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Antarctica; words alone do no justice….

Feb 22, 2010

…but as we head due north on our last day aboard our expedition vessel, some thoughts as shared with a friend:

“…being in Antarctica has been life changing. Words and photos alone cannot convey the magnitude and true realization of this continent. This was so very cool in every sense. We had unusually great weather and even as I write this we are sailing in the dreaded Drake Passage which is where the Atlantic and Pacific meet causing notoriously rough waters–some of the roughest in the world. But, today miraculously, we are almost perfectly calm. The whole group is wearing patches and popping Dramamine, but happily we are looking out at calm waters for the moment. Day after tomorrow we’re back in Ushuaia and then one more night in Buenos Aires (and a dinner with Tango Show) before some head off to Easter Island and some head on home back to their “real life”.

The nice weather we’ve had has meant that half of the layers I brought I never needed. I never even wore my winter gloves–just a pair of lightweight ones…and usually just two layers of clothes on land. The cruise line gave us all a very useful outer jacket and AJ gave everyone a fleece as a gift, so that and a t-shirt underneath was more than enough.

We’ve seen whales and seals and so many adorable penguins. Baby chics hatched only about 8 weeks ago so we were privy to the antics of a lot of young penguins and their parents. Often times, the mommies will be running away (and falling on bellies in the process) as the babies give chase in want of being fed. We saw thousands of penguins and these chases were everywhere. It was very entertaining..especially since the penguins weren’t influenced by our presence and seemed to put on a show right at our feet.

One other highlight occurred yesterday when we took a short cruise on our smaller ‘polarcircle’ boats through a glacier canal. We were up close to a leopard seal on an iceberg (ugly animal!) and some majestic mountains and glaciers like nothing I’ve ever seen. We were even lucky to see an avalanche occur way up one of these remote mountains while we were at a safe distance on our boat below. I was absolutely mesmerized.

Soon this experience will be just a fond memory, but the actuality of being a part of this frozen, barren, remote but wildly interesting continent will live in our lives forever. I wonder how cold I’ll really feel when I come home to traffic, deadlines, rules and pollution…for a life without any of that seems to exert a sense of calling.

Antarctica; words alone do no justice….

Feb 22, 2010

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