I've been wanting to visit Antarctica forever! Quark Expeditions has a 50% off sale every year to fill up some of their undersold expeditions, and this year the stars finally aligned for me. I cleared my entire winter schedule and booked the first half-price expedition that made sense for me.

Part 1

After boarding the Ocean Endeavour late-afternoon in Ushuaia, Argentina, we spent the next couple of days crossing the Drake Passage. Birds followed the ship for most of the day - perhaps in hopes we were a fishing boat that were throwing out scraps.






After two days onboard, we finally caught sight of land. The amount of snow covering the land was immediately apparent, although maybe not as visible in this panorama photo.




As we approached our first landing, they informed us that current regulations state that only 100 people are allowed on land at a given time. Our ship was sitting at around 180 people, so half of the group would go onshore while the other half would cruise around on Zodiacs for a while, and then we would switch. I started in the first Zodiac group. We were immediately greeted by some beautifully-sculpted ice.



There were several icebergs in the area that we were able to check out.






Our first landing featured numerous Chinstrap pengiuns and Weddell seals.