider this your necessary daily dose of adorableness.

Voyagers with Lindblad Expeditions, onboard the ship National Geographic Explorer, were just chilling on Aitcho Island in Antarctica when they spotted a rare white penguin a few days ago. The cutie pie is a Leucistic chinstrap penguin (okay, so he's not totally albino), as the video explains, and he's just going about his penguin-y business.

Now is the middle of the prime summer season in Antarctica, when the cruise ships and expedition tours make landfall on the southernmost continent. Hopefully we can expect more sightings of similarly cute wild fauna before the season ends in a couple months.]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-12T12:50:05-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/8/0317/05270

It's been over a year since our last cute dolphin report (omg remember the pink dolphin of Louisiana?!) and since it's Monday and all, we just have to share this story: an injured baby dolphin was found by tourists in Uruguay, and it's being nursed back to health.

The little cutie was suffering from fishing net wounds and had washed up on a beach at the La Plata River. Now he is at the NGO Rescate Fauna Marina in Punta Colorada, outside of Montevideo, in the safe hands of marine biologists who work with other tiny marine animals, like the dolphin's new neighbor Pingu the Penguin. Apparently they gave the baby dolphin his own cute name: "Nipper."]]> JetSetCD 2010-11-08T09:35:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/28/144013/899

If you're not quite ready for your summer vacation to end and you've got $60,000 burning a hole in your pocket, the professional travel planners at ekoVenture are ready to take you on a two-month adventure across Antarctica. The trip has a difficulty level of "strenuous" and the comfort level is rated as "bare bones," or, in other words: awesome.

If that last part doesn't give you an adequate sense of what you're in for, the trip overview begins with the following: "this unique expedition has the goal of arriving to the south pole unsupported, which means without any help or food caches from its beginning to its completion." On one hand, arriving at the south pole sounds mind-blowingly incredible. On the other hand, aren't "food caches" traditionally helpful things? Why would anyone want to give up on something with a name like "food caches"?]]> Omri 2009-08-28T16:04:42-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/10/20579/2638

Everyone knows the phrase "when pigs fly," but how about killer whales? Southwest Airlines recently celebrated the opening of the new Manta Ride at SeaWorld, and as the official airline of the aquatic amusement park, they flew in with "Shamu One," one of their 737s painted up with the whale livery.

Don't be surprised if you see the belly of this whale flying overhead at more than one airport; Southwest has three of them in their fleet. As a matter of fact, of their 500-strong planes, about 12 of them sport festive paint jobs like the NBA's "Slam Dunk One." But for the Shamu One, the partnership with SeaWorld goes beyond the plane exterior.]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-11T08:45:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/27/161528/696 Matt Chesterton has returned to Jaunted with tales of his latest trip cruising around Antarctica. Every day this week, he'll be enlightening us on this luxury ice capades adventure. Enjoy.

Some people will travel thousands of miles in search of ‘fresh air’, by which they mean air that is entirely odorless. This makes no sense to me. I like the way the world smells; it keeps me grounded.

I particularly like the stench of the city. My neighborhood of Buenos Aires discharges a pungent mélange of diesel fumes, deep-fried churros, grilled sausages, burning tobacco, cheap perfume, tilo, stray dogs, and whatever it is that comes out of a 1970s automobile.

Antarctica, I was led to believe, was pristine, sterile and untainted. It would be like swimming in Evian. Happily, this is not the case. On our first excursion on the ice continent, my olfactory nerves were given the shock and awe treatment. The sea smells. The ice smells. Elephant seals – who seem to all intents and purposes to be coprophiles – really smell. And the whiff of penguin guano, which is to cow shit what cow shit is to Chanel, will stay with me forever. (As one of my shipmates, Frank, from Arizona, wisely observed, quoting Frank Zappa: "Don't eat the yellow snow.")

]]> MattyC 2009-01-28T11:29:25-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/8/16/142222/707

The 2008 Edinburgh Military Tattoo is in full swing, with more than 200,000 people in town to watch military bands and display teams from the British Isles and around the world perform against the backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. This year's tattoo held a special honor for one resident of the Edinburgh Zoo, as a three-foot-tall penguin named Nils Olav received a knighthood from the Norwegian King's Guard.

Sir Olav, as he is now known, is actually the third in a distinguished line of penguins who have served as honorary members of the King's Guard. The unit has a long-held tradition of visiting the zoo while in town for the Tattoo, and couldn't help but be charmed by a tuxedoed young waterfowl who considered himself a kindred spirit to the uniformed soldiers. Olav I, who was named after Norway's then-king Olav, was first made an honorary member of the guard in 1972, and he and his replacements have garnered awards and accolades ever since.

As part of his knighthood ceremony, which was held on Friday at the zoo, Sir Olav reviewed the troops and waddled around to the sound of bagpipe music. And while he's a big deal in knightly circles, it doesn't take much to get an audience. Just drop by the Edinburgh Zoo's world-renowned penguin exhibit, which first started breeding these adorable birds in 1914. The Tattoo runs through August 23.

Related Stories:
· King Penguin Receives Norwegian Knighthood [msnbc]
· Edinburgh Zoo [Official Site]
· Edinburgh Military Tattoo [Official Site]
· Animal Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mirror.co.uk]]]> Victor Ozols 2008-08-16T14:25:11-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/