Best Antarctica Cruise Experiences

7. The ‘Real’ Antarctica

I was thrilled to experience the “real” Antarctica and visit the largest known colony of gentoo penguins at Cuverville Island. We finally got hit with the expected freezing snow, ice, and howling winds. Before this, most days I was much too hot in my long underwear. On this day, the wind chilled, and I couldn’t keep the snow off my camera. Not allowed to approach the penguins, we huddled together waiting out the squall. Soon enough, it cleared and the sun appeared. Smiling, I soaked up the sun, sitting in the fresh snow. I delighted in watching the thousands of birds and their antics. Grunting and groaning at each other in their mating rituals. Stealing treasured pebbles from their neighbors’ nests. Surfing down the hills on their bellies, pushing themselves along with their stubby little wings. Climbing back up takes some serious effort, but they take it in stride, trucking uphill like tiny animated tanks in tuxedos.

8. Go Inside A Sleeping Volcano

Cruising through Telefon Bay, inside the volcanic crater of Deception Island, we passed an abandoned whaling station baking on the beach. Our RIBs deposited us on a pebbly black beach to meet a solitary crabeater seal. A few brave souls took advantage of the slightly warmer water due to the local volcanic action and took the polar plunge. Brrrr! I clambered up the steep path leading to a bare black moonscape with steaming fumaroles in the distance. We could hike to the rim of the caldera for fantastic views, but some would have liked to explore further. As we slipped through narrow Neptune’s Bellows late afternoon, leaving the island behind, we were escorted out to sea by a family of whales and rafts of porpoising penguins.