Antarctica - Antarctica Trip Report - March 2006

Antarctica Trip report – March 5-15, 2006 – Part 1
I appreciated the help I was able to garner from this forum in planning my trip, despite the slow traffic! I wanted to be sure and post my experience for future travelers. I had a LOT of questions when I was planning, and it was really hard to get answers, so I am going to go into pretty extensive detail here.

I took the Antarctic Explorer 10 day trip with Peregrine Adventures on the Akademik Ioffe, departing from Ushuaia on March 5 and returning on March 15. My trip was absolutely and completely amazing, and I would definitely recommend it. It was worth every penny, and the many months of planning. It was probably the single best thing I have ever done in my life. I’ll try to hit on everything I can remember, including the costs and timing. I selected Peregrine and this specific trip based on the recommendation of a friend who traveled with them in Feb 2004. Aside from Antarctica, on this trip I spent some time in Ushuaia, Buenos Aires (including a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay and the Tigre Delta area), and did a weekend at Iguazu Falls (both Argentina and Brazil side). I'll post about that here too. My entire trip was March 2 - 23.

The Bad - Booking
I highly recommend Peregrine for an Antarctica trip. While the trip was excellent, I did have trouble with the booking – however this was the only bad part of my entire experience. I booked a March 10 departure in early November 2005 after several months of planning (March 10 was originally the last departure of the season). I initially started contacting Peregrine in Australia over email. I was not pleased with the foreign sales rep I was working with. I had many questions, and despite organizing my emails in a clear manner, I wasn’t getting the responses I needed, which was very frustrating, especially as the time difference resulted in a 24 lag time in response. I ultimately wounded up booking through the Adventure Center in California – if you call the US number on Peregrine's website, this is who you get. I really cannot recommend using them either. The customer service and management of the company is horrible, and their Antarctic knowledge was very poor. This wasn’t so evident until December, when Peregrine abruptly cancelled my departure and proposed to rebook me on March 5. The official reason given was the boat needed to be dry-docked for maintenance – this was clearly a lie, and was confirmed when I arrived on my trip. The boat had a low booking rate, and many travel agents and staff family were aboard on my departure. Additionally the boat actually left USH for it’s home port in Russia the day we returned. In the end, it worked out, and I was able to rearrange everything on my own, with no help from Adventure Center. My agent was either fired or quit in the middle of all this, and I was never notified. Additionally, when I insisted that I need Adventure Center to work with Peregrine to salvage my trip, I was treated VERY, VERY poorly by a manager there. I have never had such a bad experience with customer service in my life, and I was spending 6k, which is not a small amount of money. Their billing department clearly did not communicate with the booking agents, and I was contacted for final payment although my trip had been cancelled. I could go on and on about inept these people were. Again, this was really the only BAD thing about my trip. I received a great upgrade when I arrived on the boat (from Peregrine, not AC) which really made up for all the booking nightmares – more on that later. Please feel free to ask me more on this because I see other people discussing AC on this forum. I will come back and add the correct name and link to the company that friends I made used, and had a great experience with.

Costs
I was traveling on my own. The cheapest accommodation on the boat – a triple, was only available to groups who actually had 3 people to place in 1 room. Therefore I was required to book a twin. I booked the cheapest twin, which was $5625. Additionally, there was a $200 fuel surcharge, and a $10 document charge so my total for the trip alone was $5835. Additionally, I spent about $600 on clothing. I think you can definitely NOT spend that much, but I was really pleased with my planning and the purchases I made. I will post them later with my comments. I did not buy boots – they had them on the boat, but I borrowed a pair of hiking boots and overboots from a friend. I spent about $220 on the boat over the 10 day trip – this was comprised of CDs to burn photos, alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, a couple of small gift shop items, and the tip ($10 a day, as recommended by Peregrine). I’ll post my final trip costs soon, but this is exactly what I paid to Peregrine. It did NOT include airfare.

Travel Arrangements
I used AA miles to fly coach from JFK to EZE on March 2, arriving March 3. I then used a travel agent in BA to book my domestic flights including a flight 4.5 hours later from AEP – USH. I had a choice of a 3 hr flight difference and was glad I opted for the longer window as my international flight was delayed and traffic and weather were poor in BA. I used and recommend a BA agent named Carla - casvanian@equinoxe.com.ar upon recommendation from FT. At the time I booked, I saved quite a bit of money from Aerolinas by booking through a TA instead of online on my own as a US citizen. Arranging my own flights was unusual – most people booked their airfare through Peregrine. My itinerary was also unusual in that most people stopped a night in BA. I was pretty happy with my decision, personally. Although I saved a lot of money on the flights by using miles and booking on my own, if there are any problems, it would have been good to have Peregrine finding alternate routings. I was very glad I arrived in USH on the evening of March 3, and had March 4 free. It was very good to relax and not stress over missing the boat. On the way home, I had a 1030AM flight booked from USH to BA. The boat docks at 7AM, and making the 1030 is not a problem – in fact some of the Peregrine staff took that flight too. The next flight is not till the mid-afternoon, so taking the AM flight was a good plan.

Ushuaia
On the recommendation of a friend, I stayed at the Hotel Monaco on San Martin which was a perfectly acceptable and plain hotel. I paid $70 a night. I booked outside of Peregrine, as they offered hotel books at a significant markup, so I recommend contacting hotels directly to book at a cheaper rate. I met many people in USH who were staying at dirt cheap hostels, and some at more expensive hotels. There was a lot of variation in price, but nothing really to write home about. Peregrine contacted me the week before my departure to advise me that I was going to receive a free (ha!) transfer from the USH airport to my hotel. I am unclear if this was offered to all Peregrine customers, or if I received it because I signed up for an excursion on the day of departure.

In the next part of my trip report, I’ll try to write about my time in Ushuaia, the ship and boarding procedures, the staff on the ship, the passenger breakdown, and the facilities on the ship itself. Eventually I’ll get to all the good stuff! So many seals, penguins, whales, icebergs, glaciers - it was unbelievable.

Let me know if you have specific questions you want me to address.

Cool. I'd like to do something like that. Maybe next spring. Sounds good.

I saw some concern in another thread about clothing required to take this trip, and since I did buy a lot of gear for my trip, I wanted to offer a review of the stuff I used. I don’t ski, so I bought a lot of stuff. Definitely I bought and brought more than I need on the trip, but I used everything and was glad to have it. Further, they had very little you could buy on the boat (besides a vastly overpriced fleece, so I was glad to be over prepared!) Where I have an alternate suggestion, I will note it.

I wound up checking a large bag and carried on a small backpack and large duffel bag. It was definitely the most luggage I ever took on a trip! I brought a lot of books with me, which was heavy, as I expected a lot of downtime, as I will discuss later, there was no where near as much downtime as I expected, plus they had a nice library on the ship, so I could have definitely cut down on books and weight. I was not charged any excess baggage (although I know I was over!)

The best thing was to layer, and it worked very well. There are 4 main things you do on the trip: (1) stay in doors on the boat, (2) go out on deck to look at things, (3) go on Zodiac cruises, and (4) spend time on land. We also camped out one night. I’ll tell you what I wore for each of those.

They do have laundry on board, but it took 36 hr to turn around. It was fairly reasonably priced, cheaper than it would cost at a Marriott, but more expensive than my USH hotel.

I bought most of my gear at EMS during the week btwn Xmas and New Year. They were having their enormous enormous sale - 20-50% off everything + for every $100 you spent btwn xmas and new years eve, you got a $20 off your next purchase coupon.

I could have rented a waterproof jacket and pants set from Peregrine for $50, or purchased a set for $150. I would say more than ½ the people on the boat did this. Generally, the older passengers rented the gear and the younger crowd brought their own. People I asked were generally pleased with the rental gear, but did report it wasn’t super warm. They were thrilled not to have to cart the stuff home, esp. since those Penguins stink! I brought all my own stuff.

Pants
I got 2 pairs of bergelene midweight long pants (http://tinyurl.com/ff4rf) from EMS as my innermost layer. I also bought a silkweight Patagonia pair (http://tinyurl.com/gbr5h) at Paragon later - In general, I much preferred the silkweight pants. However, during the coldest activities – zodiac cruises and camping out, the Beregelene were ideal. I wore of these on all excursions off the boat, and sometimes when we were out on deck I would wear the silkweight under my cords. In retrospect I would recommend one pair of each.

I bought polartec fleece pants (http://tinyurl.com/jjuau) as a middle layer. I wore these as a middle layer in the coldest conditions (camping out and on some zodiac cruises). Of all the things I bought, I was most concerned that these were a waste of money. I will say I was very glad to have them, but you could probably use a cheaper pair from an Old Navy kind of store.

Here are the exterior, waterproof layer pants (http://tinyurl.com/gmp85) I wore everytime I left the boat. These pants were great. I wore them everyday, and I highly recommend them.

Additionally, I brought 2 pairs of cords to wear on the ship for everyday activities. I did wear them everyday.

Tops
For the innermost layer, I got 3 bergelene shirts from EMS (http://tinyurl.com/ff4rf). I bought 3 different styles (one midweight crew, one silkweight crew, and one midweight zip). I liked having options – probably I liked the silkweight the best, and the midweight zip 2nd best. I wore these everyday, both on the boat and off, and was glad I brought 3.

For the next layer, I bought 3 techwick shirts (http://tinyurl.com/fpn76). Again, I wore these shirts everyday, both on the boat and off, so 3 was the perfect number for a 10 day trip.

For the next layer, I bought this fleece microvest (http://tinyurl.com/fg49x). This was a very good insulating layer. I wore it most times I left the boat, but not always.

Exterior Layers
Here is where I went overboard. I brought 3 different jackets with me – I really only needed 2, but I switched them around based on conditions.

Jacket 1 – I bought a NorthFace 300 power Fleece with a hood at a Northface outlet for $40. I wore this on the boat quite a bit, but never on the excursions. It was too bulky beneath my exterior shell. I liked having the fleece to change things up, but it was a waste of space. I did wear it when we went camping, and also around USH.

Jacket 2 – EMS Myth Jacket (http://tinyurl.com/hhjup) - This jacket is awesome and ison a super sale right now and I highly recommend even if you aren’t going to Antarctica. It’s totally waterproof, and very light weight, which was perfect. It was an awesome purchase. I wore it on every excursion. I hemmed and hawed over it because it didn’t zip into my shell, but I do think it kept me very warm. I wore it in buckets of rain in BA, and it kept me 100% dry.

Jacket 3 – NorthFace Summit Shell – I think this has been discontinued as I bought it 2 years ago at an NF outlet for $100. It’s a nice gortex/hydravent shell jacket, and I wore it most days over Jacket #2. There were a few times I didn’t wear it and just went with Jacket #2. I was fine.

Shoes
My friend loaned me the boots and overboots she used on the trip. I didn’t need to bring them after all though, because Peregrine has boots on board. Basically, penguin crap smells horrible which means your shoes (and frankly, much of your clothing!) will smell awful and people don’t want to put that in their luggage. So they have TONS of boots on board. Some are better than others, but although Peregrine doesn’t guarantee they have boots for you, they'll definitely be able to hook you up. I did hear a couple people complaining of cold and dampness. I used Columbia Hiking Boots and some nice overboots – I’ll come back and add the details later. They were really awesome and I didn’t mind carting them around because my feet were very happy.

On the boat I wore sneakers and flip flops. I think most people share showers, so I would recommend bringing them. I liked having shoes that slid on and off because a lot of times I would be napping and they would make an announcement about whales or something and I would want to RUN to the deck to see them.

Accessories
I bought 5 pairs of these liner socks (http://tinyurl.com/eg2gs): We had 5 days of excusions, so I think that was about right. I could have gotten away with fewer – but I did wear them every day on the boat and off on excursions.

I had 4 pairs (2 sets) of these hiking socks (http://tinyurl.com/j2eer): I probably only needed 1 set. I wore them on all excursions, and 2 pair during camping.

Glove Liners – this was my only mistake. I wanted thin gloves I could wear under my thick mittens that would give me dexterity with my camera. I bought these (http://tinyurl.com/zvq2v). The EMS staff tried to sell me a more insulating pair, but I cheaped out and went with these – in reality I wore these 100% of the time, and my big mittens maybe 40% of the time (on top). I should have gotten the warmer liners. I wish I had gotten these instead (http://tinyurl.com/fd5fs).

Mittens (http://tinyurl.com/geqtn) – I went with these nice waterproof mittens, which were very good. I liked them, but I often left them dangling off my wrists and just wore the glove liners so I could take photos easily. Waterproof was key, but I could have gotten a less expensive pair. I should have spent more on the liner, and less on the primary set of mittens/gloves.

I bought an expensive Neck gaiter (http://tinyurl.com/g57vh) at EMS and didn’t really test it out. Turns out it was too big and wasn’t properly insulating me. The Gaiter instead of the scarf was the way go. I realized the problem in USH and bought a $3 fleece Gaiter I used instead of my fancy $20 EMS one. I did actually wind up using both, if one was wet (or smelled like penguin), it was nice to tradeoff. I preferred the USH one to the EMS one.

I brought a Nalgene bottle (http://tinyurl.com/jtb3e) to bring with me. Was a waste of space, although we had been instructed to bring a 32 ounce bottle. You could buy bottled water on the boat for $1.25 and could refill from fountains.

I also got some hand and toe warmers (http://tinyurl.com/ejk3k) to wear inside all those layers. I bought enough to last me each day, but I really only used them during the camp out. I used them the first day and overheated! However, I did put them with my camera to maintain battery life and that was awesome. I also really liked these thin heat pads I bought at Walmart (for use with a sore back and neck) those were really thin, comfortable and warm. I would recommend them over the Grabber. Good for the camera battery too. I tucked one into my camera case with my batteries and it extended the life, I am sure.

My friend suggest I get a compression packing kit for all these layers. I bought some from EMS (http://tinyurl.com/fjebh) (2 bags for $20) and a set from Target (http://tinyurl.com/lx4wj) ($12 for 3 bags). I used all 5, and I would recommend the EMS ones over the Target ones, hands down. One of the Target ones completely tore, and they never really compressed very well. The EMS ones were very reliable.

I bought this AquaPac waterproof bag (http://www.aquapac.net/) for my camera. It was waterproof and functioned great, but the best part was just leaving my point and shoot dangling around my neck and not having to constantly cart it around. It was the biggest surprise to me because it was TOTALLY worth it. I loved it. Worked great at Iguazu as well.

I used the Kelty Redtail daypack (http://tinyurl.com/gl2pc) on my excursions. it was a nice size and I loved the pockets for my waterbottle. You can really use ANY old backpack you have, and while the ground has snow and ice on it, there is almost no precipitation in Antarctica so I didn’t have to worry about waterproofing.

However, I had this pack cover (http://tinyurl.com/zvmar) and brought it with me as well. I used it only for the camping in Antarctica, but again, it was handy in Iguazu, and during pouring rain in BA.

I bought this hat (http://tinyurl.com/kw7tk) at EMS and I really liked the nice fleece ear lining. However, I should have brought my own hat from home. No need for a new one (also this one made my head look sort of like an egg in some of the photos, not good!).

Survival Heat Blanket (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007G7MW6/103-2524307-1397451?v=glance&n=3375251) for the night I stay out in Antarctica. My friend who had gone before really wished she had taken these when she took this very trip to Antarctica. I bought 4 from Amazon for the same cost as 1 on other sites, I brought them all with me, and gave 3 to 3 friends I made on the trip. We all were very appreciative of them, and they worked great! Highly recommend.

I also brought a cheap Balaclava I bought off ebay – I used it during camping only, and was glad to have it. I also brought a fleece ear band and never wore it. Additionally, I also had a liner hat, which I wore 2X when my primary hat was wet from cruising.

So after all that, what did I miss? The big thing I didn’t bring was my laptop, because I thought I was carrying so much stuff. I should have brought it, to transfer photos. They did have a computer on the ship everyone could use, and I bought about 10 cds for $30 to burn my pictures. Well worth it, but so painful to spend. What an oversight! I thought if I had enough memory cards, I would be fine. Well you can never have enough in Antactica. Bring your laptop, and all the appropriate cables, your camera manual, etc. You won’t regret it.

In terms of clothing, I was totally warm and all set. I didn’t lack for anything, which was very good, because as I said before there was very little you could buy on the boat if you realized you had made a fatal error!

Ushuaia

I spent March 4 wandering around USH. I did not go to the National Park - I had thought I would go in the afternoon, so I slept in in the AM, and all the organized tours were in the AM. I wish I had planned that a little better, but it was good to have a day to relax. I went instead to the big museum here, which is housed in the old prison. The funny thing about this museum is that you don't go just to learn the prison history - its also the maritime museum and covers additional topics too. So basically, each cell houses a different exhibit. This is extradinarily funny, especially in the GIFT SHOP, where there is a cell devoted to stuffed penguins. I kid you not. There are 5 wings to the prison - and one of them IS devoted to the prison, and each cell has info on a famous felon and a plaster model of said prisoner. There are even sculptures of guards randomly placed around (there look they were created by 12 year olds). Anyway, the museum was pretty lame, but an absolute hoot. My friend had insisted I go and I am glad I did, although it is no must see.

I also went to the local tourist office. They will stamp your passport there. They apparently have 3 different stamps (all similar) and while i was otherwise occupied they put all 3 in my passport. Yikes. Apparently, most people ASK for all 3 in their passport (believe me, you just need 1!). I found out later the the post office has a seperate 4th stamp, but I decided 3 was enough for Ushuaia. I also got 3 or 4 stamps in Antarctica, when we stopped at Port Lockroy and the Ukraniane Base.

So I wandered around and bought lots of postcards, and then I decided to spend my afternoon on a cruise of the Beagle Channel. I wasnt sure if this was a great idea - although seeing the Beagle IS a must do in USH, I am going to be on parts of the channel tomorrow when I leave on my cruise. It was only 20US, so I went and I had a lovely time. I selected a ship called the Barracuda based on (1) Rough Guide recommendation (2) duration of journey and (3) price. It was very relaxing, and I was pretty happy with my decision. We made 4 primary stops, although we never got off the boat. The boat pulled up to 3 islands: 1 had a penguin colony, 1 had a colony of South American seals, 1 had a colony of fur seals and 1 was the home of the famous red lighthouse that is the symbol of USH and the southernmost lighthouse in Argentina. I met some great people on the boat and had a nice time. After, I wandered around before calling it a night. Note - I know USH is considered expensive by Argentina standards, but I found it to be pretty reasonable.

On the AM of March 5 (departure day), I was picked up by my tour company, Canal Fun. I left my luggage at the hotel, and while I was on my all day excursion, Peregrine collected it and brought it to my cabin on the boat. I didn’t see it until I checked in at the port and made my way to my cabin. The excursion company dropped me off at the port at the end of the day. That was VERY nice. My excursion was a 4X4 off road tour of Lake Fagnano. There were 3 other people from the boat on the tour, so I enjoyed meeting them. Additionally there were several other people not going on our trip. There were 2 off road vehicles and they divided us into english speaking and spanish speaking cars. We drove to 2 separate lakes, and we really went off roading – stuck in the mud and all. We had a really nice barbeque lunch on the beach. In general, it was a beauitiful excursion, but I would probably recommend taking the national park tour instead, for 2 reasons – (1) we spent almost all day in the vehicle, which was a bit much and (2) the vehicle jostled around quite a bit. Considering you are going to spend the next 2 days in the Drake Passage, that’s a lot to deal with. Several passengers in the car felt ill, and one woman got motion sick on the excursion and remained ill all the way through the Drake. Not fun. But it was such a lovely day, and we saw beautiful scenary – I had a nice time.

Boarding the Boat, Rooms and Passengers

After the tour they dropped us off at the port, where Peregrine had us board some coach buses. The buses were funny because we basically sat there while they gave us some instructions, and then they drove us through the parking lot to security, we exited the bus, went through security, got back on the bus and drove a few meters and then got off near the boat. We probably were on the bus for about 100 meters, but it was a security issue.

I was very excited to see the boat – the Akademik Ioffe, to see my cabin, and meet my fellow passengers. Peregrine collected the return air tickets of all passengers and left them in USH for reconfirmation. This surprised and alarmed a lot of people but was fine – I left them a copy of etix itinerary and they had my boarding pass for me when we returned back on March 15. At some point, I learned that my cabin had been changed. I was worried about my luggage not being in the correct cabin, as I had marked it with my original cabin number but not to worry it was there and waiting! I was so happy when I saw my cabin.

The Ioffe has basically 4 decks for passenger cabins: deck 3, which is the main deck where the dining hall has cabins that are probably the “lowest grade” – this is where most of the triples were located, and the cabins shared bathroom and shower facilities with the entire floor. Deck 4 is a step up – there is a private bathroom and shower shared between every 2 cabins. Deck 5, my deck, has nice rooms with private bathrooms, and truthfully, I never saw a Deck 6 room. So I paid for a deck 3 double, and expected to have a roommate. Because my trip was originally cancelled and I was inconvinenced I was upgraded and assigned to deck 4. However when I got to the boat, I was upgraded again to deck 5! I had my own room and bathroom, although I had paid for a room with shared facilities and expected to have a roommate. I was very, very happy. My room was in the "quiet" area of the boat, near the library, and hosptial. There was a bed (with a bunk folded into the wall on top), a sofa, a desk, lots of cubby holes and 2 little closets, a nice big window, and the bathroom, which really not much smaller than my NYC bathroom. Everything was very well secured in the event of rolling around in the Drake. There is no way to lock the doors, so I had brought locks for my luggage to lock stuff up, but really I didn't worry about it much at all. The cabin stewards cleaned the rooms 2 or 3 times a day, and I even got a lovely chocolate each night. Lots of electrical outlets, and I was even able to borrow a hair dryer from reception for the duration of the trip. It was really far more than what I was expecting in terms of accomodation.

The boat had about 80 passengers on it, and can accommodate around 100 or 110, so there was a lot of extra room. On the voyage, the last of the season, there were a lot of passengers that were (A) family members of crew (B) travel agents and (C) Peregrine staff. So clearly, another reason I would assume I was upgraded was because a lot of people didn’t get suckered into paying the full price like I did! I met one person who had won the trip in a jingle contest, and one who booked last minute from USH for about 2/3 of the full price. For those wondering, he had to go to several agencies before he found one that was aware of availability on the boat.

I was really worried about the passenger makeup – I am a female in my 20s, and traveling alone, and I was really concerned I wouldn’t find a lot of people to hang around with. However, that was totally not the case. The average age was 47, and the age range was 15-91. There were people in every age bracket, and other travelers in my demographic. I met all sorts of different people, from all over the world, and it was great. People did seem to divide off by age, and while groups certainly formed over the trip, everybody was always very welcoming. The crew was also very accessible and friendly - their rooms were even mixed in amongst passenger cabins.

Coming up: I’ll talk about features of the boat, the staff and crew, our first days at sea and the Drake Passage.

Great stuff, :-: Endor :-: ; keep it coming! I was on the Ioffe in 1998, visiting South Georgia and Antarctic, 22 days. Marvelous! I'll also ask for your permission to fill in a bit for those who wish to go but don't find an asnwer in your comprehensive and really well-thought-out posts (I love the links!) or even some trivia... since you are so admirably filling in the important information.

With my size foot, the uncertainty of onboard footwear and the number of landings and excursions we made, I bought and took my own boots. Mine were lined Nokia boots - the Finns know about cellular phone sand definitely boots, as Nokia is also famous for making Russian military footwear. Sorrell makes very good ones as well - my recommendation is boots that are lined (keep you warm, you can remove the liners and dry them out,) waterproof and at least mid-calf in height (when you make a beach or "wet" landing you want boots high enough water won't get inside your boots, since the water is slightly below freezing,) with at least moderately lugged soles and enough structure you can walk comfortably, since on a landing you will do some walking around. Ice and penguin crap can be slippery...

And in Ushuaia, be sure to stop by Tia Elvira's seafront restaurant at Maipú 349 and try the local fish - "centolla" (cent-OH-yuh) is the local delicious king crab, but they also have black hake and other fish (of course, they have Argentine "parrilla" meats as well.) Foto Santa Maria on the main drag (two blocks up from the seafront Maipú) has a huge variety of decent postcards, in-date film and one hour photo processing.

Little known fact: the Akademik Ioffe was built in Wartsila, Finland, and was named after Avraham Ioffe, a famous Jewish academician in Russia - but they mention his first name anywhere as it was Jewish. The ship was built as an "acoustic reasearch vessel" with high tech listening and analysis devices and was even equipped with semi-cylindridcal "sails" (didn't work well at all) and a sailing sloop (to drop sonobuoys.) The Ioffe was built to listen in to and record the propeller and other sounds of American submarines!

I toured the acoustics centre with an officer - one guy gave me incredibly nasty looks. When I told the Captain, he said it was because the chap was an Afghan veteran, and he hated the idea of the "enemy" - or at least the "ex-enemy" getting a load of some of "his" equipment. I told the Captain I understood, as I was a Vietnam veterna. Next time I saw the chap, he gave me big smiles, a "high five" and warm "tovarich!" Amazing what persoanlizing others can do...

About the ship

The ship was pretty darn comfortable, much more than I expected, although of course, it’s no Carnival Cruise (in my opinion, this is a good thing).

Here are some of the main features/rooms on the ship:

Dining Hall – On Deck 3, this was used for all meals (except the traditional Antarctica on deck BBQ lunch we had one day), some snack times, and for some presentations and lectures. All passengers and most crew could fit in there at one time. I found I preferred to sit at tables that were perpendicular to the ship itself. If I sat parallel – my soup tended to slosh out of my bowl while we were in the Drake!
Presentation Room – On Deck 1 (?) – this was the 2nd largest gathering location on the ship. Most lectures as well as all evening films were held here. Additionally it was the room where the ship computer (s) and photo equipment were, and passengers were welcome to use at all times (usually after waiting in a lengthy queue). It could NOT comfortably seat all passengers, which was only evident on the last day, when the Exhibition Leader delivered the trip recap and best of photo essay.
Mudroom – this was where all passengers went to prior to heading out on the zodiacs and for land. All boots and lifejackets, as well as kayak gear and camping gear was stored here for the duration of the trip. Passengers would pick a location to discard their boots after each trip, so there were boots strewn around. Additionally, if you rented gear from Peregrine, I believe it was claimed and returned here. It was sort of like a locker room, if you will.
Bar and Lounge – Self explanatory! There was a designated bartender, who was usually (but not always present). There was a refrigerator with water, soda, and beer for passengers to help themselves at all times, and an honor sheet to record your purchases. Those beverages, as well as wine, were also offered for sale at dinner – the bartender came around to each table. The water and soda was about $1.50 each, and beer was about $3 each. Wine varied but was closer to $6 a glass. You could buy a bottle to enjoy at meals, and they would bring it back for you in subsequent meals if you didn’t finish it. They had mixed drinks at the bar as well, and a very popular happy hour as well. The mixed drinks and beer were in the $2.50 range during happy hour. Often, teatime was held in the lounge, but there was always hot tea available there. Additionally the lounge held a TV and VCR with some tapes, as well as a variety of boardgames and puzzles. I never saw anyone playing a game or watching a movie there. Every night, the staff would host a brief activity in the bar, btwn dinner and the evening movie.
Bridge – The bridge was a lot of fun – it was usually open for all passengers. There were times it wasn’t open, and it would be marked on the door. When open, in addition to the Russian crew, a Peregrine staff member would be manning the bridge as well. There were windows designated for passengers to stand in front of as well as ones kept open for navigators. Quite often, when they would announce a sight, or some wildlife to see, if I didn’t want to put all my heavy clothing on, I would just hop up the stairs to the bridge to get a great view, and usually enhanced commentary from the on duty staff.
Gym – The gym was on the lowest deck accessible (1 or 2?) and held some older but serviceable equipement, including a universal, a stationary bike and a rusting set of free weights. I believe there was also a stair master. It was rarely in use, at least by passengers.
Computer Room – This was a small room on the 6th floor. I am not sure that everyone knew it was even there. There was an older computer on which you could compose an email in outlook, save it to a folder on the computer and the ship radio crew would send it out (at 8am, 12pm and 6pm each day). You would record your name and room number in the subject line, and you would be charged 30 cents a KB. Then, your loved ones could write back to you (make sure to ask them not to copy your original message in the reply. I sent and received quite a few messages on the trip and spent $9 total. I loved getting email – it was my only contact with the outside world. I think the satellite phone was also in this room, but I never used it.
Gift Shop – This was a joke. The gift shop was this small room in the middle of the ship that was only open for about 3 hours the entire trip, and was mobbed the whole time. I really think Peregrine is missing a huge opportunity here to make some money. Basically you could buy the following: fleeces with the ship name on them (at over $100 each!), a fleece vest, fairly ugly tshirts, postcards, blank CDs, some random artwork, a map, Nalgene bottles, and maybe 2 or 3 sundry items. Literally, that was it. Buy Antarctica tshirts and gifts in Ushuaia (but not at the airport). Further buy Antarctica postcards in USH. The ones on the ship are poor, more expensive, smaller, and don’t say Antarctica. I’ll talk about postcards more later.
Pool/sauna I never used either of these, although I had friends that did. The pool is filled with Antarctic water, and was open and filled more often than I expected. The sauna was rumored to be as hot as the pool was cold.
Deck – It was such an important part of the trip to be out on deck and watching the animals and scenery. The deck was accessible from levels 3 and up and was almost always open. They did close the lower levels at times when swells would come up over the ship. Whenever there was something of note to see, be it an albatross, a breaching whale, dolphins, a beautiful sunset, our first iceberg, etc, it would be announced over the loudspeaker system and we would run to see it. We abandoned meals, woke up from naps, etc. It was well, well worth it. I took to carrying my camera and a pair of gloves around with me when I left the room so I would be prepared at all times.
Engine room, communications room, etc – One day we received a tour of the ship, which essentially included the bridge, Engine Room, and I think the audio room. It was interesting – the only time we accessed the latter 2.
Hospital – located on deck 5. I actually had to see the doctor twice – once for motion sickness in the Drake, and once for my tonsils. The hospital appeared to be well equipped and they were capable of providing surgery there.

That’s all I recall off the top of my head. I will be sure to update if I have forgotten something.

Crew
I was really impressed by the crew. They were very knowledgeable, and very confident in their capabilities. The crew was very large – over 50 in total, which is an impressive crew to passenger ratio. They broke down into 2 groups:

Russian Crew – They ran the ship and all services. This including the captain and his crew, the engine room, etc, as well as most of the dining staff and housekeeping. We had some interaction with them, but largely, I must confess that we rarely saw them. They ran the ship very, very well, and I was most impressed. They had a separate doctor for the Russian crew.

Peregrine Crew – I believe there were 16 people employee by Peregrine. This included the Expedition Leader, who worked closely with the Captain of the trip to plan our excursions. The Exhibition Leader was really impressive – very knowledgeable, and did an outstanding job of managing crew, and his many responsibilities while providing outstanding customer service. Other staff included the a political expert, a marine biologist, a geologist/climate expert (all PhD level), a hotel manager, a photographer, a director of activities, a chef, a bartender, and assorted other zodiac and exhibition crew. I was really surprised at the experience, knowledge and expertise the staff had. It was top rate.

In my next post, I think I’ll talk about the Drake Passage and the lectures and programming that were provided en-route to Antarctica, and upon the return.

__________________________________________________ _______

JDiver - Thanks for your kind words. I was very frustrated when I was planning my trip because I had a hard time getting answers to questions. It's an expensive trip, and I think it's worth knowing what you are buying. I hope my report will fill in some gaps for future travelers.

Thanks for the very interesting and informative posts. I'm looking forward to your description of the Drake passage. That is my biggest hesitation with going to Antarctica as I get seasick very easily.

I was on an Antarctic trip in February and you really cannot tell what the Drake passage will be like. Our cruise, according to one of the naturalists, was the smoothest for him in 68 crossings. But, the cruise before ours was pretty bad and the passengers were confined to their cabins for their own safety.

You can never predict, other than it will be unpredictable. On our leg to South Georgia, we had moderate swell, and from there to the Bransfield Strait / King George Island, we had perhaps ten knots of wind and ten feet of swell at one point, a very tolerable gentle roll and easy sleep. A very easy crossing - but the ship following immediately had a nasty crossing. The Southern Sea surrounds Antarctica and goes literally around the world, with unimpeded sweels pushed by very strong winds.

On our trip back to Ushuaia, it was so smooth the Captain announced we would cruise on one engine and it might feel and sound different than normal voyaging. We arrived off Cape Horn in a two foot swell, very early, and cruised around sightseeing, because the appointment with the pilot into Beagle Channel was not until after midnight and could not be pushed up.

In between we had our most challenging time from a rapid retreat down the marshes and a hellish clamber up the Ioffe's ladder due to a sudden and powerful case of "williwaws" (katabatic winds) hitting us as we crossed the Salisbury Plain in South Georgia. In a matter of minutes, the winds hit 50 MPH or more, the seas got very bumpy for Zodiacs...



Thanks for the very interesting and informative posts. I'm looking forward to your description of the Drake passage. That is my biggest hesitation with going to Antarctica as I get seasick very easily.

The Drake Passage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Passage)

When you leave Ushuaia, a local “pilot” comes on board to guide the ship out of the Beagle Channel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Channel) . Likewise, upon your return, a pilot comes back to guide you in. As JDiver points out, the pilot’s schedule can impact the boat’s schedule. We were late in both cases, but it was no big deal.

The Beagle is lovely, but I was glad I had taken a separate boat ride the day before to enjoy it. We were all too excited to enjoy it on the way out – checking out the boat, unpacking, life boat drill, attending welcome events. On the way back, it was dark when we went through, and docked around 6 or 7AM.

After we clear the Beagle, a companion boat picks up the pilot and we were alone! I never saw another boat or soul (aside from staff at 2 bases we visited) until our return 10 days later.

The Drake started right away. I have to agree with the other posters – there is no way to predict the conditions you will experience. Of the 4 some odd days we were in the Drake, 3 were very choppy, and 1 was the unusual calmness referred to as the Drake Lake. Fortunately, the Drake Lake occurred as we approached Cape Horn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn). We had great visability, and it was a great experience. The aforementioned 91 year old on the trip had rounded Cape Horn in the 1930s, and he (and we) were so excited to experience it with him again. Peregrine showed us a video the night before Cape Horn about a tall sailing ship (with many sails) that sailed through the Drake, and was narrated by the sailor who shot it over 50 years later. It was amazing, and the gentlemen on our ship had had the same experience. He hadn’t been able to see Cape Horn the last time.

So the Drake. The choppiness on the way out started right away. I have never had motion sickness in my life. The only time I have ever felt nausea was on the Great Barrier Reef (during both a day trip and a scuba liveaboard). I woke up the first morning, walked into my bathroom, and promptly threw up. It was the first time (and so far last time) in my life that has happened. I had taken Dramamine the night before. People who had those prescription patches seemed to do much better than those without. Look - I’ll be honest here – it wasn’t fun, but we did get used to it quickly, and it’s no reason at all not to take this trip. Some people looked awful, but most seemed fine. I sought out the dr, who came promptly to my cabin. My bunk was perpendicular to the ship, but my room had a sofa that was parallel to the ship. He advised me to take more Dramamine, have some ginger ale, and sleep parallel to the ship. The sleeping trick really worked. The ship had no ginger ale. I was not expecting to have a refrigerator in my room (which I did on the 5th floor) so I had brought no beverages with me. I would suggest bringing some Ginger Ale. The dr did have shots to help out, and said if I didn’t improve, we could go with that option. However, I did get used to the pitching, and didn’t need to see him again about that. Later, I found out there was a cyclone in the area, which was what had caused us to have such a bad crossing. We went through the Lemaire Channel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemaire_Channel) and things were immediately better. Immediately.

On the way back, we had some pitching the first day, and then things calmed right down, and we had the smooth Drake Lake. During the rougher period we saw some bottle nosed dolphins, which was amazing. Aside from the Dolphins, the only real wildlife we saw in the Drake was birds. Beautiful, huge albatross, petrals, skuas, shags and other local birds. I’m no bird watcher, but they were very cool.

So what did we do besides suffer in the Drake? I thought I would be bored out of mind, but Peregrine had tons of programming. Each monring, there were 2 lectures after breakfast, lunch in the afternoon, another lecture, tea time, a final lecutre, happy hour in the bar, dinner, a short activity in the bar, and a movie or another event in the evening. The lectures were very good – led by the experts on the ship. There was no pressure to attend, but I think I went to all but 1. They were held in the presentation room and the dining hall, and aside from the last night ship recap and best of photo show, there was always plenty of room for all attending. Here are the lectures that were presented:
The Adventures of Shackleton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shackleton)
Living in Antarctica (Sex in the Freezer)
Symphony beneath the Ice
Lifestyles of the Blubbery (The Who’s Who of Antarctica Whales)
Photography 101
Climate change in Antarctica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Climate) (2 talks)
IAATO (http://www.iaato.org/) briefing (mandatory)
Zodiac Safety briefing (mandatory)
Camping briefing
Race for the South Pole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen#Comparison_of_the_Amundsen_and_Scot t_expeditions)
Antarctic Politics and History (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Politics)
Peking and Captain John Irving Johnston rounding Cape Horn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_%28ship%29)
Trip Recap
Best of Photo Video
Peregrine trips in the Arctic


Here are the movies they showed:

The Endurance (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/)
March of the Penguins (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428803/)
Making of March of the Penguins
Around Cape Horn (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004CI53/203-5781535-4269543) - this was spectacular.
The Blue Planet (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296310/)


Really there was so much to do, it was unbelievable. The programming was very good. You could do as much or as little of it as liked, and it really did make the time in the Drake go by so quickly. I went on this trip to SEE Antarctica, and not only did I do that, but I learned an awful lot at the same time.

Up next: arriving at the White Continent! Excursions, cruising, and camping out

Thanks again for super reporting! It was almost as if I were there again...

and the Shackleton link had me recalling spending a day at Stromness, on South Georgia, visiting Shackleton's grave and having a toast to "The Boss."

What an awesome report. You went to an enormous amount of work to give us a primer should we be considering a similar trip. This will truly be a classic, and one for folks to refer to well into the future.

Daily Life

I found it challenging to tackle the heart of the report – the 5 days we spent exploring Antarctica. I think it’s best to handle in a series of posts – what we did on a daily basis, touching on the places we actually went, the wildlife we saw, and then special events. I'm not going to add a ton of super description in this section. Essentially what it looks like: everything is beautiful icey blues and whites, everytime you land there are hundreds and hundreds of (smelly!)and curious penguins underfoot, whales blow off in the distance, and seals loll around on icebergs you pass. It looks like you stepped into the pages of National Geographic. Period.

After “arriving” in Antarctica and successfully passing through the Drake, and until the night we went back through the Drake, our days had a certain pattern to them, although the specifics and timing were unpredictable. Generally, this is what would happen:

7AM - Expedition Leader would awaken us over the loudspeaker. He would tell us about the weather, our location and any activity or beautiful sunrises outside the boat. He would tell us that he would talk to us about our morning expedition over breakfast, and that breakfast was in 30 minutes.

730AM - Hotel Manager would come over the PA and announce breakfast.

735AM - Those attending breakfast would stroll in (full disclosure, I am not a morning person and only attended about ½ the time). Breakfast was my least favorite meal on the ship. It usually consisted of some sort of egg, ham or a meat, cereals, croissants, toast, fruit and always Beans. Usually I like a continental breakfast, but I wasn’t crazy about the breakfast on the Iofee. The expedition leader would brief us on what the PLAN was for the morning (the plan was always subject to change) – this would include info on activities at landing sites, times to report, etc.

830AM - The Expedition Leader would come over the PA and announced that we were to be at the Mud Room at 9AM for a departure by 930. Kayakers need to report sooner. Because I usually skipped breakfast, this is when I would wake up and get up and get dressed in all my gear. I would put on all my layers previously discussed, except the outer boots, and I would make my way to the Mud Room

9AM - Mudroom is PACKED. Everyone has left their boots or outer boots in a specific location. Everyone locates their boots and puts them on. Additionally, everyone must put on a life vest – these are strung along the room in size order. As I said before, the average age on the boat was fairly high, and I must confess that the older folks had the younger crew beat by a mile. I would come stumbling in at 9, and they would ALL be fully dressed and lined up to board the zodiacs. It was astonishing. After awhile, it became apparent this was advantageous to all. There were occasions were some people would get cold, or be wet and want to head in early from an expedition. People started forming groups with likeminded passengers and got in zodiacs together. Now again, I was traveling by myself. I did make lots of great friends, and usually I would try and ride with them. However, there were many times I was on my own and would just get in whatever zodiac was next. This was NO problem at all. So after putting on the final outer layers, we would proceed outside and line up for the zodiac in a single file. We would progress down the length of the ship, check out of the boat, (by name and room number, individually) and proceed down a staircase to the zodiac. The zodiacs usually took 10-12 people before departing.

We usually did 2 expeditions a day – either a landing, or cruising. For the sake of this recap, let’s say we did a landing in the morning, and a cruise in the evening.

920AM - We spend 20 minutes cruising around the designated area, as there have been some whale/seal, etc sightings nearby. The zodiac leader pulls us close to some icebergs and we take photos of seals lounging. We laugh at penguins porpoising. We stand up, look around, ask questions, and have a nice time. Then the driver heads toward our landing site.

940AM – We arrive at the landing location and some of our crew is there to greet us. They tell us what there is to see at the island/location and point out areas where we can walk around, areas of particular interest, and things to steer clear of. They might tell us about a sheltered area where young penguins are learning how to swim, a giant set of whalebones, an abandoned hut. They might point out a high point to climb too, or the perfect hill to slide down. We spend the next 2 hours literally playing with penguins (letting them approach us!), seeing seals on the same beach as us, taking amazing photo after photo, going on hikes, etc, etc. There was always so, so, so much to do. I’ll write more specifics about this in my next post.

1145AM – If you were tired, you could go back earlier, but I always stayed till the last zodiac. Usually we had a good 2 hrs+ to explore. We would return to the beach, pick up a life jacket we had abandoned earlier, pile into the zodiacs, and head back to the Iofee

1155AM – Back on the boat, we would go up the stairs, check in with the hotel manager (name and room number, individually), rinse off our boots, enter the mudroom and remove our outer boots and life jackets. Tea would be available in the near by lounge. I would usually go right back to my room and strip off all my gear and lay it out if it was damp to dry. I would usually lie down for a few minutes.

1215PM – Expedition Leader would come over PA and welcome us back to the boat, announcing the completion of the excursion.

1230PM – Hotel Manager would come over PA and announce lunch.

1235PM – Everyone converges on lunch, and eagerly shares their AM adventure. Lunch always begins with soup and bread first, then a standard dish for everyone (one day I remember a nice pasta, another day, a less successful Shepards Pie). There is always a vegetarian option available, and a dessert to end the meal. At lunch you are given the options for dinner – usually 3, sometimes 4 choices. The bartender usually would take our dinner order – (handy tip - the beef options were always the best!)

1255PM – The expedition Leader gets up and does a little recap of what we saw that morning. He calls upon the Geologist to talk about the glaciers we saw at the landing site. Then the Expedition Leader tells us about our afternoon expedition – cruising after whales.

1:05PM – The Expedition leader announces there are 6 breaching whales off the bow of the boat. 80 people abandon their pasta and run to the front of the ship.

120PM – Everyone happily returns for dessert and the marine biologist gets up to explain to us about breaching behavior of humpbacks

145PM – I go back to my room hoping for that nap.

2PM – Announcement from Expedition leader we should be in the mudroom at 230 for the afternoon cruise.

230 PM – Mudroom. Mob scene as before. Since we are cruising, people are wearing more layers. Also since we are cruising, getting a good zodiac driver (read, one of the crazier, young guys) is imperative, so we stake it out.

3 PM – We are settled in the zodiac and there is a report that a pod of Orcas has been spotted. We take off!!! We chase after them for about 15 minutes, getting really close, until they shake us. We spend the next 2 hours cruising around looking for more whales. We see minkes and humpbacks – we learn to sport them in the distance very well! We admire some spectacular and huge icebergs. On the way back, we see a leopard seal killing a penguin (we saw 5 occurrences of this – very lucky – I will discuss more later). Every zodiac has a completely different experience.

530 PM – Time to head back to the boat, and check back in. I ditch all my clothing and go to lie down.

6PM – Bartender announces over the PA – it’s happy hour!

640PM – Expedition Leader comes over PA – there are dolphins swimming in the wake of the boat, and we are all invited up to the bridge to see them. We all go.

730PM – Dinner is announced. We all go down to dinner where we have soap and bread, salad, main entrée chosen earlier, dessert, and fruit and cheese. Dishes are of varying quality, but dinner is not bad.

8PM – Expedition Leader recaps our day, and invites the marine biologist up to speak about the Orcas and leopard seals we saw. The programming director is then invited up to tell us about the evening activities. We are not usually told what will happen tomorrow, although the proposed agenda for the next day is posted around this time.

815PM – Activity in the Bar – this might be a game or a little talk about ghosts, or just something fun.

845PM – Bar activity is over, and the last PA announcement of the day is made, announcing the evening movie. Few people will attend the evening movies, especially during the landing days of the trip. People will disperse to the movie, the bar, their rooms, or the library to play cards.

Pretty much – that was it! I would usually shower at this point, play cards with my friends, read a little and turn in btwn 11 and 12. They were very long days, and after all that we would rinse and repeat.

It was awesome.
__________________________________________________ _________
Everything I outlined in this hypothetical day REALLY happened. I have a map and journal from Peregrine that outlined our trip, as well as a wildlife checklist that details what we saw. I'll draw on those tools next to tell you exactly where we went and what we experienced. Of course, one night we went camping, and I’ll talk about that as well.

SanDiego1K, JDiver, LouiseMC, greg999, chuckd - thanks for reading along, and the kind words. I'm glad to know someone is reading it! It's really nice for me to have a written record of the trip and I am putting together a seperate version with photos as well. Again, I think this trip is not an insignificant investment, in both money, time and research, so I think a detailed trip report is a valuable tool to put out there!

Sorry this is out of order! I promised I would do a cost breakdown, and now I have all the final numbers.

Again, I traveled alone and my trip comprised the following characteristics:

Single traveler
Coach flight from NYC - EZE (award)
2 nights hotel in USH
Peregrine Antarctic Explorer - main deck twin
4 domestic Aerolineas flights (roundtrips BA - Ushuaia, BA - Iguazu)
5 nights at the BA Marriott (2 seperate award stays)
2 nights Falls View Sheraton Iguazu (award)
Excursions and Admissions (including Beagle Channel cruise, day trip to Lake Fagnano in USH, day trip to Colonia, city tour of BA, day trip to Tigre, day trip to Brazil side of Iguazu, attending the opera at the Teatro Colon, tour of the Teatro Colon, tour of the Casa Rosada, museum admissions, etc)

Here is my total cost breakdown:

14,000 SPG Points
8,991 Amex Points (converted to SPG pts. When pooled with above I used a total of 17k SPG pts)
93,000 Marriott Points
40,000 AA Miles
$8,600 (of which $350 was spending cash from ATM)


Here is a breakdown of the $8600:
68% - Antarctica trip from Peregrine
9% - Gear, including clothing, toiletries, many books
8% - Misc (fees, food, tips, cash expenditures, souvenirs, activities)
6% - Transportation (domestic flights, car service, supershuttle, trains, etc)
4% - Excursions, as outlined above
3% - Insurance
2% - Hotel in Ushuaia


Note: I opened an AA Mastercard to track all my costs on this trip. I got 18,000 AA Miles for signing up + over 8k for the spending, so I made back 26,000 of the 40,000 AA miles I used.

ETA - When I called to close Mastercard account 9 months later, they offered me 3,000 miles to leave it open. This brings my total AA mile count to 29,000, and I am still closing that account before the annual fee hits. ^

I'm still with you. How on earth do you remember everything? You must have taken some time during your busy days for notes!! I am thoroughly enjoying your reporting. I am a single traveler also and single supplements sure are the "pits" but I do enjoy small ship expedition cruising so grin and bear it.

I'm still with you. How on earth do you remember everything? You must have taken some time during your busy days for notes!! I am thoroughly enjoying your reporting. I am a single traveler also and single supplements sure are the "pits" but I do enjoy small ship expedition cruising so grin and bear it.

Thanks LouiseMc! No notes, but I have a good memory and 3,000 pix to jog my memory :) Plus I remember what info *I* wanted and couldn't find when I was researching. I bet if you searched this forum, you'd see plenty of unanswered questions from me. Re: the single supplement, although I didn't explicitly pay one, I was penalized. If you are traveling in a group of 3, you can book at a triple rate, but you can't book into a triple unless you are in a group of 3. I really wanted to save 1k and was willing to deal with 2 roommates, but no dice. I *should* have had a far inferior cabin and a roommate, so I wound up being pretty happy overall with my super nice single :)

Endor, a simply phenomenal trip report. My wife and I plan to frame this and motivate ourselves to do this next year...

Thanks for such a fabulous report. Next time I'm in NYC, we'll buy you dinner in exchange for some pointers..!

Also, if you don't mind, can you please post a link to some photos? If you don't want to post a link here, please PM me with a link if you prefer.

Endor - I enjoyed reading your very detailed report. I'm glad you had such a great time. Thanks for sharing. You're right - this is not Carnival Cruise Lines. :)

Endor, simply wonderful trip report - fabulous.

You certainly do answer a lot of questions pax deliberating over this type of adventure would have.

I look forward to doing this trip sometime before I am too old to walk.

I travel the world reasonably regurally on biz but seldom for pleasure.

Glad you had a wonderful trip.

This is an excellent trip report, Endor -- one of the best ever, in fact -- my family and I read it aloud over Sunday breakfast! Well done and thank you!

Eager to hear more... ^

Specifics of Landings and Zodiac Cruises (1 of 4)

I am borrowing heavily from our ship journal/log here to remember what happened in what order – but I am rewriting in my own words. I am planning to break this up into 3 parts – Days 1 and 2, Camping, Days 3 and 4, and Day 5.

Day 1 of 5
We left Ushuaia on March 5 and “arrived” in Antarctica on March 8. In the morning, we came through the Lemaire Channel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemaire_Channel), which was absolutely beautiful. Our expedition leader awoken us with the news, and we all ran up on deck to see the beautiful scenery. The deck had ice covering it, so we were slipping and sliding all over!

After breakfast, we got all bundled up for our first landing! We went to Petermann Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petermann_Island). We were so completely excited. We walked a long a glacier, and laughed at the penguins. Parts of the snow had a red or green kind of cast to it – I forget the scientific reason for it – it was algae or something. We had about 2 and a half hours to explore, and everyone just couldn’t have been more thrilled.

After lunch, we cruised a little bit, checking out the surroundings and made 2 stops. I don’t recall there being much of note on the cruise, but it was good to get used to. The first stop was Vernadsky Station, the Ukranian base (http://www.antarctida.kiev.ua/english/). Vernadsky was formerly known as Faraday and was the British base and was transferred to Ukraine in 1996. We landed at the base and headed on in. left our boots and lifevests in the main entrance and then took the tour. It was sort of difficult because many of the rooms were small and it was hard to hear the guide if you weren’t beside him. To be honest, although I really enjoy museums I wasn’t overly interested. I felt pretty bad for all the staff (all men) who lived there – it was definitely an older facility, and while in fine condition, was kinda dirty and definitely smelly. I was amused to see them storing their food outdoors. We went upstairs and there they tried to sell us souvineers, postcards, and drinks. [I am going to add a note here about postcards – BUY THEM IN USHUAIA. They are cheaper and far nicer. The Ukranians charged $4! to mail, and then take them over to Port Lockroy to mail. If you land at Port Lockroy yourself you can mail them for $1. I did mail 2 postcards because I didn’t know if I would have any chance later. We did, and I mailed 15 more from Port Lockroy. You have to appreciate that they don’t have a lot of resources and money and are doing all they can to profit, but $4 was pushing it for me!]

After we left, we cruised over to visit Wordie House (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/About_BAS/Cambridge/Divisions/EID/Environment/Wordie_House.html). Wordie House was very interesting. It was an early British Research station and you can now visit it as a little museum (with no staff there). It has a kitchen and a little bunk and it’s hard to believe anyone would believe it. We poked in there for a minute and then wandered around the area. There was a big hill we climbed, and we had a great time climbing to the top and looking out over the island and the ocean in the distance, which was spotted with icebergs.

According to the journal Wildlife sightings included: Gentoo and Adelie penguins, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels, Snow Petrels, Antarctic Shags, Pale-faces Sheathbills, South Polar Skuas, Sub Antarctic Skuas, Kelp Gulls, Antarctic Terns, Minke Whales, Humpback Whales, Leopard Seals, Crabeater Seals, Antarctica Fur Seas, Lion's Mane Jellyfish.

Day 2 of 5
The next day, we went first to Port Lockroy (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Diaries/Port_Lockroy/), which is another former British Base, but is actually a staffed museum with a gift shop and a post office (box). Here is where I mailed my other postcards! I must say at this point I was getting a little concerned we were just going to visit bases, but this was pretty much the last stop. The museum was again, interesting, especially the kitchen. There were some great gentoo penguins which lived around the base and were just kind of EVERYWHERE. After visiting the museum we explored the area and all the penguins. Then we went to an area called Jougla Point which had a penguin rookery and this huge whale skeleton (http://www.cybamuse.com/antarctica/photos_03/whale_1.htm). This was one of our most fun stops. There were little areas were we could watch the young penguins learn to swim. The penguins literally crawled on people. I sat on a rock and just watched them play next to me. It was one of the best places ever. I will say, forever after I could not get the stink of penguin out of my clothing, but it was so worth the experience. Off the shore, we saw fur seal attack a penguin which is really rare. It was pretty far off and the penguin got away. We would see later attacks, but always with penguin seals.

After lunch we went up the Nuemayer Channel – I think they had a different excursion planned, but the expedition leader saw a group humpbacks so we decided to hop in the zodiacs. The humpbacks were fluking, which were really cool, but then a while pod of Orca surfaced and we chased them quite a ways! It was awesome. We also some amazing HUGE icebergs that were beautiful blues and whites.

According to the journal Wildlife sightings included: Gentoo Penguins, Northern Giant Petrels, Southern Giant Petrels, Snow Petrels, Antarctic Shags, Pale-faced Sheathbills, South Polar Skuas, Sub-Antarctic Skuas, Kelp Gulls, Antactic Terns, Humpback whales, minke whales, orca, leopard seals, Antarctic fur seas, crabeater seals

Then we headed back to the boat for dinner and to get ready for camping!

Next: Camping
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PIT_Flyer - Thanks for the compliment. I'll drop you a PM.

restlessinRNO - Thanks for reading along :)

pnm - I appreciate your kind words - I know you'll get there soon too!

BearX220 Sunday breakfast reading material? I am very flattered!

On the Peregrine trips, they aim to offer a camping night during each voyage. They monitor the weather and conditions and look for a suitable location for a campsite, so it’s sort of a wait and see approach. They needed to find an area that had no wildlife, and was safe from calving glaciers and such. They found such an island in Paradise Harbour, and we wound up camping out on our 2nd evening at Antarctica proper. They hadn’t spoken of it the day before, but gave us a heads up at breakfast on the morning of Day 2 that we were going to try to do it that night.

In the afternoon, after lunch and before our excursion, we had our camping briefing, which was mandatory for everyone that wanted to camp. They encouraged everyone to come, even if they didn’t think they wanted to camp, to learn about how it would work, and laugh at those that were going. The staff, to be honest, was less than thrilled about camping. Those that didn’t have to go were very happy! This was not a good sign :p

We were assured that they would provide us with everything we needed, including a Mountain Hardwear Mummy sleeping bag, a sleep sheet, a mat and a bag to store it in. We were advised on what to wear (actually, not much!) and we were warned not to drink a lot, particularly alcohol, at dinner. They were very specific in describing the toilet facilities, and explaining the timeline for the evening. We were instructed to use our life jacket as a pillow. It was also VERY clear that we would go there and go to sleep and then come right back to the ship at dawn. No parties. We were also told that if weather conditions or anything else changed, we could be awoken in the middle of the night for an immediate evacuation. After all the warnings, we were sent off from the session for our afternoon excursion, and were told we would be told at dinner if camping was a go for that night. After the session, we collected the gear that we would use (minus the mats).

We went on our excursion, came back to dinner, and were told the weather was good, and a good camping spot had been found, and we would be leaving around 7PM. I’d say about 55 of the 80 passengers went – it was a pretty high turn out, and fairly typical. People of all ages went, which I was very impressed by.

They really encouraged us to wear just a layer each, but frankly, I wore more and was happy for it. Here is what I wore for sleeping: a bergelene long underwear (top and bottom), polarfleece pants, a techwick shirt, and a 300 power North Face fleece. I also wore 1 pair of liner socks, and 2 pairs of heavier socks. I also wore both my liner gloves, a balaclava, and I think I wore a neck gaiter as well. They really suggested we not wear fleece, but I decided to start with mine, and could remove it if I was too hot. That was unnecessary -it was -1 out there over night, which wasn’t so bad, but there was a great deal of wind. I was happy to have my layers! Additionally I wore my waterproof pants and jacket on the zodiac, and took them off before I went to sleep. I also wore my shoes and outerboots.

I brought my backpack, a flashlight, all sorts of little warmers – hand warmers, toe warmers, even those ThermaCare warmers they sell at the drug store – they worked really well. My friend who went before encouraged me to put them all over me before we left, and I did! I also bought these survival heat pads from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007G7MW6/104-6874604-1185516?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=3375251):
I had 4 of them, and I shared them with 3 friends I made. We all gave them highmarks.

So, we took several zodiacs over to the island we were staying on. The staff had gone out there in advance and marked off an area for where we would sleep and set up the toilets.

It did not occur to me that there were 2 strategic things we should have done in staking out a sleeping location – (1) been on the first zodiac and (2) we should have noted where the staff was sleeping. They have done this before, they don’t like doing it, and they know where to make themselves most comfortable. Instead, my group was on the last zodiac, and we staked out this nice location where no one else was yet, and later realized we had picked the worst location wind-wise. When we arrived at the island we picked up our – sort of like those stiff blue yoga mats you might see at the gym. After the last people arrived there was a MAD dash to claim the left over mats so you could have 2 layers of cushioning. Of course, I scored one :) Although I don't know that it helped that much!

After we arrived and deposited our stuff, we had a mandatory group meeting by the toilet, which was a bit of a big deal. Essentially, it was a big trash can/container. There were distinct rules to keep it clean, to manage the toilet paper, and to not have trash strewn about because we had to take everything back with us. They really encouraged us NOT to use the facilities (and I did not) but surprisingly a lot of people hadn’t heeded their earlier warnings about not drinking, so I understand they saw some action. So we finished our session, and went off to make our little campsites. We used shovels to sort of flatted out an area. We may or may not have built a little fort around our area as well ;)

Then we laid out our sleeping mats and unpacked the sleeping bags and tucked in the sleep sheets. This was surprisingly difficult. Then we got ourselves all settled in. We put our outer clothing in the bag the sleeping bag had come stored in to make a pillow (in addition to the life jacket). We tucked our shoes under out mats to keep them secure overnight. And that was pretty much that!

I was shocked that they told us to go right to sleep – it was like 8PM! But really the deal was to get this over with as fast as possible and we were leaving before 6AM. I think I really thought that the camping was going to be a super fun time, but it really, truly was designed so we could say we slept in Antarctica.

So how was it? Pretty uncomfortable. Heat was not an issue. I wasn’t too cold, or too hot. I had lots of layers to choose from, as I mentioned. Some people did say they were cold, but it wasn’t a super complaint. All the heat pads helped a lot. The worst thing was that the ground was so uncomfortable. Also, it was surprisingly loud – lots of glaciers cracking and avalanches. We were in a very safe location, away from them on a little deserted island, but they were SO loud, they woke me up many times. It sounded like the 4th of July. Truthfully, I didn’t sleep so well. I dozed for probably an hour at a time and then would wake up for quite awhile. I just kept waiting and waiting for night to be over. Finally, it was morning! And it was earlier than I expected – I think it was before 6 when we were awakened – and people were already heading for the zodiacs. Everyone packed up super fast and ran to leave, which I thought was funny. It was more challenging to pack up then it had been to unpack, and it was still pitch black when we left. We got back to the boat, and in the Mud Room, we left not only our life jackets and boots, but this time we handed in all our camping gear. This was a little annoying, but didn’t take long. They had some coffee and things for us waiting, since it was before breakfast, but I went right back to my cabin where I showered and laid down for a few minutes. Soon enough though, it was 7AM, and the morning announcement came that we had a beautiful sunrise (actually, the only really good one we had in our time in Antarctica), so I went up to the deck with my camera and took lots of great photos. At 730, as usual, we had breakfast, and we all went to trade stories or our night in Antarctica and hear about the day ahead, which included our first continental landing!

My overall camping summary: it was great to do it, but you are 100% just doing it to brag that you camped out/spent a night in Antarctica. It is an experience I will never forget, and I had a good time bonding with my new friends. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn’t awful. I was very pleased with the gear provided by Peregrine – the sleeping bag was very good, and I felt well prepared. Plus, we got fun little certificates afterwards acknowledging our accomplishments. I was glad I did it and I’d recommend it!

Next: Days 3 and 4.

Wow great report. I am envious.

Thanks for all the detail and tips. Should I ever get enough time off during southern summer I have a great head start on planning thanks to your thoughts and notes.

Great job. ^

This is a trip we definitely want to take.

Awesome stuff! I'm considering doing this in the next few years, and this report is great.

Thanks!

When I had last left off, we had spent the night camping and returned to the ship and got right back into the normal routine, starting with breakfast. Day 3 turned out to be an unforgettable day, for so many reasons.

We had spent the night camping in Paradise Harbour, and it was clearly beautiful, but we didn’t really see it until we got out for our first excursion of the day. This first excursion was really a highlight of the trip for several reasons – the initial excitement though, was that this would be our very first continental landing. All but 2 of our landings were on islands, and sometimes, depending on conditions you may not even get to land on the continent proper, but that just didn’t even seem to be an option in my head! As in many cases, the expedition consisted of both a cruise and a landing, so half the group did the cruise first, like I did, and the others landed, and then after 90 minutes or so, we switched.

As we left the boat and pulled closer to the land, the amount of ice in the harbour was striking - our zodiac pushed sheets of ice away as we sailed. If you have seen the movie Titanic, you might remember the scene at the end where Rose is floating, waiting to be rescued, and ice just surrounds her, seemingly everywhere – well it was just like that. So we just floated around, and looked at this gorgeous ice, listening to glaciers crack and seeing some small avalanches. The ice and glaciers towered above us, completely dwarfing us. We saw some seals hanging out on the ice, but the focus of this cruise was really on the ice. This cruise was my favorite – it was so beautiful, and we had such a nice long time out there – it seemed like almost 2 hours, we just spent floating amongst the ice. I can totally understand why it’s called Paradise Harbor. After, we still had plenty of time and were dropped off at the beach for our first continental landing! That was pretty exciting, and some of the Aussies put down a flag. The landing site is at the old Almirante Brown Antarctic Base (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almirante_Brown_Antarctic_Base), which has an interesting story in that it was burned down in 1984 by the station’s leader and physican because he didn’t want to stay another winter!

The Peregrine crew had stamped out a path up a very steep hill for us to climb. It was hard work, even with the path, but once at the top we were rewarded with 2 things: (1) A spectacular view! We could see all of Paradise Harbor and it was so beautiful. Best of all we spotted Minke Whales leaving their oily circular marks as the progressed throughout the harbor. It was great fun watching them from the high vantage point and radioing to the zodiacs about their whereabouts. We all sat around, and after spending a good long time at the top, we got to the next reward (2) a man made slide carved out of the snow! Everyone slid down this giant hill, and it was so much fun – sort of like those huge slides in amusement parks. Some people just went up and down – the record was 8 times, but quite frankly, I didn’t much like climbing the hill much the first time, so once was fun enough for me!

After a nice long excursion, we headed back to the boat, where we were greeted with a traditional Antarctic BBQ. A traditional Antarctic BBQ takes place outside, on the deck. I’m not sure what else is traditional about it beyond the ambiance, which could not have been more spectacular. So instead of having our usual indoor lunch, the chefs had the grills out and cooked up hamburgers, chicken, fish, hotdogs, and the best grilled veggies ever. The crew handed out silly hats, and hot chocolate and had some music going. So the ship sat, in this beautiful, beautiful, icy harbor, and we wore our heavy fleeces and sat at tables on the deck eating our food, and it started snowing. It was pretty awesome, even if my sandwich was a little frostbit ;)

We had a really great time, and soon after wrapping up, it was time for the next excursion, and the ship moved to Neko Harbor. So we loaded up and as soon as we got there, we rushed to the zodiacs as Minke Whales were spotted sleeping in the channel! We hurried along to see the mama whale and her calf. We found the sleeping whales, who were funny to watch, but really didn’t do much more than bob up and down. We quickly spotted more minkes (awake ones) and we set chase. It turned out to be a huge group of whales that just surrounded us. Sometimes we would lose them, and we would stop the zodiac, and sit quietly amongst the ice and just watch and listed for their blows, and as soon as we heard one, we take off! Sometimes, when we were waiting, they would suddenly surface right near the zodiac. It was amazing. After awhile, we took a break from the Minkes, and found some beautiful seals sitting on the ice. I believe that day we saw Weddell and Fur seals, as well as our first leopard. Again, the setting was just so spectacular, that this was one of my favorite cruises. We landed on a beach in Neko, which was a great location too. This marked our last Continental landing – there aren’t a lot of landing spots on Peninsula itself, (http://www.cybamuse.com/antarctica/continent.htm) so aside from this day, all of our landings were on islands.

Lots of baby penguins ran around everywhere, some stray mamas fed their young, and a couple of fur seals hanging out. Most of the parents had abandoned their chicks, so it was really great to witness a few parents left, and watch the feeding process. Regurgitated fish, just like in March of the Penguins! Yum. We had a great deal of time to wander around and interact with the penguins and just observe them. They got in lots of little fights and practiced their swimming, and were very fun to watch. The most spectacular part of this landing was a sighting just off shore of a leopard seal killing a penguin. This was pretty crazy – a National Geographic moment at it’s finest. Most of us were on the shore and could see it in the distance. One lucky group was in a zodiac and got very close to it. We were all super jealous, but the next day, seeing leopard seals kill penguins became a common sight! More on that next.

Next: Days 4 and 5 (Deception Island)
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Kiwi Flyer, redbeard911, and mymiles2go - thanks for stopping by and for your nice comments :) I had my tonsils removed last week, so I have been a little slow to update. I'm hoping to finish this soon!

You have done the best trip report ever! and I am convinced that i will visit Antarctica whether or not the Antarctica DO occurs in 2007.

Thank you so much for the comprehensive info, and I hope your recovery is going well.

You could have this trip report printed up and sell it on Amazon, I swear. This is excellent work. Please keep going as time and tonsils permit! :)

I have 2 posts left on my Antarctica recap, plus I’ll do a quick overview on the rest of my South America adventures, and I have really been dragging my heels and losing steam on it. My tonsil less throat is all better now, so no excuses :)
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When I last left off, I had 2 more days to explore Antarctica. This day was most notable for the leopard seals. We were in the Gerlache Strait, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerlache_Strait) which we had passed thru on the way down due to changing course because of a cyclone.

The day before, we had seen a leopard seal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_seal) attack a penguin from the harbor. We were told this was very rare, and how fortunate we were. Apparently the Discovery Channel had been down for 2 weeks prior trying to film just such an attack, with no luck.

I think there was 1 zodiac full of passengers near the prior day’s attack, and the rest of us were still on land so we weren’t so close. We were very jealous of these few passengers, but by the end of the day, we all had experienced it, many times over.

In the morning, we all went quickly to the zodiacs as humpback whales were off the portside of the ship. Right away, as soon as my zodiac left the ship, we encountered a leopard seal.

So basically this is what would happen (I witnessed about 5 attacks, and it took up the bulk of our morning adventure). The leopard seal was usually already attacking the penguin by the time we caught up to it. The seal doesn’t just attack and kill the penguin – as the staff described it, they are “sadistic” – basically taunting and playing with the penguin for quite a while, letting it escape briefly and recapturing it. The seal would toss the penguin around – one even got tossed into a boat! The poor penguin would try really hard to escape, but the seal would eventually wear him down. This would go on for quite an extended period of time, and the seals were practically putting on a show for us! They would roll under and all around the zodiacs. It was really an embarrassment of riches – we saw so many – some simultaneous attacks. Eventually, we even wandered off to look at whales because we were a little tired of the seal attacks. It was literally my National Geographic moment. The video from this was amazing. I actually have to say before this trip I never considered getting a video camera, but I don’t think photos captured everything as well as I would have liked. I would definitely recommend bringing a video camera, or at a minimum, a digital camera with video capabilities (what I had). I was astonished by how much I used it.

After, we went back to the ship for lunch. We were sitting at lunch, and they brought up the marine biologist to talk to us about the leopard seals. Both the expedition leader and the marine biologist were at a loss for words – they kept telling us how amazing our trip was an how lucky we had been to see such amazing wildlife. I turned to the person sitting across from me, another consultant who was from Japan, and I said, “Every single time, something happens, we keep saying it’s the greatest thing ever and nothing can top it, and then something tops it!” At that exact moment, the Expedition Leader frantically interrupted the marine biologist to report that there were hunchbacks BREACHING off the front of the ship. Everyone in the dining room abandoned their pasta dishes and ran outside to watch. It was really amazing – there were probably a dozen whales that would just take turns breaking the water, spinning up and flopping down. It was unbelievable. After about 20 minutes, the show wound down and we returned to eat our dessert. I turned to my friend and said, “You see what I mean?”

The expedition leader resumed his commentary and told us about the afternoon plans, but not before reiterating again how great our trip had been so far.

In the afternoon we had another excursion, cruising, which after all the excitement of the last 24 hours, was much calmer. We went to Wilhelmina Bay and Foyn Harbor. At Foyn Harbor, we saw a whaling shipwreck (http://www.pelagic.co.uk/logbooks/expeditions/rep019082.html) from 1922, which was pretty neat. As a diver, I always like shipwrecks – this one was mostly above water. Some fog had begun to drift in, so we saw a little less than we had before, but we had some very good bird sightings, including our first chinstrap penguins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinstrap_penguin). This was probably the least exciting excursion we went on, partially because of the driver I was with, partially because of the weather, and mostly in comparison to all the morning events.

That night they hosted an Albatross Auction over dinner. This is basically an auction where they had 10 items that they auctioned off to the passengers and raised cash to save the albatross. These items went for a lot of money – they raised over $11,000 on the 10 items. They included things like: a huge signed map of where we went to (biggest item at 5k), a book on Antarctica wildlife (went for $400, yours on Amazon for $30), a laminated log of the trip, a Peregrine staff hat, and other assorted items. I know that the excitement and alcohol (champagne) got people a little carried away. I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked to see some people spend so much – but it was way out of my price range after scrimping and saving for the trip. Needless to say, they accepted smaller contributions outside the auction as well.

Next up: last day in Antarctica, elephant seals and Deception Island

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kflyer2 & BearX220 - thanks a lot :D

I have 2 posts left on my Antarctica recap, plus I’ll do a quick overview on the rest of my South America adventures. I have really been dragging my heels and losing steam though. My tonsil-less throat is all better now, so no excuses :)
_____________________________________
When I last left off, I had 2 more days to explore Antarctica. This day was most notable for the leopard seals. We were in the Gerlache Strait, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerlache_Strait) which we had passed thru on the way down due to changing course because of a cyclone.

The day before, we had seen a leopard seal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_seal) attack a penguin from the harbor. We were told this was very rare, and how fortunate we were. Apparently the Discovery Channel had been down for 2 weeks prior trying to film just such an attack, with no luck.

I think there was 1 zodiac full of passengers near the prior day’s attack, and the rest of us were still on land so we weren’t so close. We were very jealous of these few passengers, but by the end of the day, we all had experienced it, many times over.

In the morning, we all went quickly to the zodiacs as humpback whales were off the portside of the ship. Right away, as soon as my zodiac left the ship, we encountered a leopard seal.

So basically this is what would happen (I witnessed about 5 attacks, and it took up the bulk of our morning adventure). The leopard seal was usually already attacking the penguin by the time we caught up to it. The seal doesn’t just attack and kill the penguin – as the staff described it, they are “sadistic” – basically taunting and playing with the penguin for quite a while, letting it escape briefly and recapturing it. The seal would toss the penguin around – one even got tossed into a boat! The poor penguin would try really hard to escape, but the seal would eventually wear him down. This would go on for quite an extended period of time, and the seals were practically putting on a show for us! They would roll under and all around the zodiacs. It was really an embarrassment of riches – we saw so many – some simultaneous attacks. Eventually, we even wandered off to look at whales because we were a little tired of the seal attacks. It was literally my National Geographic moment. The video from this was amazing. I actually have to say before this trip I never considered getting a video camera, but I don’t think photos captured everything as well as I would have liked. I would definitely recommend bringing a video camera, or at a minimum, a digital camera with video capabilities (what I had). I was astonished by how much I used it.

After, we went back to the ship for lunch. We were sitting at lunch, and they brought up the marine biologist to talk to us about the leopard seals. Both the expedition leader and the marine biologist were at a loss for words – they kept telling us how amazing our trip was an how lucky we had been to see such amazing wildlife. I turned to the person sitting across from me, another consultant who was from Japan, and I said, “Every single time, something happens, we keep saying it’s the greatest thing ever and nothing can top it, and then something tops it!” At that exact moment, the Expedition Leader frantically interrupted the marine biologist to report that there were humpbacks BREACHING off the front of the ship. Everyone in the dining room abandoned their pasta dishes and ran outside to watch. It was really amazing – there were probably a dozen whales that would just take turns breaking the water, spinning up and flopping down. It was unbelievable. After about 20 minutes, the show wound down and we returned to eat our dessert. I turned to my friend and said, “You see what I mean?”

The expedition leader resumed his commentary and told us about the afternoon plans, but not before reiterating again how great our trip had been so far.

In the afternoon we had another excursion, cruising, which after all the excitement of the last 24 hours, was much calmer. We went to Wilhelmina Bay and Foyn Harbor. At Foyn Harbor, we saw a whaling shipwreck (http://www.pelagic.co.uk/logbooks/expeditions/rep019082.html) from 1922, which was pretty neat. As a diver, I always like shipwrecks – this one was mostly above water. Some fog had begun to drift in, so we saw a little less than we had before, but we had some very good bird sightings, including our first chinstrap penguins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinstrap_penguin). This was probably the least exciting excursion we went on, partially because of the driver I was with, partially because of the weather, and mostly in comparison to all the morning events.

That night they hosted an Albatross Auction over dinner. This is basically an auction where they had 10 items that they auctioned off to the passengers and raised cash to save the albatross. These items went for a lot of money – they raised over $11,000 on the 10 items. They included things like: a huge signed map of where we went to (biggest item at 5k), a book on Antarctica wildlife (went for $400, yours on Amazon for $30), a laminated log of the trip, a Peregrine staff hat, and other assorted items. I know that the excitement and alcohol (champagne) got people a little carried away. I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked to see some people spend so much – but it was way out of my price range after scrimping and saving for the trip. Needless to say, they accepted smaller contributions outside the auction as well.

Next up: last day in Antarctica, elephant seals and Deception Island

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kflyer2 & BearX220 - thanks a lot - I really appreciate the comments :D :D

Endor, if there's anything I can say to encourage you... please keep it up. You are sharing a really fantastic trip with word pictures that nearly make it come alive. Most visitors to Antarctica do not see what you did; you not only captured it all, you have a gift for passing it on to others in your words. Tonsils or not... ;) (Glad you are all better now! ^ )

Leopard seals are quite the predator - as you probably know, they have been documented attacking people (as on Ernest Shackleton "the Boss'" amazing trip.) Predators sometimes are in no hurry, and I have seen lions kill after they were sated. Ah, well, this is about Antarctica, not Africa...

I kind of regret not diving in Antractica (I just returned from diving in Indonesia - Tukang Besi archipelago mainly, my 30th country for diving,) but the COLD water there... out of the question! We were very fortunate - 21 days on our boat (the Ioffe, as I might have mentioned,) with people like Peter Matthiessen (one of my favorite authors) and Robert Bateman (my favorite wildlife artist) and his wife Birgit, etc. (Bob auctioned some drawings and paintings he did on the trip - I think I recall one painting went for $11,000! I was not buying... :( )

Please do keep posting, even if you do take some time for yourself...

Thanks again for sharing, JDiver

this is great, thanks. ^ ^
I have always wanted to go to Antartica and you made it much easier for me. Im going to get my head around it and try to make it happen.

I noticed a reference in one of your reports about issues related to mailing postcards.

Can you provide more detail?

Like, what type of stamps are used? Presumably this varies with the country having some "jurisdiction" over a particular part of Antarctic territory? Were stamps available when you mailed cards, or did you simply turn over the cards with money, and "things were taken care of"?

And, did the cards successfully arrive at their destinations?

As a mailer of about 80 cards on my more extensive trips, this is an issue of great interest for a future trip.

On another matter, it seemed like the camping part of the trip could have been done in a better and more meaningful way. Otherwise, the crew could have the attitude that your entire trip is just about "having been to Antarctica" and thus poor and lousy service would be just fine...no need to see anything, just being there is all that it's about.

The last day in Antarctica was pretty exciting, because we were going to the South Shetland Islands (Deception Island) and to see the Elephant Seals. Our main guide on the ship had done a lot of field work and writing on Deception Island, so he was particularly excited to share it with us.

I want to post some links to Deception Island – the wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Island), and the official site (http://www.deceptionisland.aq/). Here is how the official site describes it:
Deception Island (62°57'S, 60°38'W) is one of the most incredible islands on the planet. It is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Its unique landscape comprises barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers. It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large flooded caldera. This opens to the sea through a narrow channel at Neptunes Bellows, forming a natural sheltered harbour. It is one of the only places in the world where vessels can sail directly into the centre of a restless volcano.

That’s all true. It’s amazing.

When we woke up that morning, we had the most beautiful clear blue skies – every other day during my trip was overcast. It was so beautiful, and the sun was blinding. At Deception Island, you sail into the crater, and it was magnificent to see all the beautiful browns and reds of the islands, the white of the snow and ice, and the blue of the sky as we arrived in Whaler’s Bay. When we arrived on shore, we had a lot of options for activities: we could hike to the summit (or “nipple” as it was called), we could check out the wildlife (the seals were so close here, right on the beach), tour the remains of buildings, or go “swimming” in the bay or in a pool the staff dug.

I elected to do the hike – the first part was pretty challenging, but it eased up after about the first 1/3. Like with the camping, I was impressed with the diversity in age of the participants. People on our tour were really amazing! There were a couple of things challenging about the hike – (1) the pace – we were trying to make it up in about 45 minutes so we could get back and have time to go swimming or so other activities, (2) the heat! It was really warm that day – in the upper 30s or lower 40s I would guess, but we all had dressed for the colder days. We shed lots of layers. And (3) the snow and ice near the summit was very slippery, and there wasn’t any well defined path. When we got up to the top, it was well worth it. The views were amazing! We were so lucky with the visibility. We saw some of the other islands off in the distance, which were great. Even better, we had a birds-eye view of the kayakers from our boat in the Bay. They were happily kayaking along, and a whale came under them and almost capsized the leader! It was really cool to watch. We stayed up for a bit, snapped a lot of pix, and then made our way down. Of course, that was much easier than getting up.

Once we got to the beach, we found we still had a lot of time left. The island had very little snow and ice on it – it was mostly a dark sand. Of course, there was no plant life, and as a volcano, there were lots of rocks. It was strikingly different from the other places we had seen in Antarctica. We had plenty of time, so we went off with the Expedition Leader to check out the remains of buildings, which was really interesting. The leader had been involved in writing a management plan for the island – to maintain the sites and to ensure that there weren’t too many visitors and that they treated everything really well. He had obvious connection with the island. It was really interesting to see the old buildings, oil tanks, and even a cemetery. We saw an old British base and Chilean base (by base, I mean more like shacks). They has suffered volcanic damage in an eruption. The leader told a very humerous story about how the Chileans and Brits would hand each other letters from their leaders/monarchs protesting the other’s presence, and then they would sit down and drink and play cards together. He also told us a poignant story about a radio operator who had come back 50 years later to Deception Island and found that his bunk was the only one that survived an eruption. It was a great tour. Also, there were amazing seals (and some penguins) on the beach. We got very close to them – one was even a blond fur seal which is pretty unusual). When we got back we still had more time, and many people went “swimming.” Basically, the staff dug a big hole, which filled up with the volcanic warmed waters and people sat in the hole. Some people really did dive into the water (we had all worn our bathing suits under our gear). I had fully planned on doing it, but I passed because my tonsils had been bothering me and I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my trip. I think that was a good move. The people that did it reported it was still cold, not warm! They did get some fun certificates from Peregrine for the experience. After, we headed back to the boat and sailed out of the crater. Deception Island was a definite highlight and I really enjoyed it.

After lunch we had our final Antarctica excursion – we went to Hannah Point to see the Elephant Seals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_seal). En route, we diverted a little because some fin whales came along the boat. They were a lot of fun to watch!

At Hannah Point, there is a strict management plan in place for tourists. This was the only site we visited where we absolutely had to stick with the guide in small groups. I had the geologist as my leader. Hannah Point had some really interesting rocks, and there is a “table” (big rock) where prior visitors had deposited the most interesting ones – since you can’t take anything with you from Antarctica. Probably the neatest thing was seeing rocks with fern and other plant impressions in them. It really made Pangea come to life for me! Here was this place, with no vegetation, and yet the rocks had plant imprints and fossils in them, reflecting plants that are now found only on other continents. That was amazing.

After, we started on our path to see the wildlife on the island. There were some amazing large petrels, and lots of chinstrap penguins. We were so luck to see 2 pairs of Macaroni penguins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_penguin) with bright flumes on their heads. The penguins were SO loud here. The highlight of course, was seeing the loud, yucky, large and very much molting elephant seals. They were huge! We really liked watching them wallow in the mud. After, we had some time to wander in a more contained are on a cliff with some penguins (seals below). It was really sad, because we knew it was our last moments in Antarctica. A group of us parked ourselves on top of the cliff and had to be coerced down by the staff because we refused to leave. It was an amazing day, to cap an amazing trip.

Sadly, we had to go back, and get ready to head back through the Drake. Before I left on my trip, I thought this would be the only time I would ever, in my whole life, visit Antarctica. Now I know I was wrong – I have to go back someday. I can’t wait.
_________________________________
I think this is my last post on Antarctica itself. I’ll come back and answer some outstanding questions (e.g. postcards) and write about the balance of my trip in BA (including Colonia and Tigre), and Iguazu. I am fairly certain I covered everything about the passage back in a prior post – I will write about disembarking in my next post as well. If there are other things I didn't cover, please let me know, and I will address them.

Reindeerflame, I found the British Antarctic Survey posts in Antarctica proper and on South Georgia were most helpful and reliable in mailing cards - they have the stamps, they have the cancellations and your card will get there. The other stations are a bit more variable, though most of my cards from Henryk Arctowski (Polish) station eventually made it, they were not really prepared...

Endor :-: , thanks again - it was almost ;) like being there again!

Now I'll wait for your Colonia del Sacramento, Bs As etc. and read them to recapture some of that as well, when I can't actually be there...

Wow – since I took this trip over a year ago, I figured I had better come back and finish the report and close out what I did in South America before I forget!

_________________________
On the last day, we got into the port in Ushuaia around 6 or 7AM, and the pilot came on board and navigated us in to the port. We had our breakfast on the boat and said our goodbyes, and we were sorted on to buses that took us to the airport based on our flight times.

We were essentially abandoned by Peregrine when we got on the buses for the airport, which was really annoying. Our luggage had gone on separate vans, and it took about 45min for them to arrive. The lines were a little confusing as well - the volume of traffic wasn’t enormous, but much more than I expected. I would have like there to have been more support from Peregrine to see us off. We definitely had questions and were confused.

In any event, most of us flew back to BA. Some stayed in Ushuaia and some flew directly on to Iguazu. Most passengers were going to spend some time in Iguazu, but because of the flight schedule, I elected to spend a couple of days in BA first. I had spent a lot of time trying to determine what flight I could safely take from USH – BA. I had little information from my TA on this. I elected to take a flight around 1030AM, and this worked fine. You could take a connection in BA to Iguazu which I think is around 2:30 but if you miss it, you are out of luck till the next day. I decided I didn’t want to risk it, but many did, and were fine. It was also recommended by a friend that I take some time in BA between Antarctica and Iguazu because the colors, climate and experience are so shockingly different.

So I went back to BA, and I made lots of plans with my new friends from Antarctica to hang out in BA, Iguazu and Colonia. That was great. Most people from Peregrine were stating at hotel called the Lafyette, which seemed to be fine. However, being a Marriott Plat, I stayed at the Marriott BA on Florida. I stayed there a couple of times – both before and after my trip to Iguazu. They upgraded me, and I found the location decent – I walked most places. The staff was very nice to me, and I found the concierge in the lobby very knowledgeable and helpful. One of my bags broke on the trip and they immediately got it fixed for me, got me all the tickets and info I needed, etc. Much better than some of the other concierge experiences I have had. I would recommend the Marriott.

I spent a few days in BA, then 3 days/2 nights in Iguazu, then 2 more nights/days in BA where I did a day trip to Tigre and a day trip to Colonia. I’ll cover these by location and bullet some of my activities and thoughts. By far, my favorite place was Iguazu, so I’ll put that first. I wouldn’t miss Iguazu.

Iguazu
I would recommend everyone go to Iguazu. What a great place! I stayed at the Sheraton Iguazu, and I firmly believe that is where everyone should stay. I also really believe you should see both the Argentina and Brazil sides.

The Sheraton is in the park, and I stayed 2 nights. There is an excellent Sheraton Iguazu thread on this site – I believe in the Starwood forum, and I followed the advice there to a tee. I will try to come back and link to it. I was fortunate to have a Falls view room, and I had some friends who went to Iguazu directly after Antarctica, a few days before I did and provided me with up to the minute scoop. The food situation is a little annoying, since you are stuck at the hotel, but it’s worth it. Again, read the thread to get the full scoop. It was such a pleasure though, and so relaxing.

There are 5 trails on the site, and I recommend almost all of them, except for one trail that is across the street from the hotel and leads to a little fall you can swim in. That was a waste of time, and a really long walk. You are much better served by spending your time at the main falls.

Don’t miss any of the other trails. In particular, the upper and lower circuits and Devil’s Throat are all amazing. If you leave the hotel when the park opens, you have the trails and falls all to yourself for quite awhile before the public makes their way in. So amazing!

There are some activities in the park as well. There are 3 or 4 boat activities and you can buy them in a package. I bought the most popular package which is the Ecoological boat tour and falls boat adventure. I really enjoyed the boat ride into the falls – so much fun! I did not care so much for the leisurely Ecological boat ride. There wasn’t a whole lot to see – I didn’t see toucans or monkeys, as I had been hoping.

Before I left the US, I had decided to get a Brazil visa, to ensure I could see the Brazil side. When I arrived, I arranged car to take me over there for the day through the Sheraton desk. The car was very smooth and helpful, and they allowed me to stop at the bird sanctuary after so I could finally see that pesky toucan. Cost me around $50.

I did not need the Brazil Visa but was glad I had it just in case. I understand that wheter you need it or not can change on an almost daily basis. Whatever you do, do not miss Brazil – the panoramic view is very different than Argentina, and well worth it.

Iguazu was the highlight of the South American portion and I highly recommend it. What a contrast from Antarctica as well!

Buenos Aires
As a New Yorker, I liked BA quite a bit as a city to wander around in, but I didn’t find there were a lot of must dos persay.


I arranged to take a city tour through the hotel on my first day. This was a good orientation to the city and it was super cheap. We went La Boca, past the soccer stadiums, San Telmo, Recolleta Cemerary, etc, etc. It was pouring rain, which was a bummer. I never made it back to La Boca (next time)
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes – I am a big fan of art museums, but I didn’t care for this one. I have just been tired, but nothing really stood out to me
Museo Evita – this is a fairly new museum about Evita. I found it very interesting – lots of artifacts, they had some very interesting ways to demonstrate how the people of Argentina felt about her. In particular, they used video in mirrors in very interesting way at the start of the museum to demonstrate how enormous her funeral was. The museum breaks her life into segments and is very pro-Evita. She is still very much a part of the nation – I saw grafetti with her name on it and I think it’s worth seeing to understand what she is to the nation – good or bad.
Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo – this was a nice little museum that I enjoyed. I like museums that were former homes, like this one
Teatro Colon – I took the tour here, and I also saw a performance of La Boheme. I would recommend both the tour and a performance. Buying theatre tickets was a pain – I had to get in line for quite awhile because I didn’t want to book really expensive seats. I wound up in the cheap seats – maybe $35? It was fine, but I would try to get an aisle. Like most opera houses, it was very cramped. I enjoyed the tour, which I had also made sure to plan for well in advance (I took the English tour). They take you into many of the backstage areas, and I enjoyed seeing the rehearsal rooms, and the set shop. We also got to peek in the wardrobe room, and sit in the presidential box in the house. I would definitely recommend the tour.
Casa Rosada – Here is something I found disappointing. There was only one tour in English a week, at 4PM on Fridays, and you had to be there around 1 or 2 to secure your spot. It was a big time drain having to show up and the come back after putting your name on the list (it is free). I found the building to not be in very good condition, and the tour itself was of about 3 rooms and took all of 30 minutes. I wouldn’t plan your trip around this at all.
The Presidential Museum at the Casa Rosada, which is also free, is actually more interesting, I think.
Botanical Gardens – very pretty. LOTS of cats! Just everywhere.
Recoleta Cemetery – I came back after my city tour to visit again. What an interesting, amazing place. I wish I had had a guidebook, or had paid one of the many people outside the cemetery to take me on a tour. I would definitely allow plenty of time to explore here. It’s unlike anything I have ever seen, and there are many more things to see here beyond Evita.
Café Tortoni – I went with some friends from Peregine to see the Tango show. It’s in the 1,000 things to see before you die book and we had a good time. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but the café is really neat. The history is very neat – the tango show was good – not too long and interesting. We had dessert which was also nice. I would recommend it as a pleasant evening.
Metropolitan Cathedral. This was interesting if you are passing by. San Martin’s tomb is here as well as an eternal flame.
Torre Monumental (British Clock Museum) – I found the history of this monuement, which was near my hotel, very interesting. It was a gift from Britain but then due to the Falkland islands War was renamed and also physically attacked as a symbol of the UK. It was not open while I was there, so I didn’t get to go up to the top
Islas Malvinas-Falkland Islands War Memorial – again, near by hotel. This is similar in many ways to the Vietnam memorial in the US, and I found it interesting because of the Antarctica trip
Plaza de Mayo – I had wanted to see the madres de los desaparecidos march on Thursday at 3, but it didn’t work out with my schedule. However, I did stumble upon a demonstration in the area one day. I took off pretty quickly though, as my Frommer’s advised! It’s a very interesting area to wander around.
Obelisco – I walked by this site about 700 times a day and it’s hard to miss. Definitely a symbol I think of when I think of BA
Calle Florida – this is a big shopping street that my hotel was on one end of. I often walked up and down the street and got some good shopping in

Tigre
I took a day trip to Tigre that I booked through the hotel in BA. We took a boat ride around Tigre and also took a van and a train to explore the area. I think Tigre is pretty neat – it’s like a suburb of BA where all the residents live on the water. It was different, relaxing, and interesting. I loved seeing all the mailboxes right on the water and the supermarket boat! I would recommend a day here over a day in Colonia.

Colonia
OK, I am going to just come and say this, although I think it is an unpopular opinion: Colonia is boring. You take a ferry over at around 10 AM, arriving at 11 or 1130, and you leave at around 4. I remember being concerned I would not have enough time for everything!

Whatever. There was nothing to do. It is lovely, but I was by myself, and I was very bored.

There are 7 museums in the city, and you pay about $1.50 to get a pass to all 7. None of them were really worth it.

If you go, I would suggest taking the time to eat a nice, leisurely lunch. I did see a walking tour going on, which may have been interesting. I also went to the top of the highest building and that was a lovely view.

I went on a beautiful, sunny warm day, but I just found it disappointing (although I did get another passport stamp ;)

______________________________
My entire trip was outstanding, and I would definitely recommend the itinerary if you have 3 weeks. I’ll be back for some closing thoughts and to finally hit those outstanding questions!

This has gotta be the best trip report ever! Awesome stuff, Endor! ^ ^

Do you mind sharing some snaps of the region you visited? They'd form the perfect complement to the extremely detailed description of the your trip. After all, pictures speak louder than words, you know...;) You could PM the link if publicly posting the web link is against your rules. :)

Once again, thanks for the insanely cool report!

Cheers!

Endor, thank you very much for your superlative trip report!

I've just put down a deposit for ms. birdstrike and myself for an '08 departure to Antarctica. I know we will review your report several times before our departure date.

Great work!

Regards,

birdstrike

Thank you so much for the trip report. I enjoyed reading and re-reading everything.

What a great report! Unfortunately now I for sure have to visit Antarctica :eek: It's going to be very difficult to justify that much money for a relatively short trip, but I think it must be done.

Thanks for all the kind words! I DO have a version of this with photos. If you drop me a PM, I would be happy to share.

I am looking into taking the Arctic trip next summer - I will keep you all posted!

Just coming back to check in. I am now planning a trip to the Arctic, and have learned that Peregrine no longer operates the Iofee - Quark does. In fact Quark and Peregrine were recently purchased by the same company, and now the Peregrine brand will be moving away from the Polar excursions.

I am hoping to take a trip to the Arctic in summer of 2008. I can't figure out what forum we post on here for that - but if anyone has been, let me know! :D

I am hoping to take a trip to the Arctic in summer of 2008. I can't figure out what forum we post on here for that - but if anyone has been, let me know! :D

Which forum is a good question. Perhaps we should petition TalkBoard to make this simply the "Polar Forum".

FWIW, I'm booked on the Lindblad expedition "Beyond The North Cape: Norway's Fjords & Arctic Svalbard (http://www.expeditions.com/Itineraries45.asp?Expedition=154&Destination=285)" for Summer '08. They go into the pack ice, but not to the pole.

Which forum is a good question. Perhaps we should petition TalkBoard to make this simply the "Polar Forum".


/me already suggested that two years ago or so, to no avail. Maybe you have more luck.

Absolute best trip report! Thank you so much Endor. How ironic that my son and I are always a double looking for a third. E-mail me at eg800 at msn dot com is you're ever looking for a twosome tag-a-long again.

Liz

What a great trip report! My goal is to get to Antarctica before I start grad school (3-4 years). Since I'm starting a job with lots of travel, I intend on saving points to help defray some of the cost of airfare and lodging. Thank you once again for such a great resource! I will be sure to come back when I'm shopping for gear.

Thanks for the awesome trip report Endor. ^

Glad to see there were a lot of activities!

Originally Posted by birdstrike
Which forum is a good question. Perhaps we should petition TalkBoard to make this simply the "Polar Forum".

/me already suggested that two years ago or so, to no avail. Maybe you have more luck.

Well that's too bad :( Should I just go ahead and start documenting it here? It's been so much planning already! Scandinavia just seems like the wrong forum. Birdstrike - I booked my trip too - I am going with Quark in/out of Longyearbyen - I considered your national geo trip too. Looks amazing, but $$$!

Well that's too bad :( Should I just go ahead and start documenting it here? It's been so much planning already! Scandinavia just seems like the wrong forum. Birdstrike - I booked my trip too - I am going with Quark in/out of Longyearbyen - I considered your national geo trip too. Looks amazing, but $$$!

Works for me. Better to ask forgiveness rather than permission and all that. :)

Getting ready to leave for the Arctic
This is officially funny (and excellent) - I have been coming back to my own trip report for help! I am leaving on my trip to the Arctic Circle in a month, and I am most excited.

As I expected when I last posted, I did book with Quark. I'm pretty excited about it, but sweating the costs a little more this time because of the horrible exchange rate in Norway. Last time, I spend time after touring Argentina, which was cost effective. This time (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)....not so much.

Also, little things - for example, I can't remember how much I tipped on the Antarctic trip (I know I just charged the recommended amount to my credit card - have to see if I can at least find the statement).

So, needless to say, I'll be back with another trip report. I think I would like to do a point/counterpoint to Antarctica, and Quark vs. Peregrine. Anything else I should pay special attention too?

As I expected when I last posted, I did book with Quark. I'm pretty excited about it, but sweating the costs a little more this time because of the horrible exchange rate in Norway. Last time, I spend time after touring Argentina, which was cost effective. This time (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)....not so much.

Just flew in from Oslo and the Lindblad trip today.. It is not just the exchange rate! :)

Expect a Big Mac (for example) to be $20 USD.

Of course there is always Lutefisk. Good, sturdy expedition fare. ;)

Edit to say the pack ice is melting at another record clip. You should have quite a trip! ^

DO bring at least some warm weather clothes. :eek:

I'll try to complete my trip report by next weekend.

birdstrike - I am anxiously awaiting your trip report. Make sure you let me know what forum you post it in!

ETA - I found you, and I'm thrilled to see something about the equator too. I just booked a trip to the Galapagos in March. Can't wait to catch up on your adventures.

Wonderful stuff in this thread. Really looking forward to my own trip.

Well, I am back from the Arctic! I will have lots more to post, but a couple of quick thoughts:


Quark has done a seamless job of taking over from Peregrine - excellent, excellent service
We were able to do a circumnaviation of Svalbard - first of the season
The Vaviliov is a slightly better a ship than the Ioffe due to the observation bar
I totally broke my camera on the trip and should have brought my old one as a backup. What a bummer that was!
The wildlife is way more "where's waldo" in the Arctic than the Antarctic.
Polar bears can keep you from landing for days!
To answer the question I posed in my last post, Quark recommended tipping $9-10 a day, so I tipped $100 for the 10 day trip
They used US dollars on the ship, so things were less expensive than I had feared on the boat. Off the boat was a different story.

Bumping this up as I am going back to Antarctica next week! This time with One Ocean Expeditions, but again on the Ioffe. This time I will get to visit the Falkland Islands and South Georgia as well as Antarctica. I am also doing an add on of Easter Island after. I couldn't be more excited!

This time I have learned from my Arctic experience (see above) and am bringing multiple cameras, just in case ;)

South Georgia is amazing. Be sure to toss a toast on my behalf when you visit the resting place of "The Boss", one of the most amazing leaders the world has seen. Be prepared for more dampness and rain that on the Continent itself.

Endor, rreat report, worth acknowleging. Thanks for sharing this with the community.

I have received a couple PMs asking me about my trip this year with One Ocean, so I thought I would write a little about it. This was my 2nd trip to Antarctica, but my first trip to South Georgia and the Falklands. I previously traveled to Antarctica with Peregrine in 2006.

On this trip I was on the Akademik Ioffe again, the same ship I was on in 2006. I booked a double and had a roommate, a very nice woman from Canada. I am in my mid 30s, a single female, and was one of the youngest people on the ship.

The biggest difference between my 2006 and 2012 trips were (1) we had a sick passenger on the 2012 boat which required us to RETURN to Ush on the 2nd day. This impacted the itinerary which was very upsetting to many passengers. (2) The weather was poor on this trip, which prevented us from making some landings. I think you have to, have to understand that the itinerary is not written in stone, but a directional guide. The captain and expedition leader made the best of the conditions possible, and I thought we had a great experience. However, there were many passengers on my boat that were very upset we didn't follow the itinerary to the letter, and specifically, many British passengers that were upset we missed Stanley, as that was important to them due to family members who had fought in the war. We did stop elsewhere in the Falklands however.

Most everything I have written in my prior report from 2006 holds true - the Russian crew was the same, the crew had a lot of Aussies/Canadians, the food was the same (decent), the bar had been renovated slightly, the "entertainment" such as lectures and films was about the same - although less controversial - they stayed away from political topics this time. We did not have the opportunity to go camping on this itinerary, but they did still offer kayaking.

There were only a couple of sites that were repeated for me on the 2 trips - specifically, Deception Island and Hannah Point. Deception Island was neat as it was snowing this time and when I had been there previously it was 40 degrees F!

In the Falklands we actually got to visit a couple of people's homes and they made these amazing spreads of cakes and tea for us. It was lovely. I would have liked to have seen Stanley, but it wasn't meant to be on this trip.

South Georgia was obviously the key difference for me from 2006, and it was amazing to see all the wildlife - it is an extraordinary place I feel lucky to have visited.

That being said, I really think my trip in 2006 was the special, magical trip for me. Whether that was because of the friends I made, the fact it was my first time there, or that the weather was so good, I couldn't say. I would recommend that if you only have the time and the money for the shorter trip, to do it! If you can afford South Georgia too, you won't regret it - I really don't think you can go wrong in planning a trip to this part of the world.

Are there any specific questions I can answer?