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Antarctica : Cold. It is cold down there. In fact Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth with recorded temperatures of -130*F. The continent gets little precipitation making it a frozen desert. Oddly, sunburn is a real health issue with almost all ultraviolet light reflected off of the snow surface.

What struck me about Antarctica was the 6000' mountains which come right to the water's edge. Our voyage took us by Elephant Island which is the breeding ground of Elephant seals. It was also the refuge for the Shackleton Expedition in 1914 when their ship, Endeavor, became trapped in the frozen Weddell Sea. We sailed to the Antarctic Peninsula and into Antarctic Sound. This passage leads to the Weddell Sea which is the source of the icebergs. Part of the way through the Sound the captain decided that there were too many icebergs so he turned the Star Princess around and sailed to King George Island. We then sailed into the Gerlache Strait to Anvers Island. There are many international research stations on the Peninsula and we were visited by some Polish scientist who came aboard to speak about their research. Sailing further south we went around Wiencke Island and through the Neumaier Channel. We then sailed back through the Gerlache Strait to Deception Island and then north out of Antarctican waters.

We were bless with some beautiful weather and awesome sites. We saw penguins, whales, seals and sea birds. All survive and thrive in the coldest place on earth. Take a look at the photos and feel free to make comments.

Star Princess (Antarctic Cruise 2008) : Onboard photos of the cruise, the vessel and people

Star Princess (Antarctic Cruise 2008)

Montevideo, Uruguay : After sailing north from Punta Arenas, Chile through some rough seas we docked at Montevideo, Uruguay. It was raining but we got a tour of the city anyway. We visited several historical sites and stopped at the Santa Rosa winery where we had lunch and treated to tango dancers.

Montevideo, Uruguay

Falkland Islands - Gypsy Cove Penguin Colony

Magellanic Penguins of Magdelana Island, Chile : An optional tour in Punta Arenas, Chile, was a trip on a privately chartered ferry to Magdalena Island, home to over 300,000 Magellanic penguins.

Magellanic Penguins of Magdelana Island, Chile

Cape Horn, Ushuaia & Punta Arenas : Ushuaia and Punta Arenas were ports of call following our three day journey through Antarctic waters. We sailed around Cape Horn and entered the Beagle Canal to Ushuaia, Argentina. We went to Tierra del Fuego National Park and went to the bottom of the earth.

From Ushuaia we sailed to Punta Arenas, Chile. In Punta Arenas we took a side tour to Magdalena Island, home to 300,000 penguins. There is a whole gallery for that trip.

Cape Horn, Ushuaia & Punta Arenas

Buenos Aires Highlights : Buenos Aires is called the "Paris of South America" because of its European influence. The number one attraction is the Recoleta Cemetary, final resting place for famous Argentinians, the most famous is Eva Peron.

Buenos Aires Highlights

South American Birds : Photographs of various birds photographed in Argentina; Falkland Islands; Atlantic Ocean; Antarctica; Cape Horn; Ushuaia, Ar; and Punta Arenas, Chile.

South American Birds

The Gauchos of Estancia La Fortuna, Argentina : A Princess sponsored excursion trip from Buenos Aires took us into the "pampas plains" and Estancia La Fortuna. We traveled by bus to the ranch and greeted by mounted gauchos with enthusiam. Exiting the bus we had cold drinks, water or wine if you prefer and empanadas, a meat pastry. We had the option of a buggy ride, horseback ride or just walk the grounds. Lunch was being prepared with generous amounts of meats being grilled by gauchos. The highlight of the trip were the friendly gauchos who were so warm and made everyone feel at home. We enjoyed a full course meal for lunch and the owner of the ranch spoke to us about the history and folklore of the gaucho. Folk dancers performed and the music was very Argentinean. The day was highlighted by the gauchos racing to spear a silver ring on a stick. The winning gaucho could give it to a woman in the crowd with a kiss.

The Gauchos of Estancia La Fortuna, Argentina

Article & Photo Highlights of Antarctica & South America Cruise : One of the joys of retirement is having the time to visit parts of the world you always wanted to see. A couple of years ago my wife and I traveled with Princess Cruise Lines to Alaska via the Inside Passage and combined it with a land tour from Valdez to Fairbanks. That trip was so memorable that we decide to take the Princess Cruise Lines trip to South America and the Antarctica.
We looked at different options and found a Princess Antarctica trip that included several ports in South America. Being a nature photographer I had always wanted to see the frozen continent and its wildlife, so we “early booked” our cruise and began planning our big adventure.
Princess offers two cruises a year to Antarctica, one in January and one in February departing from and returning to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ports of call include: Falkland Islands, the Antarctic waters, Cape Horn, Ushuaia, Argentina; Punta Arenas, Chile; Montevideo, Uruguay and return to Buenos Aires.
Our trip began with a ten-hour flight to Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires. We spent three days in this great city known as the “Paris of South America”. One of the main attractions is the Recoleta cemetery home of the very elaborate aboveground tombs of famous Argentineans. Each tomb is different and they form part of the history of Argentina and its people. The most famous person buried there is Eva Peron. Her grave attracts crowds of people. As the song goes “don’t cry for me Argentina” but I think they are still in mourning for her.
Argentina is famous for beef and lots of it. The food was great and reminded us of Texas menus. Time soon passed and we boarded the Star Princess on February 19th, leaving Argentina temporarily behind.
The Star Princess is an amazing 950-foot floating city for 2600 passengers. It is designed to provide the cruising customer with great food, top-notch entertainment and activities for everyone from the very active to the easily bored. Passengers have a choice about where and when to dine. We opted for late dining in the Amalfi Room where we were assigned a specific table for the entire cruise. There we met our tablemates, three other couples and we all became great dining friends over the next sixteen days. The food and service were superb.
I stayed busy looking for whales and seabirds from the decks while my wife went to the gym and later enjoyed playing the daily trivia games. The ship also has a theater for full length movies and of course satellite TV in your room. I think I finally figured out what “off side’s “ means in soccer. Whatever you like doing, you will find it on the Star Princess.
Our first port of call was Stanley, Falkland Islands. Coming ashore and seeing the brightly painted houses, Land Rovers and hearing the Queen’s English, I thought I was in Wales or some other south English countryside. You are, however, warned about the dangers of “landmines” left over from the British-Argentine conflict in 1982. So there was no off trail trekking for me!
We took a bus shuttle to Gypsy Cove to photograph the Magellanic penguins. The penguins seemed as curious about us as we were about them. They waddled up to the trail and peered at the larger human penguin with no fear of man. I could tell half of the colony was out at sea getting some fish because the other half was standing on the beach with their eyes watching the ocean and waiting for their mate to return with lunch. The penguin males never complain about the wives going fishing too much.
We departed the Falklands under a brilliant sunset and sailed south into Antarctic waters, below the 60th parallel. Antarctica is governed by treaty signed in 1959 by 12 countries. The treaty prohibits military operations and mineral mining. It encourages scientific research and vigorously protects the continent’s environment. The Star Princess in fact closed its laundry facilities, prohibited smoking on deck, and restricted outdoor activities while we were there.
The climate turned very cold. In fact it is the coldest place on earth, a vast frozen desert with little or no precipitation except for a lot of snow. Antarctic icebergs come from the Weddell Sea, which freezes in the winter. The temperature varies from -112 degrees to -130 degrees in winter and between 41 degrees and 59 degrees in the summer. During our February cruise it was in the low thirties and very windy outside on the deck.
The ship entered the South Shetland Islands and our first sight of Antarctica was Elephant Island. The weather had been cloudy, foggy with rough seas, however by 9:00 AM the clouds parted, the seas settled down and the fog lifted revealing the bluest sky I have ever seen and the cleanest air I’ve ever breathed.
I began to see whales breach the surface and blow. Penguins in schools swam along side of the ship diving under after small fish. Antarctic skuas and Cape petrels continually buzzed the ship using the wind off the deck to soar, turn and glide. It was a naturalist’s heaven.
The Star Princess then set a course for Antarctic Sound, which is the funnel north for icebergs from the Weddell Sea. The captain decided that it was too hazardous to go any further and turned the ship around entering the Gerlache Strait. We then sailed deeper into the Antarctic waters into Admiralty Bay.
Later that afternoon the captain stopped the ship and scientists from the Polish Artowski Research Station came out in a Zodiak and boarded the Star Princess. One of them explained, in English, their research. The station is fully manned in the summer but at the approach of winter they operate with a skeleton crew of eight hard souls. Something that I remember from his lecture was the reality of 200 mph winds in winter. He said in those winds penguins really can fly after - fly sideways that is.
The following day we sailed along the Gerlache Strait passing many icebergs, spotting more humpback whales, penguins and seabirds. The ship finally reached its most southern point at the Neumayer Channel. We were almost 4000 miles south of the Equator.
At that point the ship turned north arriving alongside Deception Island. Deception Island is the top of a volcano, which erupted in 1969 destroying an Argentine research facility. The island’s circular shape is clearly visible from three miles away. Whalers used it as a safe harbor from Antarctic storms.
We continued north crossing the Drake Passage to Cape Horn and into “Tierra del Fuego,” the tip of South America entering into the enclosed waters of the Argentinean/Chilean fjords. We saw numerous glaciers, which flow from the fjords mountains down to the water.
We boarded the Argentinean pilots there and the Captain set a westerly course along the Beagle Channel for Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. It’s pronounced “oosh-y-ya”. There we took a bus tour to the bottom of the world and the end of the Trans-American Highway. There was a sign posted indicating Alaska was 17,848 kilometers (11,090 miles) to the north.
From Ushuaia we continued on, sailing though the Magellan Strait and arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile. One of the highlights of this entire Antarctic voyage was a shore excursion from Punta Arenas to Magdalena Island. A private ferry carried about a hundred of us for two hours to this small island, home to over 300,000 Magellanic penguins.
As we approached the island we could see them forming a welcoming committee showing off their diving skills. As you looked at this uninhabited island from about 400 yards that was all you could see, penguins, thousands of them all over the island.
The ferry lowered its ramp and we all got off. The Chilean government had roped off walkways for the tourists but the penguins evidently do not speak or read Spanish because they ignored the “Stay Behind Ropes” signs. They were really quite curious to get a look at us. I think one penguin would have taken our picture if he had found his camera.
We said goodbye to the penguins and sailed the Atlantic north for two days to Montevideo, Uruguay, the smallest country in South America. We toured the city and a winery and were treated to lunch and tango dancers. The huge Rio de Plata River separates Argentina from Uruguay and after an overnight voyage we arrived back to our point of origin, Buenos Aires.
But this fabulous trip was not quote over. We sent our luggage to the airport to wait for the late-night flight back to Houston while we went on one more shore excursion for a look at the gaucho lifestyle and horsemanship, folklore dancing and big barbeque.
The tour bus took us north and west from Buenos Aires to “Estancia La Fortuna”. As we entered the ranch and before the bus even stopped, mounted gauchos rode up shouting greetings and waving. We were then welcomed with cold drinks and empanadas, a wonderful meat pastry.
My wife went on a horse drawn carriage ride and later a horseback ride with a gaucho. The gauchos are very proud of their horses, an Argentine breed called a “Creole”, which was bred for working the cattle of the pampas.
While she was doing that I decided to check out the food and found the gaucho cooks roasting beef ribs, chicken and sausages over a large fire. One of the gauchos speared a sausage and offered me an appetizer. These guys could have been on any Texas ranch and felt at home. We sat down at tables for lunch under a large pavilion and the gauchos and chinas (ladies) served bread, vegetables, grilled meats and Argentine wines. Life is good.
After lunch the gauchos showed off their horsemanship by racing to a silver ring and snatching it with a stick. An old gaucho speared one of the rings and then presented it to my wife with a kiss. Hey, I have a hard time even staying on a horse.
The day ended and we reluctantly headed back to the Buenos Aires airport. We eventually found our stored luggage, made it through immigration and security checks and boarded the flight to Houston bidding farewell to South America.
Princess Cruises did an outstanding job with this cruise from onboard luxuries to interesting and fun shore excursions. One of the things we learned was that only 250,000 people have ever seen Antarctica up close.

Article & Photo Highlights of Antarctica & South America Cruise

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