Posts In The “Destinations” Category
The Girlache Strait extends from the northern end of the Wilhelm Archipelago and separates the Palmer Archipelago from the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered in 1898 by Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, leader of the 1897-1899 Belgian Antarctic expedition. The crew included famed Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, who in 1911 was the first to reach…
The Wilhelm Archipelago lies north of the Antarctic Circle and is the most southern point on the majority of Antarctic Peninsula cruises. It also is one of the most popular destinations, particularly scenic Lemaire Channel between Booth Island and mainland Antarctica. The protected waterway often is wind-free, yielding near-perfect reflections of snow and ice in…
Christmas Day in Antarctica was a big day for wildlife sightings, including an Emperor Penguin, Chinstrap penguins, crabeater and Weddell seals, humpback whales and Orcas. We were lucky to see an Emperor Penguin, rare this time of year. After navigating into ice-filled Barlas Channel, we set out for a tour in the zodiacs and found…
Antarctica is the only continent without a permanent native population. Instead, the year-round population of about 1,000 is made up mainly of visiting scientific researchers and support staff who live in roughly 50 permanent stations throughout the continent. A similar number of seasonal stations allows the summer population to reach 4,000. Forty-two countries operate research…
Pourquois Pas Island, at the north edge of Marguerite Bay, was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Charcot. He led the 1908-1910 French Antarctic Expedition, and named the island after his ship. Charcot in turn is the namesake for the French expedition ship Le Commandant Charcot, the highest rated ice class vessel in the world, that we’ll be…
Stonington Island in Marguerite Bay is the site of two early research stations. East Base, the oldest American Antarctic station, was built starting in 1939 but hasn’t been used since 1948. The British Base, Station E, was used for many historic survey missions in the 1940s and saw use until the mid 1970s. From Red…
After our second night at sea through the Drake Passage, we woke up in Antarctica. Massive icebergs floated everywhere, some surprisingly close to the ship, in an endless variety of fantastic shapes and sizes. Ashore, steep and snow-covered slopes soared straight up from the water. Antarctica is much more mountainous than we were expecting. Taking…
Our two-day crossing of the infamous Drake Passage from Ushuaia to the Antarctic continent was wonderfully calm. We passed the time at the bridge, taking in several educational seminars, and just enjoying being on board the National Geographic Endurance. The ship’s public areas are comfortable and generously laid out, never feeling cramped despite a full…
Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, is the departure point for the majority of Antarctic cruises. Our flight there from Buenos Aires was delayed by the overnight return of the victorious Argentinian World Cup team. Over a million fans had traveled to the airport to greet the players, abandoning their cars and walking when…
On our second day in Buenos Aires, we took a bus tour through the city as part of our Antarctica cruise package, followed by dinner on our own overlooking Puerto Madero. Buenos Aires is a striking city, full of grand historic buildings, extensive parks, impressive monuments and much public art. We particularly enjoyed our visit…
We reached our sixth continent when we landed in Buenos Aires, with the seventh soon to come. After an enjoyable flight across the country from Seattle to Atlanta, we embarked on a 10-hour, 5,080-mile (8,175 km) trip south. Our Buenos Aires hotel was in Puerto Madero, the old commercial port district that has been beautifully…
While the previous two years certainly had more big and unexpected plan changes for us, our first full year of living back on land was surprising in the new hobbies and activities we participated in, most that we’d not even considered six months earlier. Another very nice surprise for us was that Spitfire the “wonder…
We had a fabulous trip to Antarctica and currently are returning back to Argentina across the Drake Passage. Our southbound crossing was blissfully calm, but it looks like we won’t be so lucky on the return. Our current position in the Drake Passage We had a fabulous trip to Antarctica and currently are returning back…
Wishing you all happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year. Christmas Eve 2022 in Antarctica Wishing you all happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year.
We had a busy two weeks before our Antarctic cruise, where James was away on business for three days and we attended a Seattle Kraken hockey game and two Seattle Seahawks football games. The second football game, two days before we departed for Argentina, was even more exciting than normal. Amazon Prime Video has exclusive…
Prior to our Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Encore, we had close to zero interest in cruising in general and none on the really big ships. But while sitting on our balcony watching the Encore depart from Pier 66 below us, in one of James’ spur-of-the-moment suggestions, he said “I’m not interested in big boat…
We arrived into Argentina on December 19th, the day that Argentina would take on France to decide the winner of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Everywhere we went, people were setting up televisions indoors and out in preparation for the game. Our hotel setup two and we watched the game from there. The game was…
The Miami Cruise Terminal is the busiest passenger port in the world, handling 6.8 million travelers in 2019. The facility has room for ten large cruise ships and has recently seen a number of upgrades and new construction projects to support the burgeoning industry. In 2018, Royal Caribbean opened the 170,000 sq ft (15,000 sq…