Thursday, January 2, 2025

Antarctica Trip

In Nov/Dec of 2024 we traveled to what is considered one of the most remote location on earth… Antarctica. We left Ft. Lauderdale heading down the eastern coast of South America. We made one stop in the Caribbean at St Kitts before continuing to Fortaleza Brazil which is on the eastern tip of South America. From there we went to Rio De Janeiro Brazil to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue. From Rio we headed to Montevideo Uruguay before finally stopping for a couple days in Buenos Aires Argentina.

After Buenos Aires the real adventure started as we continued down to the southern tip of South America with stops in Punta Arenas, Chile and Ushuaia Argentina. We were lucky to have a relative calm passage across the dreaded Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica. The Drake is the most treacherous ocean passage in the world due to the rough seas often encountered. The waves have been known to reach 50 feet, but we were lucky to only have 12–15-foot waves. The passage was rough by cruise ship standards but not too bad.

Once in Antarctica we spent four days touring the frozen windswept continent. We were greeted with lots of wildlife, most notably the penguins. From Antarctica we continued to the British Falkland Islands for more penguin encounters. After the Falklands it was back to Montevideo and finally Buenos Aires for the long flight home.