Our adventure started with three days in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there, we flew to the "End of the World”, Ushuaia, which is the southernmost city in South America. Once on the boat, we traveled 3,373 nautical miles through:
South Georgia & The Sandwich Islands
A day at sea that started with so much sea ice and ended with dozens of humpback and fin whales
This was a trip of a lifetime, one in which we experienced more awe than we could have expected and saw sights so majestic that words and photos barely do them justice. That said, our amateur photos are still pretty spectacular, and we wanted to share them here for others to enjoy and for us to look back on for years to come.
You’ll see that we did have a few unfavorable weather days, but the beautiful blue-sky days far outnumbered them. There was a gentleman on our cruise who had been to Antarctica four years prior, and he said that during the two weeks he was on the ship, they never saw clear skies. We were very fortunate to experience such ideal conditions. And, as for the Drake Passage, it was like a lake and zero shake!
Antarctic Expedition
The Falkland Islands
We docked in Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. And then it was a short drive to Bluff Cove & Gypsy Cove.
This was our first encounter with little Fluff Nuggets, aka king penguin chicks.
After exploring the two coves, we had fish and chips at a local pub and stopped by The Falklands Distillery to sample (and purchase) their award-winning Darwin’s gin. It’s very good!
PORT STANLEY
Bluff Cove & Gyspy Cove
This fluff nugget is in the middle of its catastrophic molt, shedding its non-waterproof feathers over a 2-4 week period. During that time, they fast on land until their adult, waterproof feathers come in.
Gentoo penguins are spirited and active lil' creatures... I mean, how adorable!?!
Upland geese - the male is white, and the female is brown. They are generally monogamous, so we almost always saw them in pairs.
It's cool to see the progression of molting with these three fluff nuggets side by side.
Gentoo penguins napping on the beach in Gypsy Cove
These are diddle dee berries. They're a key ingredient in award winning gin distilled by the Falkland Islands Distillery. Yes, we tried the gin. It was very good! And yes, we brought a bottle home!
A mama Magellanic penguin nesting in a burrow.
A view of Port Stanley
South Georgia & The Sandwich Islands
FORTUNA BAY —> GRYTVIKEN —> ROYAL BAY
Several people have asked how we chose the tour group, timing, etc., for this trip, and tbh, it was mostly about South Georgia for us.
We watched a webinar hosted by five guides who have been to Antarctica dozens of times, and ALL of them LIT UP when talking about South Georgia.
Although we didn’t know much, if anything, about it, one Google search showed us photos with thousands of penguins, and we were sold!
FORTUNA BAY
The weather wasn’t great, so we didn’t get too many photos in Fortuna Bay. One of the blogs we read before the trip recommended packing ski goggles. As Texans, we thought surely that was overkill. But in hindsight, ski goggles would have been soooo worth it on this day because the snow was flying at us sideways as we cruised along the coast!
Though the weather wasn't great, our guide managed to get us close enough to see a dead elephant seal on the shore.
Grytviken
An abandoned whaling station and home to Shackleton’s grave, Grytviken is a stunning site. There are strict limits to how many people can be on land at any given time, so we only had about an hour to explore, and we made the most of it! It was incredible to see how the wildlife has made this whaling station their home.
This fur seal greeted us when we landed
sleeping elephant seal
We later learned this one survived a leopard seal attack, and the scientists in Grytviken said they were confident it would survive!
Juvenile elephant seal... at least they start out cute! This little one was so playful and photogenic!
Our first orca sighting of the trip
Brandon spotted this guy swimming below our cabin window.
We loved that the window in our room rolled down!
Royal Bay
Home to 30,000+ king penguins, Royal Bay is the windiest place in South Georgia. But not the day we visited. The water was smooth as could be for our zodiac cruise and kayaking trip excursions.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that our expedition leader told us that this was the first time she had ever successfully led an excursion in Royal Bay. That perspective was mindblowing!
There’s a massive glacier in the bay that is known for changing the weather in an instant, producing katabatic winds.
Ready for kayaking!
a marine cormorant
so. many. penguins.
The water was like glass! Lindsay got to be passenger princess and take photos because we went too fast if we both paddled.
click for iPhone pano
a giant petrel
It wasn't until we saw this photo that we realized there were so many juveniles going through their catastrophic molt.
Elephant Island, Sea ice, & Humpback + Fin whales…
oh my!!!
Lindsay woke up super early one morning and couldn’t go back to sleep because her ‘work’ brain was kicking in, so she went upstairs and found we were literally inching our way through tons of sea ice.
The crew had been navigating manually all night and eventually decided to turn around, meaning another day at sea.
Lindsay resisted working and instead sat on the floor watching the vast sea ice surrounding the boat. She likes to think that choosing to stay present and soak in the beauty brought us good luck, starting with catching these adélie penguins as they jumped off an iceberg.
We woke up surrounded by sea ice.
My dental hygienist has a TV mounted on her ceiling, and it's always playing calming footage of trains and ships traveling through various locations. It felt like we were in one of those movies.
Some of the sea ice photos aren't great because the deck was closed due to weather.
Photo cred: not us! This is one of the photos the crew shared with us via the Viking app
I will forever remember this moment of the trip! The whale was so close, I couldn't zoom out enough to get its entire body in the frame. And this rainbow? I thought it was my camera or UV lens filter malfunctioning. And then someone next to me confirmed the rainbow was indeed REAL!
The whale blows reminded me of fireworks going off at a baseball stadium. It was wild!
ANTARCTICA
Continent #4 for Brandon and #3 for Lindsay
Half Moon Bay
Our boat had two yellow submersibles (submarines), and our first excursion in Half Moon Bay was exploring a part of the ocean floor likely never seen by another human. The domes of the submersible were about 3 inches thick, distorting the size of everything.
For instance, some starfish appeared to be as small as the top of a pinky finger. The domes also made it challenging to take good photos, so pretty soon into the adventure, we put our cameras away and just soaked it all in. That afternoon, we hung out with the chinstrap and gentoo penguins.
We woke up in Half Moon Bay.
Let's go explore the ocean floor!
The water was SUPER choppy, but we were in good hands with our submarine captain, Daniel (forgot his official rank, but he's a big deal and super nice!)
an Atlantic Sun Starfish
On other dives, some passengers saw an octopus and a cool jellyfish that lit up!
Even with low clouds, the views were incredible.
We made it!!
Chinstrap penguins were everywhere!
They're walking the "penguin highways", the path they make from their nest to shore and back.
The red stuff they're covered in is penguin poop.
chinstrap penguin gathering pebbles for its nest
D’Hainaut Island, Mikkelson harbour Antarctica
That's a fur seal sleeping in the background
fur seal sleeping
a stunning panoramic view (click on photo to see the fully landscape)
Pano
click to see pano
click to see pano
fur seal sleeping
fur seal sleeping
click to see pano
click to see pano
click to see pano
click to see pano
click to see pano
Brown Station - Paradise Harbour
For scale: the zodiac boat holds about 10-12 adults
click to see pano
click to see pano
This was by far one of the warmest days!
This kayak trip was truly one of the highlights of the trip. We got up close to sea ice and icebergs, saw rafts of penguins porpoising next to us, and went out on the open ocean with the guidance of, "Ok, just don't capsize."
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
Lemaire Channel
USHUAIA & Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
After two days at sea, we arrived back in Ushuaia, where we docked, explored the city and spent our final night on the ship. The next morning, we squeezed in our a tour the Tierra Del Fuego National Park before going to the airport.
We loved Argentina for so many reasons, and their parrillas are at the top of the list!
We couldn't resist ordering provoleta one last time. It's an Argentine appetizer made with of griddled cheese, usually provolone, and topped with chimichurri
Of course we had a malbec!
Ushuaia's local Irish Pub
Jeremy Button Gin Bar - Lindsay had a cocktail made with turmeric, and it was incredible!
A quick detour to Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego before we began our trek home.
The dandelions were so big!
The dandelions were so big!
