Carefully, I stepped from the cruise liner’s gangway, waiting for the swelling waves to break before I did my stunt. Taking a quick leap, I finally settled in a little rubber boat. Among the things our small tourist group bounced by in a matter of minutes were a napping seal and chunks of large striking blue ice. I head to the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula after putting my legs over the zodiac once my boat stopped along a rocky beach.

Walking along the beach laden with blocks of ice, a marvelous sight accompanied by a pungent guano smell caught my senses. In front and around me, hundreds of adelie penguins waddled. Beyond a craggy slope their numbers slope, around how far I can see with my naked eyes. And this would be the first landing we have on this remotest of continents, and I can indeed say that the two day cruise through rough seas, from Ushuaia, Argentina, is paying off indeed. Increasingly, travelers worldwide are realizing this vast crystalline wilderness at the bottom of the world is well worth the trouble to visit. Further information on Antarctica cruise review can be found there.

Last year, 26,000 came to visit while it is a fact that the number of tourists keep growing steadily. Patterns of swirling blue are broken by lectures on global sneaky penguins. When December days in the austral summer arrives, the weather becomes extremely relaxing and nice even as this is known to be the coldest and harshest continent of all. Temperatures often get above freezing even into the 40s on the peninsula. November to March is the time when these trips normally run.

This 11 day adventure is mostly spent in rough waters, its 100 meter ship body strengthened to traverse icy waters and loaded most of the time with a hundred passengers or more. Comfort, not fanciness is the ship’s best feature. It has a great auditorium, library and of course a bar and lounge. Tiny yachts are enough to go on an Antarctic trip. Friday is when we bid the port farewell. The next day, we’re already able to watch the powerful glides and graceful arcs of wandering albatrosses and other birds of the southern seas.

In their aim to pass time while cruising the sea, tour guides inject lectures by different experts from a marine biologist, geologist, bird expert, historian and an artist that teaches them how to draw and paint penguins and icebergs. It came as a shock that global warming lectures did not surface during the tour but as always, the topic is discussed. You can get resources on exciting Antarctica cruises by visiting this site.

Continental landings and nearby island action comprised most of the highlights of the trip. Watching an avalanche from a distance or hearing the stentorian cracking boom of a calving iceberg are unforgettable experiences. But from the ship’s decks, much can still be seen. Travelers are able to maximize their trip with the shorter hours for darkness.

It would be a cinch to be spending most of your time on deck, watching a huge array of icebergs crafted by the wind as they drift by, some brilliant white, others blue, but make sure that you are dressed to keep warm against drafts.High mountains with big hanging glaciers and pristine landscapes swept us off our feet.Occasionally, whales would also rise up.Marvelous hues of red and orange paint the sky during long lasting sunsets.

As we got on board the ship again, alarming news greeted us for an old passenger needed evacuation as he got extremely ill. This mainly entails going back to the Islands of South Shetland for our airstrip which will only come after a long overnight detour. Instances like these, evacuations that cost so much money give travelers a reason to ponder on getting that medical evacuation insurance before anything else.

The passenger, after being evacuated to Chile, we found ourselves going to Ardley Island where newly Gentoo penguins are nourished by their penguin mothers. Feeding a young penguin entails the parent penguin regurgitating a snack of krill and this is done by the adult penguin delicately taking in the head of the chick into its mouth, and after, a strand of slime from beak to beak shows.

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