Our flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

Little shops line the port

We boarded our small cruise ship, the Ocean Endeavor, in the late afternoon and began our journey. While we slept, the ship crossed the Beagle channel. I felt fortunate that I could enjoy the rocking of the boat. Many passengers got seasick and had to take medication to ease the nausea.

I’ll give you a little tour of the ship, owned by a Canadian company called Quark Polar Expeditions

Although the cruise ship is relatively small, it comes equipped with spacious decks, a heated pool, sauna, spa, massage room, yoga studio and a kitchen that puts together delicious meals with surprisingly fresh-tasting food. The rooms are tiny and cave-like, suited mostly for sleeping and not much else.

While we spent two days reaching Antarctica, crossing vast expanses of water, we used the time onboard to get to know each other. Sir Robert’s Leadership Expedition group is composed of 80 people hailing from 32 different countries. About one fourth of the group are from India, a handful from China, about a dozen from Australia and New Zealand, quite a few from the UK and Europe, and a few from unexpected places like Qatar. Our group, Expedition 2041, consists of mostly young people between the ages of 20-40, but with a few youngsters and a few oldsters added into the mix. With a rapid assessment, it looks like I’m the oldest in group.The leader, Sir Robert, picked people whom he thought could make a difference regarding climate change. The rest of the passengers signed up as regular tourists and follow a slightly different program. Together, both groups make up a total of 200 passengers. Seventy-five staff members served our every need.

We are crossing the Drake Passage, a vast body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and the Shetland Islands of Antarctica. The Drake Passage connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. The passage is known for its rough seas. We got a respite part of the time, as seen in this picture, but most of the time the boat pitched and listed from side to side. We had many sightings of humpback whales off in the distance.

Our destination is the finger-like projection in the northwestern part of the continent, called the Antarctic Peninsula.

Chelli from Australia runs the Quark Expedition part of the program which our group benefitted from as well. During our two-day passage at sea, we had a series of interesting classes given by experts in ornithology, marine biology, glacier formation, weather, climate change and its documented effects in Antarctica, along with some of the riveting history of the early explorers. We even saw a movie about Shackleton and a presentation given by Shackleton’s grand nephew who came on the trip with us.

A small group of us signed up for sea kayaking option. Here we are being fitted for our gear and getting a refresher course on some basics, like how to do a “wet exit.”

Land at last. The elongated brown object on the ice in the foreground is a seal. I only have my iPhone camera with me which means I’m not able to get good close up shots of the animals. For those photos, other passengers have generously allowed me to use their photographs in my blog.

We have arrived at the South Shetland Islands that lie just north of the Antarctic Peninsula. We are all excited about going on land after our two day voyage at sea.

We jumped into our sea kayaks and headed out for some exciting exploration. The deep silence enveloped us, punctuated by a whale blowing near us and the penguins chattering. Every so often you could hear one of us gasping, “Oh my god, did you see that?” often referring to a minke or a humpback whale near our kayaks.

The penguins charmed all of us and inevitably put smiles on our faces with their fearless curiosity, their waddling gait, dressed up in their tuxedos.

In this area of Antarctica, there are three kinds of penguins: the little adelie, the larger gentoo, and the chinstrap penguins, as seen in the photograph.

Two fur seals playing in the shallow water.

We saw three species of seal: the fur seal, the crab eater seal, and the leopard seal. The leopard seals eat penguins when they’re swimming. They are the most aggressive of the seals. Over a decade ago, a leopard seal killed a woman while she was snorkeling.

This minke whale circled our kayak, coming up for air every few yards. The appeared to have no fear of us. There are three types of whales seen in this part of Antarctica: the mink, humpback, and orca.

This penguin swam right next to the kayak on his way home to his colony on shore.

Leopard seal taking a nap on the ice.

We’re heading off to find more whales to look at up close.

A fur seal swam near our kayak.

This time of year many of the penguins are molting, losing their old feathers and growing new feathers for their winter coats. The stand still for hours while they molt. They look stuporous in this state.

This chinstrap penguin looks like he’s trying to make a decision about something.

The mother penguin and her big baby on the right.

Checking things out.

A colorful combination of lichen and penguin poop. If you look very closely, you will see a whole colony of penguins in a line up the slope.

Team work.

Time to go back to the ship. We spend most mornings and afternoons on the water or on land. The non kayakers ride in the zodiacs, the motorized rubber rafts. We spend from 5-8 hours a day off the ship.

The day meets the night.