Upon arrival in the port city of Ushuaia, I went to go check out Tierra del Fuego National Park on a trekking and paddling excursion! I visited Ushuaia a few years ago, but did not get a chance to visit this particular national park, and I was excited to check it out. In the morning, I met up with the small group of other travelers and our local …

When choosing an Antarctic vessel, there are many different factors to consider including ship size and the number of passengers, level of on board amenity and overall cost. I chose to travel on the 88 passenger MV Ushuaia. This is one of the smallest and most basic ships plying the Antarctic waters and all passengers are able to go ashore at a …

I was expecting to see lots of aquatic wildlife on my Antarctic cruise (and I did see plenty of swimming whales, penguins and seals!) but I was not expecting a human cold water swim team! The MV Ushuaia helped a group of 14 cold water experience a 1 km icy swim. (Two swimmers even broke world records for the first swimmers below the polar circle!) …

One of my favorite days on my trip was towards the end of the cruise. We started the morning in Paradise Bay and Skontorp Cove near the Chilean Research base at Brown Station. While some people went on land, the rest of us went on a zodiac cruise to get up close to the wildlife and icebergs. The glassy bay was beautiful for taking photos- …

This particular trip was extra special because we successfully crossed the Antarctic Polar Circle, an imaginary line at 66°33′48 degrees South! Attempts to cross the Polar Circle usually happen once per season on Antarctic ships. The polar circle itineraries tend to occur during late February or March when the larger sheets of ice have …

The Drake Passage is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn and Antarctica. With so much water funneled through such a small space, the seas are some of the roughest in the world. In fact, 125–200 million cubic yards per second pass through the passage. I was pretty anxious about spending four days on the Drake and tried to …

Although wildlife can never be guaranteed in any location, in a place like Antarctica no wildlife sightings would certainly be unusual! On my Antarctic journey, I saw many species of penguins, whales, birds and seals. In fact, we were able to check off most of the creatures on the wildlife list provided by our expedition leaders. While I was …

I consider myself to be a pretty light packer, but planning for Antarctica was a bit daunting. Luckily, living in Montana helped prepare me for the trip as I already owned lots of cold-weather clothing. My goal for the more than two-week-long trip was to bring only a carry on suitcase and a small backpack and I successfully achieved this goal! …

In addition to penguins, icebergs are a quality that gives Antarctica its Antarctica-ness! Antarctica without icebergs certainly would not be Antarctica. In addition to their massive size, I was also amazed at all the different variations of blues and whites in each iceberg. Did you know that to be classified as an iceberg, the ice height must be …