A trip to Antarctica is like the real-life version of Animal Planet: Where else in the world can you sail past seals sleeping on icebergs or plop down on a snowy beach where curious penguins climb right onto your lap? For most of our trip, wildlife spottings were of the warm and cuddly kind--until our zodiacs landed on Cuverville Island.
The rocky island is home to a rookery of gentoo penguins, so we settled on a hill overlooking the ocean to watch nature's show. Fluffy baby penguins frolicked in the icy waves and put on live performances akin to Happy Feet.
The movie moment quickly ended when an enormous leopard seal tore into an unsuspecting gentoo--throwing it up in the air and catching it with its teeth. It was an instant reminder that, despite the Hollywood-worthy scenery, we'd definitely landed in one of the wildest places on earth.
Maybe we were on a natural high after surviving the Drake Passage or maybe all that cold air went straight to our heads, but almost every passenger on our voyage took a (polar) plunge and joined the Antarctic Swim Team.
As our ship headed to Whaler's Bay near Deception Island, we scored our first big wildlife as humpback whales flaunted their acrobatic skills by breaching more than twenty times. Penguins shot out of the water all around the ship like shiny black-and-white bullets.
We watched from the bridge as our captain skillfully navigated the narrow crossing into Neptune's Bellows, which was formed when the walls of a volcano collapsed. As we boarded Zodiacs to go ashore, our expedition leader announced that the volcano was still active--but that he didn't think it would erupt the day we were there.
We weren't exactly convinced: Mother Nature and Antarctica were proving to be anything but predictable.
Antarctica's remote location isn't the only challenge to setting foot on the continent: It's also protected by the 500-mile wide Drake Passage, home to the world's most turbulent waters. But ignorance was definitely bliss for all the Antarctica virgins on board as our group of about fifty passengers set sail from Ushuaia on the Akademik Shokalskiy.
It ain't a Carnival Cruise. The research vessel's ice-strengthened hull can navigate between floating bergs and fit into nooks and crannies that larger cruise ships can't. The vessel is more cozy than luxurious, with a bar/lounge, small library, dining room, lecture hall and enclosed bridge for spotting whales, albatross and penguins.
Ushuaia is known as both el fin del mundo and the beginning of the journey to Antarctica. Convicts helped construct its streets, bridges and buildings when the Argentinean government built a jail there in the early 1900s. Officials figured wannabe escape artists wouldn't have a chance to make a getaway, thanks to the city's location in Tierra del Fuego: The waters of the Beagle Channel don't make for an easy swim.
Today, the town's population balloons to almost 65,000 during the high season from November to March. After the jump, find our guide on what to do and see in the City at the End of the World.
For our journey to the South Pole, we signed up with a group called People To People, which essentially offers study abroad programs for adults. In addition to whisking us to the seventh continent, People to People lined up top experts to lecture on board our cruise. We got schooled in everything from glaciology to marine mammals to the politics of Antarctica.
Group or no group, if you're among the .05 percent making the trek to the bottom of the world, mastering the f-word is essential. (That'd be "flexibility.") Our trip to Ushuaia, the southernmost city on earth and the gateway Antarctica, involved flight changes, lost luggage and botched travel plans.
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