I struggled with culling my Antarctica photos as I took 1300+ pictures on this trip but eventually narrowed it down to just 56 images and a few short videos (links to videos at bottom of post) including a mix of wildlife, icebergs, glaciers, action shots and shameless tourist-style photos of me standing on the continent of Antarctica. Thanks for indulging me. 😊

Antarctica was easily one of my favorite places I have ever traveled, and it was also my 7^th and final continent to travel to. Prior to my departure, my family and friends asked why on earth I would want to travel to such a barren and remote place and my answer was always: the penguins. These little bundles of joy did not disappoint me and I could easily have spent my entire trip just watching them in their native habitat. I found the penguins to be quite active on land, walking like weeble-wobbles, sliding around on their bellies, chasing after each other, hopping clumsily but weirdly confidently from rock to rock and also making funny squawking/honking noises, however in the water they were agile and super-fast similar to a seal. I saw penguin rookeries where the eggs were hatched and the penguin chicks are being raised. The rookeries themselves are filthy places full of copious amounts of penguin guano and hence all the penguin chicks are also covered in the same. I could usually smell the rookery before I would actually see the penguins. The penguin chicks were adorable though and varied in size and maturity from 1/3 size of an adult penguin covered completely in fluffy downy feathers to full-grown sized chicks with most of their waterproof feathers in place except for a few downy feather stragglers on their necks and head. I learned from the naturalists that the smaller penguins were at risk of not surviving as there might not be enough time for them to grow bigger and get their waterproof feathers before the winter temperatures arrive. In that context, it was a little sad watching those puff-balls. The penguins were absolutely the highlight of this trip for me, but I also saw Weddell Seals, fur seals, leopard seals, humpback whales, orcas, albatross and Arctic terns. There were numerous whale encounters including an up close encounter with a humpback and her calf, but my most interesting whale encounter was watching a pod of 20 orcas coordinating a chase of a female humpback whale directly in front of our ship which went on for many miles. The orcas strategy was to chase the humpback until she tired and then push her underwater and essentially drown her. I, thankfully, did not see that part. ☹

I had heard much about the Drake Passage and I was a bit nervous about this part of the trip as it is one of the most treacherous voyages a ship can make where the waves can be up to 40 feet tall. For my trip it was, thankfully, more “Drake Lake” than “Drake Shake” in both directions. I wore a Scopalamine anti-nausea patch in both directions and the ship was certainly rolling with 8-12 foot swells for 38 hours each way, but it was totally manageable and not unpleasant.

Our ship was lovely and small carrying only 120 passengers so it was able to navigate quite close to the Antarctica Peninsula. Two to three times a day we would load 10 passengers to a Zodiac inflatable boat along with a naturalist and head out on either a cruise or head ashore to explore Antarctica via foot.

I spent last summer in Alaska and I absolutely loved it, but Antarctica was a different and more memorable experience for me. No roads, cities, people, stores or rampant commercialism exists in Antarctica as it does in Alaska. Antarctica is raw unadulterated nature in its purest form. Except for a few research stations and emergency shelters there are no buildings. We saw only a few other cruise ships, a couple of cargo ships and a few sailboats during my entire cruise. As far as I could see in any direction, it was just full on nature. I don’t think I can put into words just how vast and big Antarctica really is but for context it is about 1.5 times as large as the continental USA with 98% of the land mass covered by ice and snow and only 1000-3000 people live in the research stations at any given time. This part of the world is full of massive icebergs that I can’t even begin to comprehend the size of as about 80% of the iceberg is underwater and not visible, but the parts of the icebergs I could see were easily many times the size of my house. I was told there was a massive iceberg found in Antarctica in December 2023 that is about 3 times the size of New York City! There are so many glaciers that they don’t even bother naming them as they do in Alaska. It really is a magical winter wonderland.

There were naturalists in each Zodiac boat sharing their knowledge of the animals and geography of the area. In addition, they gave talks during our downtime (of which there was not much!) each day prepping us for what we were about to see, but also providing more in depth lectures about humpback whales, Shackleton’s travel to Antarctica, seals, penguins, evolution of manmade structures in Antarctica and the politics of who Antarctica belongs to. There was also a guest Brown University environmental history professor on board who talked about the history of whaling. Lastly, Felicity Ashton, who in 2012 became the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica for 59 days and was awarded a place in the book of Guinness World Records, was also on board and gave 3 incredible lectures about Antarctica. She is an amazing speaker and all-around bad ass, in my opinion. She was also a highlight of this trip for me…very inspirational! If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, don’t miss out. She has also written several books which I have now added to my book queue. Her next expedition is to the north pole and you can follow it at https://www.bignorthpole.com/.

The weather in Antarctica was not as cold as I had expected it to be with daytime temperatures hovering around freezing, but with a steady light wind. When getting off the ship, I typically wore thermals, Gore-tex pants, a puffy jacket and the thick red parka provided by the ship along with 3 pairs of socks and the provided galoshes. Depending on whether I was hiking or cruising in the Zodiac, I would possibly also wear gloves, hat and ski goggles. I was never cold or uncomfortable when off the ship, but occasionally too warm and needing to shed layers. I was surprised to see when I was looking through my pictures there were quite a few pictures of me without even a hat or gloves on.

Overall, this was a 10/10 trip. Tony is having serious FOMO about not going on this trip with me, so I might get lucky enough to go back to Antarctica soon. He won’t have to twist my arm. Fingers crossed. If you ever have the opportunity to travel to this part of the world, just do it…you won’t be disappointed.

Short YouTube videos I made each day:

P.S. I also purchased a 38-minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWNaM5F8oQ)  from the ship’s professional videographer of my trip, if you are interested. Also, Anderson Cooper’s newest episode of The Whole Story on CNN/Max(HBO) is about Antarctica and the whales. It’s a great watch.

P.P.S. I am finally COVID-19 negative today! Wahoo!