Antarctica Expedition Cruise
With some time in Ushuaia

Back in March of 2021 I was experiencing the end-of-winter doldrums and daydreaming about a new adventure. I’d always wanted to visit all 7 continents and Antarctica had always captured my imagination. I thought, why not book an Antarctica expedition cruise?

At first I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. At the high-end were trips offered by National Geographic that make stops at South Georgia, Falklands and Antarctica. My cheapskate nature made it pretty hard to pony up for the costs, plus those trips were about 24 days long which was more than I was looking to spend on a ship.

My ideal itinerary would be 10-14 days in length and offer up plenty of activities off-ship. There were some tours offering camping on Antartica as well. In my mind, I figured if I’m going to go all the way there I may as well camp there, right? Then I could say I’ve overnighted on all the continents once I eventually get Africa (Tanya, when are we going?).

In the end, I settled on a “Basecamp” expedition offered by Oceanwide Expeditions. The PLA26-23 cruise seemed like a great fit at 11 nights offering snowshoeing, mountaineering, kayaking and camping. I picked the Quadruple Porthole accommodations. Woo-hoo, can’t wait to be on the Antarctica expedition cruise…except it wasn’t until January 2023. 🙁 The rates and options were much better booking further out and at the time of the booking, it still wasn’t clear how COVID would be impacting travel in 2021.

Planning to get there

Flight plans

If you’re going to take an Antarctica expedition cruise, you’re most likely leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina, the world’s southernmost city (technically, not, but a great tagline). My flights went from Denver to Houston (United), Houston to Buenos Aires (United), Buenos Aires to Ushuaia (Aerolineas Argentinas). You know, a mere 22 hours of travel time.😳 When I originally booked the flights, the only option I had from Buenos Aires was to arrive at EZE airport and leave via AEP airport. It turns out if I’d waited, I could have booked a flight that didn’t require me to transfer between airports, oh well. I used Booking.com to book a taxi in advance. The last thing I wanted was to miss my connection because of my bad Spanish.

Returning is a similar journey although I lucked out and had a schedule change which routed me from Ushuaia directly to EZE. At least I didn’t have to worry about the transfer on the return.

For those of you wondering, yes it is a long haul. Once I was in Ushuaia, I checked the location of my sweetie using the IOS Find My app. I was surprised to find her over 6,800 miles away! The map below shows my journey to the “bottom” of the earth.

Rocio and hiking

A little research turned up some good hiking routes in Ushuaia. I booked 4 nights at Rocio to give myself a few hiking days and leeway in case flights had issues. I didn’t expect to be returning to Ushuaia in the foreseeable future. Why not make the most of it? It did lengthen my trip a bit which concerned me a little. Being away from home almost 3 weeks would be my longest trip yet. I wasn’t sure how my mental attitude would handle it. I booked it and figured I’d deal with that later.

The Journey Starts – Days 1 and 2

As luck would have it, we got a foot of snow the night before my trip for the Antarctica excursion cruise got underway. Why? The weather gods must really dislike me. My day started by snowblowing the driveway and thinking about how to get to the light rail station. Tanya was out of town so I was on my own. My plan had been to take the light rail although it hadn’t included trudging over a mile in new snow.

In the end, I put on my hiking boots and headed down the road. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was crazy. It wasn’t terribly far but took me a long time. Here are some pics from that journey. Yep, it would have been much smarter and easier to just take an Uber.

After the snow

The rest of the light rail trip was fairly uneventful, even though I was wet and cold. Airport security was quick and on the way to my flight, I was notified the flight was delayed. Always a bit alarming when you’re connecting to a once-per-day international flight! One good thing, I was able to see my son and granddaughter who were coming through the airport because of the delay. It was a brief visit, although still great to see them. After a 90+ minute delay, the chances of making my connection seemed pretty slim. The weather gods must have felt bad for me since weather hit Houston delaying our flight further but also my outbound flight. I made it with 10 minutes to spare, alas one of my two bags did not. While I missed my friend, United assured me we’d be reuniting somewhere further down the line.

In Buenos Aires, the ride I’d booked between airports was waiting for me. It took a little less than an hour to get to AEP, Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. The lines were quick and the flight to Ushuaia was uneventful. I was now in position for my Antarctica expedition cruise, sans one bag.

Initial settling in

Besides admiring the mountains, still covered in patchy snow and coming right up to the edge of town, I needed to take care of the usual logistics. Finding an ATM wasn’t that easy, most have very low limits on how much money you can withdraw (think $10). Finally, through trial and error, I found the HSBC ATM worked and I could get a decent amount of dinero. They had separate ATMs for deposit and withdrawals which initially confused me, but my brain finally figured it out. Then I stopped by Doña Lupita to refuel. The pizza was yummy and I had leftovers for later.

Wandering around Ushuaia – Day 3

My lost bag wasn’t scheduled to rejoin me until January 1. I hoped it was having a good time traveling around. Unfortunately my hiking boots, rain jacket, and other gear were in that bag. With rain predicted in the afternoon, I didn’t think hiking up into the mountains was a wise decision. Instead, I headed down to the bus terminal to see if I could go to Tierra del Fuego.

Finding the station was much easier than in Cusco! Once there, the poor guy who got stuck with me (due to my poor Spanish) told me there weren’t any spots available for the day, but that taxis were readily available. I decided to wait and wandered around the town a bit, eventually making my way back to my room for lunch. The afternoon brought light, consistent rain although I still walked around town more. I enjoyed a latte at Cafe Martinez and found a way to kill the afternoon. Our host fixed banana bread and introduced me to yerba mate, an Argentine tea. It was certainly different than other tea I’ve had.

My plan for an exciting New Years Eve was to have dinner at La Casa de los Mariscos. Only one problem, they were closed as were many of the other restaurants in town. One that was open on the main road was crazy busy. Eventually I ended up at the Eureka bakery, an amazing place. I bought a sandwich and dessert for under $4.00 so I was pretty happy! I ate my dinner and was in bed early…the only issue was missing my sweetheart.

Day 4 – Some hiking!

I wasn’t entirely sure how 2023 was going to kick off here in Ushuaia. My bag was supposed to make it to the airport later in the day, yet I didn’t want to just hang around waiting for it. On a whim, I decided I’d pack up my daypack and walk up to the trail for Cerro del Medio to see what was what. The walk started by winding up the roads through some local neighborhoods. There were several stray dogs that were suspicious of me (rightly so!). None attacked, although there were one or two that I really thought might bite me.

Bushwhacking in Ushuaia

Eventually I came to the end of the road where the trail was supposed to start. There was no indication of a trail or trailhead, just homes. I took a chance and dashed across someone’s lot while at least 5-6 dogs were going crazy barking at me. As I entered the woods, I saw there were tons of trails going everywhere. I used GAIA GPS to make my way through the woods following what it showed as a trail (love that app!). Eventually I came upon the trail markings!

Now that I was on the trail, I needed to figure out my end game. My biggest worry about heading out had been a lack of rain gear. The weather looked fairly good and no rain had been predicted when I checked it earlier in the day. Maybe I’d go ahead and do the summit? What’s the worst that could happen, right? Realistically, the hike wasn’t that long (8 miles or so) and I had several layers. It wasn’t like I was going to get into real trouble. So up I went.

The trail crossed into a bog which promptly got my feet wet…I was missing my waterproof hiking boots already, a trend that continued all day. The views were nice, however, so I took a few shots and kept going. The trail went through a forest and the trees were a bit different in Argentina. Along the way I saw a condor in flight, very cool but impossible for me to get a good shot.

Onto the summit

After a while, the trail opened up into a rock and scree area with more incline. This took me to the saddle point between two peaks, one of which was my destination. With a right turn, I headed over to the trail that led to the summit. Oh, it had started snowing by this time so that no rain thing…well, it didn’t quite work out.

The wind picked up significantly as I walked the ridge, and the temps were in the 30’s. It wasn’t so bad I had to put on any layers, though, since my pace was keeping me warm. It wasn’t long until I reached the summit. I took several shots, and decided it was time to head down out of the wind.

The trek down was mostly uneventful except I heard and saw two condors, they make an interesting sound. You can see from the GPX graph below that I didn’t go back into the area of the “unknown”. Instead I followed the markers which took me quite a bit west and out on a nearby trail to a glacier. It worked out, however, since I got a taxi along the road and went to fetch my bag at the airport. It only took me two hours to get my bag, although worth it to be united again with my gear. Once that was done, it was back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with my flatmates from Germany about their treks through Chile and Argentina. It was a good day!

]

Day 5 – Tierra de Fuego National Park

Now that I had my gear, and a full day, I decided to head out to the nearby Tierra de Fuego park. The best ways to get to the park are either taxi or the official shuttle. There are group tours if you’re into that kind of thing. I’d been to the bus station before meaning I didn’t get lost this time. On the way, I found a nice bakery where I purchased some sandwiches and a latte. Life was good.

Tickets were 6,000 pesos, about $20, for the round trip. Entrance to the park doubled on 1/1/23 to 5500 pesos unless you are a local. I got off the bus at the first stop near the southernmost post office, the “End of the World” Post Office. It was a great experience! It’s fun to do some touristy things like getting your passport stamped and chatting with the elderly man manning the booth.

Shortly after, I started on the trail along the ocean. My plan was to hike the 8 miles or so to the end of Route 3, another major landmark in the park. About a mile into the hike I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures of the post office…dummy! Oh well, I continued on and enjoyed the scenery. As it turned out, going back and getting this pictures at this point would have made my day easier! It was a gorgeous hike next to the ocean although the occasional rain, wind and colder temps weren’t always great.

OK, now what?

Once I reached the end of the road/Route 3, I wasn’t sure what to do. It would still be at almost 2 hours until a bus came by. I was stewing about those post office pictures. Why not just head back and see what happens? Really, I thought I’d be able to catch a taxi as I’d seen some in the park. That didn’t work out so I hiked all the way back to the beginning. I did get pictures of the post office!

A bus arrived shortly after I got to the post office, but they were completely full. It was a two hour wait for the next bus which wasn’t great. I survived, and really it wasn’t that big of a deal even with the wind and occasional rain shower. Luckily I had the right gear, have I mentioned how great it was to see my bag again? Once back into town, I had a hamburger and hot cocoa, ready to get back to the apartment for a shower and bed.

Day 6 – Start of Antarctica Expedition Cruise!

Finally the day had arrived, departure on the Antarctica expedition cruise. The ship didn’t load until 4:00PM giving me time to wander around. The first thing I did was to repack down to a single bag and my backpack. I realized there were some things that I could leave behind and not be impacted. I’d overpacked as a newbie will. All the important items stayed, some extra clothing did not.

I got most of my gift shopping done during the day. Plus I enjoyed sampling some of the coffees, pastries, and empanadas around town. It was ok, I told myself, I’m doing a lot of walking.

Eventually 4:00 came around and I was able to board the ship. There are plenty of security briefings, a drill to “simulate” abandoning ship, and other talks to keep us busy. The short story is we needed to prepare for 2.5 days of sailing across the Drake Passage. My plan was to stay medicated on dramamine and sleep the whole time if I had to! It was great to leave the dock and finally be underway!

As I’d mentioned, my cabin on the Antarctica expedition cruise was a shared, quadruple unit. I ended up with only two bunkmates, Casper and Will. Casper was traveling with a friend who broke their leg just before the trip. These two guys were great and we enjoyed a lot of conversations. I was lucky to have them as roommates.

Day 7 and 8 – Crossing the Drake Passage

It takes 2.5 days to cross the Drake Passage on our ship. This time is spent in a cycle of eating, attending briefings, taking Dramamine, and sleeping. I was lucky and wasn’t seasick. Every 6 hours I’d take two pills of Dramamine to proactively avoid getting sick, and it seemed to do the trick. One of my bunkmates wasn’t so lucky and was quite sick most of the trip across the passage.

While the outer decks were closed on day 1, you could go up to the bridge and step out on a small balcony for fresh air. At the time I went up, no one else was on the bridge. It was fun chatting with the captain and learning about the ship.

The first day was much rougher than the second day. It had strong winds and large swells, although still nothing compared to what CAN happen. The second day of the crossing was much smoother with sunny skies and temps around 35. The outer decks were open so there were opportunities to get some fresh air.

There were lots of birds to see, including albatrosses. A humpback whale and a pod of pilot whales also put on a show.

Day 9 – Wind and more wind!

The 3rd day of the cruise, ninth of my trip, was supposed to be our first day out on Antarctica. Unfortunately, we had winds over 44 knots all day. The rules for the ship were that we could not go out if winds were above 40 knots. This meant both our outings were cancelled, one near the Shetland Islands and the other in Whalers Bay at Deception Island. Needless to say it was a bummer being stuck on the ship. Everyone was pretty anxious to get onto land soon. Luckily, none of the activities (kayaking, camping or mountaineering) had been scheduled for that day. Below are some pictures I took from the ship.

Day 10 overall, Day 5 of Antarctica Expedition Cruise

The weather was not good, rainy and cold, but no wind. This allowed us to finally step foot on Antarctica. The first excursion of the day included a short trip to shore to see penguin colonies followed by a zodiac cruise through some icebergs. The rain was really coming down resulting in a very wet excursion. It was amazing to see the penguins in their natural habitat and to cruise close to icebergs. For those of you wondering, penguins smell as bad in the wild as they do at the zoo!

In the afternoon, we were able to go out on kayaks. Kayaking was one of the activities I’d been really looking forward to doing. It didn’t disappoint. We were able to cruise up to icebergs and enjoy some reasonably calm waters. It was still wet and cold, although they provide a wetsuit so it isn’t too bad. Getting close to the icebergs and seeing their blue ice was especially fantastic.

As if that wasn’t enough for a day, our camping outing was schedule for 8:00. It kept raining through the evening, however, so it ended up getting cancelled. I can’t say sleeping on the snow in the rain sounded appealing to me at that point anyway. Some humpback whales joined the ship on our way to the next stop. There was a lot of video of them swimming next to the ship. The condensed versions are below.

Day 11, Day 6 of the Antarctica Expedition Cruise

Our morning excursion was cancelled due to wind. As the ship headed to the next destination, there were lots of sightings of whales including a few that were breaching. I didn’t have the best pictures of the group, for sure, but was quite happy with the ones I got. Seeing whales breach is incredible.

Those shots, however, turned out to be relatively tame ones for the day. In the afternoon, we went to Paradise Bay for zodiac cruising. It was also where we would set foot on the true Antarctica Peninsula. Well, the walking part was about 10 minutes and the cruising part ended up going 4 hours. We were very lucky to find many humpback whales feeding in the bay. To say it was amazing is really an understatement. We even had a close encounter as one humpback went right by our zodiac.

The time spent watching these magnificent creatures feed all afternoon really was the highlight of the trip!! Nothing is as breathtaking as being so close to these huge mammals in the bay. We could hear them throughout the bay taking breaths as they rose to the surface. They are such graceful, impressive creatures.

Day 12 overall, Day 7 of the Antarctica Expedition Cruise

Monday brought around my day to go mountaineering. Based on what I’d seen of the other groups outings, I had fairly low expectations. In the end, it wasn’t too bad though. We trekked up a small glacier on snowshoes while roped together. Fun fact, the glacier had been used as a small runway for some of the earliest expeditions in the area. From the glacier, we ascended up towards a small peak. We didn’t summit, however, since there was a fairly high avalanche danger as the slope went above 30°. It was the first exercise I’d had in days so there were no complaints from me!

Post mountaineering, I still had time to do a quick walk over to the research hut on shore and get a few other pics.

The afternoon outing on our Antarctica Expedition Cruise was Port Lockroy, a fairly famous stop in Antarctica where they still run a post office. It was a touristy stop, and a lot of fun! I sent several post cards. If you haven’t received yours, it must still be on the way. Overall, a nice little stop.

Shortly after, we went to the little island next door where I was able to get some good penguin and seal pictures. The penguins were constantly bickering at each other. Several were stealing rocks from other nests to improve their nest. It’s a pretty social environment.

Day 13, Day 8 of the Antarctica Expedition Cruise

Tuesday we had two stops scheduled. The first was penguin colony where we could walk around a small circuit. The second was zodiac cruise at a different stop. At the first stop, there were many Adelie penguins which have a black head and beak, plus blue around their eyes. We saw our first chicks of the trip here. They were somewhat large and brown as you can see from the pictures. We also got hit with wind and snow. It didn’t last too long so it wasn’t much of a problem.

The zodiac cruise was great for seeing seals and chicks. There were about 25 seals laying on sea ice in a small bay. They were happy to pose for us, meaning they didn’t move or really care. We also came across some more chicks where I was able to get some incredible pictures (incredible for me anyway).

It had been a full day already, but wait, there’s more! The staff on the ship held a BBQ party on the back deck. Yes, it was windy and cold, but what a view! They really went all out with ribs, chicken and a roasted pig. I ate more than my share. After dinner we cruised to our spot for the night. The sun came out and provided even better views!

Day 14, Day 9 of the Antarctica Expedition Cruise

It was hard to believe that this would be the day of our last excursion before the long trip back to Ushuaia. The agenda was a zodiac cruise which ended up as a pretty uneventful trip. I did get a picture of a chinstrap penguin giving me pics of 3 species. It wasn’t long after the zodiac cruise that we pulled up anchor and started back…and it was time to be on the Dramamine again.

The end of the line

From here on out it was a haul to get home. First, it would take almost 3 days to get back into port to finish out the 1,609 nautical miles of cruising. On the morning of the 14th, I’d leave the ship and overnight in Ushuaia. Sunday morning, the 15th, I’d fly to Buenos Aires with a connection to Houston and Denver. I won’t bore you with the homeward bound journey, only leave you with all the pictures above.

Visiting Ushuaia and taking an Antarctic Expedition Cruise was a truly lifetime experience. Missing the opportunity to camp was a real bummer. The rest of the experience, however, exceeded expectations. I’d recommend it for anyone who wants to see a world full of life and is willing to put up with some wind and cold. I knew I wouldn’t be back but sure was glad I had gone.