Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica, Antarctica Last night was literally the worst night of my life. At times I thought I was going to die, and other times, I thought I was going to kill someone else. It turned out that the snow only continued to get harder through the night, and we even broke the record for the most snow that has ever fallen on a camping night for this company. Lucky us. The snow wouldn’t have been an issue if…
Gerlache Strait, Antarctica, Antarctica Today was a huge day for us! We had our first excursion this morning where we went out on the zodiac boats and got to walk on land. This was really exciting to finally step foot on my last continent. We got the zodiac over to shore and were created by Boris with a sign taped to his chest that said “Welcome to Antarctica”. Right next to him was a big colony of Gentoo penguins just…
Gerlache Strait, Antarctica, Antarctica We got to see Antarctica today, and it did NOT disappoint!! We woke up and we were in the Gerlache Strait, and we got our first view of land. We saw some icebergs, orcas, penguins (Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adelie), crabeater seals, and a leopard seal! It was incredible!! It was like a wildlife overload! Everywhere we turned there was more wildlife popping up to say hi. There was also talk of Minke whales showing themselves, but…
Drake Passage, Antarctica, Antarctica Today was our second day at sea, and it was another rough one. Last night while I was sleeping, everything that was on the desk next to my bed slid off and hit me in the face. The last thing to hit me was my tripod that got me right in the eye. That was when I decided to finally get up and take everything off the desk and put it on the floor. I just…
Drake Passage, Antarctica, Antarctica Today was a pretty rough day at sea for us. I had a really weird night’s sleep on the ship for our first night too. We came into the Drake Passage during the night, so the seas got rougher toward the morning. I never felt sick at all, but I did move around a lot while I was sleeping due to the rolling of the ship. I also had to pee about five times during the…
Drake Passage, Antarctica, Antarctica We got up and packed up our few things and headed out of the hotel by about 11am. We were supposed to leave our big bags at the hotel for the tour company to pick up and they would bring them straight to the ship. We didn’t have a lot of instructions though, so we just wrote Exodus/One Ocean on some tape and left it on the bags. Since we weren’t confident about this process, we…
Ushuaia, Argentina, South America I got up this morning and had breakfast at the hostel, packed up my stuff and headed out around 11am. I had to get a taxi to the bus terminal, and then a local bus from Puerto Madryn station over to the Trelew Airport. It was a 45 minute ride, and got me there exactly two hours before my flight. Perfect timing. I was keeping an eye on Ryan’s flights today too and everything seemed to…
Puerto Madryn, Argentina, South America I had talked to Gaston from the hostel yesterday about my different options for today, but after I told him that I had been to the Galapagos Islands and I’m on my way to Antarctica, he recommended that I just chill by the beach today. The main things to do in Puerto Madryn are to see whales, penguins, sea lions and dolphins. I’ve already seen sea lions, and I’m going to see whales and penguins…
Puerto Madryn, Argentina, South America I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 8am today, just about an hour delayed. I was recommended to get a taxi to Hi Patagonia Hostel, but I really felt like taking a walk, so I took the 30 minute walk down to the hostel. It felt like an abandoned town, and then I realized that it’s Sunday, so all Chilean and Argentinian towns shut down on a Sunday. There was nothing open, and no one in…
Bariloche, Argentina, South America I spent the morning walking around Bariloche and checking out what the town had to offer. It’s really touristy, a lot of shops, bars and cafes, but it was really nice. I got a bus over to the base of Cerro Otto, and got the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful view from the top, and you could see all the mountains and lakes surrounding Bariloche. I spent about an…