Southward Cruise to the Large, Icy Continent

The very last spot in South America leads to a massive body of water. On the other side is the Antarctic continent. Drake's Passage is like a rite of passage one must endure to get to Antarctica. Drake's Passage is 400 miles wide. With no land to break the squalls and colliding currents, this is the spot with the globe's worst weather on the sea. Drake's Passage is a real adventure before the adventure of Antarctica. I only hoped to see icebergs and penguins. Aside from that, I had no expectations as to what I would see or experience in that incredible frozen wonderland known as Antarctica.

We were prepared for Drake's Passage's fury, but our cruise was uneventful on the way there. On the sail home, the Passage lived up to its evil reputation. Our first morning in Antarctica, we were greeted by a calm gray sea.

Our vie was hazy, and most of what we saw were brown, snow covered mountains - but soon enough, we beheld ice. Chunks of this ice bobbed in the gray sea like crystal marshmallows. I grabbed my camera and zipped right up into my red expedition parka - standard issue for all of us passengers - and rushed out into the brisk Antarctic day.

Given a menacing sky and a gun metal sea, we occupied the day partly by hurrying outside upon the announcement of whale, dolphin or leaping penguin sightings and partly sitting at slide presentations by the naturalists who had accompanied us. Passing by the huge ice blocks in our tiny inflatable raft was truly thrilling. We were finally on our way to shore. Not only could we see the rocky shoreline finally, but we saw several penguins at the water's edge, seemingly considering whether to go for a swim or not.

Penguins ringed our entire group. A group of researchers shared this bit of land in Paradise Harbor with these disheveled and gentle little penguins. They waddle purposefully about, looking as though they are rushing to complete their to-do lists. Some of the birds were just as busy watching us as we were watching them. The majority of these were adolescent chicks, as the majority of the parents had already moved on. Some of the chicks had not come to terms with this yet. The birds eat krill from the ocean, and have had it regurgitated directly into their mouths by their parents until recently.

Some of them were also at various stages int he process of losing their feathers - also known as molting. A large portion of their baby coats had already changed into smooth feathers resembling scales, but spots of disheveled, grayish down was still visible in the difficult to scratch locations on the tops of their heads and on their backs, which gave them the appearance of wearing caps, earmuffs, or as if they had fallen victim to an atrocious barber. As we made our way back to the ship, we navigated through some of the ice floating through the bay. Upon one such jagged, little mountain of ice that our driver took us past rested a lone majestic seal. He yawned at us as we passed, which seemed to say that he cared very little for our affairs. It was just the right way to end our day.

Penguins are always so very charming. The waddle and awkwardness, I suppose it is. Their appearance of wearing formal tuxedos is a funny paradox with their clown-like webbed, orange feet. The penguins were more clean than others because this particular area had more rocks than dirt. And to make them even more fashionable, they had a thin black line under their chins, giving them the impression of round cheeks.

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