Scott Barronton (00:00)
Welcome back to the Sunshine Travelers. Melissa and I just returned from one of the most extraordinary trips that we've ever taken to Antarctica. And this one was especially meaningful because it wasn't just the two of us traveling. We hosted this as a group trip through our travel company, Sunshine Travelers Experiences. So we had the opportunity to share this adventure with a group of our listeners and clients. It's one thing to visit a place like this on your own,
excited about the journey really adds something to the experience. Especially since this is a trip that we've all been looking forward to for over a year now. And since we've been back, we've been getting a lot of questions about the trip. Things like, why would someone want to go to Antarctica? How do you even get there? Isn't it incredibly cold? And of course,
How much does it cost? So today we're going to answer some of the most common questions we've been hearing. We'll talk about how you get to Antarctica, what it's actually like when you arrive, what the Drake Passage crossing was like for us, and some of the experiences that made this trip unforgettable. And just as a quick note, in this episode, we're focusing on Antarctica itself. In our next episode, we'll talk more about the expedition cruise experience.
and the ship that we sailed on.
Speaker 2 (01:25)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:28)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (01:36)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (01:45)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (01:55)
So, Melissa, are you ready to relive Antarctica? Yes. Yes, it's been fun looking back through pictures and videos and sharing some of that. I think it's just going to take a while to go through the content and just really share that. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to Wait and just really enjoy it and then share our experience after. And I think that made the trip more...
intentional for us like while we were there with our group too. Yeah, we didn't use internet while we were on the ship. We specifically just took this time to take it all in to enjoy the experience and enjoy being with our group that traveled with us.
So one of the things we've really enjoyed about this trip was sharing the experience with the group that joined us. So watching people see Antarctica for the first time, even though it was our first time too, I have this thing about, watching people and like enjoying watching people experience things too. So spotting our first iceberg, seeing our first penguin colony.
And of course, stepping on land for the first time, those moments were really special and just all the moments in between, just the downtime and the time we just had to sit around and like linger over long meals as well. So when you take a trip and visit a destination, especially like this, I think you really form a bond with those people. And we experienced this, Scott, when we did
safari with your aunts. Like we now have an shared experience with them. And it really is just like unlike anything else. I think it's one thing to tell people about this, but just having that shared experience together. Those collective memories that every time you're with them or something like that. You just you have that. And even one couple that was on this trip with us we've gone to the Galapagos with. And I think we had that
this was like this on the Galapagos. We had that like comparison and it's just unlike anything else. It's hard to explain. And some of the funny things continue on even after the trip, like Judy and her jacket. for us, it's an inside story, but it's something that in the group message after we got back, it just continues to live on. And so yeah, you're right. It does bring quite a bond.
And for some of us stepping onto the continent of Antarctica was very special for other reasons. So Melissa, her sister Stephanie and I crossed off a major bucket list achievement by visiting our seventh continent. We mentioned this before and we mentioned this in some of the Antarctica planning. Scott and Stephanie have kind of been on a race to the seventh continent. She was actually a
good bit ahead of you. Australia was her very first place she ever visited out of the US and she actually hit all six continents before she turned 30 and has returned back to many of them, but it's just kind of always been a thing to like when y'all would get there together. And it was essentially the same time. We were on the same zodiac. It was a little bit like,
where you were placed in the zodiac, it's not like, I made it first or anything like that. It was basically at the same time. So I have a fun little video of them together. So we made it to all seven continents. but that was really... arms still in the water and walked out together. So that was really a neat, that was just really a neat experience for Herkut to do that with us.
Well, you'll have to forgive me today because since we've gotten back, the pollen here is absolutely killing me. Something is blooming. You can kind of see it in the air, feel it in the air, but it has really hit me hard. if I have kind of a scratchy voice today, you'll just have to forgive me for that. Yeah. And the polar opposite, no pun intended, of Antarctica, where you literally have no, there's like two plants, I think, that could even grow there.
So you have no pollution, no pollen, no smog, know, nothing like that. So I think you just come back from this pristine, clean air to this. Well, let's start with a quick recap of the journey itself, because getting to Antarctica is part of the adventure. And our trip began with a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We will do a separate podcast episode on Buenos Aires, so we're not going to cover that part of the trip.
right now. I've been there before. This was a chance for me to share some of my experiences and memories with Melissa and the rest of the team, but we'll talk about that later. But from there, our expedition cruise line, we sailed on Atlas Ocean voyages. They chartered a flight for the group from Buenos Aires down to Ushuaia. And we had to be on the bus headed to the airport.
in Buenos Aires at 4 a.m. That was painful, but I do think that everyone was so excited that it was almost difficult to get sleep the night before. Yeah, for sure. One thing I want to add here is that we, as a group, had decided that we would go arrive not just the day before, but a day before that so that we would have the rest of that day. We actually ended up taking a nap before we went out for dinner or resting.
⁓ But if you had landed in Buenos Aires that day, and then, because it's typically an overnight flight from North America, and then had to get up at 4 a.m., that would have been really rough. So I would recommend after this experience to arrive not just the day before, but at least a day before that. And if you have more time, then obviously tack on several days. But that helped to have that one more day for sure.
Ushuaia is often called the southernmost city in the world or the end of the world. And that's just where most Antarctica expeditions began. It sits right at the tip of South America in Argentina.
Once we arrived in Ushuaia, we did a quick, and it ended up being a very quick tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park on the Argentine side. You basically were almost in Chile, which was almost really painful because I think at one point my phone said, welcome to Chile, because I haven't been to Chile yet. You have. So we couldn't technically cross that off the list, but we were really close. So again, if you had more time, you could very easily add that on. but anyway, there was a dock worker strike.
plan for that day. And so they knew that they needed to have us back like on to the dock, onto the ship before the 3 p.m. that was said that when it was supposed to happen and before they closed those gates and just in case. we actually I think we were one of the last buses we entered the gates they let us right off literally in front of the ship. Like you got
off the bus, they helped you with your luggage, took your bags from you. And so that was where we boarded the World Voyager, which would be our home for the next nine nights. so from there, the ship departed and we began our sail toward Antarctica. The first three to four hours, you're actually cruising through the Beagle channel.
And it's interesting because that's what separates Argentina from Chile is that Beagle channel. And it's some amazingly beautiful scenery and a good way to get settled into the boat before you head out across the Drake Passage towards Antarctica. if you don't know what it is, the Drake Passage is the stretch of water between South America and Antarctica. And it has a really big reputation for rough seas because
It's where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet and there is a strong current and winds that come through there. And so the, ocean can be very volatile and you'll often hear people describe their crossings as either they had the Drake shake and that's when the waves are really big or the Drake Lake when the conditions are pretty calm.
We were incredibly fortunate. Now, personally, I didn't look at the conditions. Like, I really just didn't want to know. I think some people in our group kind of had, and had asked us, did you look at the conditions? Because at this point, like, it is what it is, and there's no point in worrying about it. We had packed the sea sickness patches. We had packed a couple of kinds of medicine. I mean, we were going, and so it didn't really matter.
But honestly, our crossing was mostly Drake Lake conditions, relatively calm seas. The average wave was three meters, which is roughly nine feet. Now, let me explain that I guess in these smaller like super yachts, I guess they're called, they do have stabilizers and stuff like that, but you're gonna feel waves like that more than you would in a large cruise ship.
⁓ but there was a time on our Princess cruise back in the fall when we felt kind of like this. I honestly said, I think that cruise helped us to feel acclimated. And I think that's the other thing you'll know, like, or if you think about it, like that was, that would be why like cruise crew members don't get sick. Whereas like passengers might, because they kind of get acclimated to it. So I kind of felt like, this, we're used to this. but there are times that
the crew members do get sick. yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But like in the calm, I guess I should say. But yes, we did. We were asking one of the expedition members, what's the roughest you've ever been? And he was telling us and he was like, literally everybody was sick. So, I mean, you still want to be prepared. We ended up taking something still even, with
that calmness, So you definitely still feel that ship moving, but we definitely did not experience the kind of dramatic waves that sometimes happen. And honestly, it's funny because the videos that took look like it's like you don't even get like the real motion that was there. looks like, well, there's nothing, you know, nothing at all.
And then again, the officers on the bridge, which was cool, because we did get the bridge a couple of times, told us that they have actually experienced like nine meter swells, which had been 30 feet. So of course that's the Drake Shake but there's been storms. The storms can actually get up to 12 to 15 meters, which is 40 to 50 foot waves. I've seen videos of that where it's like crashing like over the deck
and stuff like that. So no thank you, but for us, it wasn't like, I'm not gonna go to Antarctica because I'm afraid of the Drake. Like I wanna do Antarctica, so that's the choice that we made. And I did notice that as we were crossing the Drake, they would close some of the bottom port doors. So the door going from the dining room out to the...
balcony on the back, they close that off and, close down the watertight doors for if the conditions were to change and, you did get the Drake shake,
We were so lucky because we had the Drake Lake going in both directions. And so after about two days crossing the Drake Passage, you come to the South Shetland Islands, which is a really welcome site. This is where the waters start to become more calm. The landscape also starts to change. You start seeing those snow capped mountains as they become clear on the horizon. And now
This is really when it hits you that you're entering into Antarctica. And I think one of the biggest surprises for us on this trip was just how much wildlife we encountered. You expect to see some wildlife in Antarctica, but the number of whales we saw was completely unexpected.
Yeah, just like anything like this. I think you prepare yourself for, we might not see any whales. You know, we to Alaska, like we hardly saw, you know, any wildlife, unfortunately. And then you just hope for the best. So we actually saw three different species of whales during the trip. so we saw fin whales.
at the very beginning and then humpback whales and then we had a very rare and unique encounter with some orcas. There were times when we would look out across the water when we were spotting the whales and there would be dozens of whales surfacing at the same time. We actually saw our first big pod of whales I think on our second crossing day. I was looking back at my pictures. I mean so many of them just like where you would look out and it would be like
Blowhole, blowhole, blowhole. I think the captain even slowed down a little bit because that was our first big encounter and they made an announcement. Hey, there's all these whales. We met the expedition guides to like tell us about, what we were seeing and stuff like that. And so just like, just from there, it was just like, okay, like check, we saw whales. Like that would have been honestly enough because there were so many of them.
Yeah, the fin whales are actually the second largest animal on earth. They're second only to the blue whale and they can reach about 80 feet in length. So when one surfaces near the ship, it's a really incredible sight. Now you just see kind of the the top of the whale with the fin whales. We didn't I don't think we really saw any flukes or tails or anything like that from the fin whales.
but you do see those blows that are just constantly all around you and to hear them, it just draws your attention.
So the humpback whales are also just so amazing to watch. We got to spend some time with like two of them back in the fall when we were in Eden, Australia. I jokingly said, hey guys, we'll see you in Antarctica. And maybe we did. I don't know. It's kind of on the opposite side if they went straight down, but who knows. But the humpback whales are known for their long pectoral fins and also for their acrobatic behavior.
So we didn't personally see any full breaches, although I will say I did see one like out of the corner of my eye, but like that's such a rare behavior, especially for this time of year, like it wasn't like it was gonna happen again, but not like really see it. Yeah, I think that's normal during their mating season. Yeah, that's what the guides told us, but we saw dozens if not hundreds near the ship. At first we just saw their like hump their backs before diving down.
And then at some point, and this happened multiple times, not just once, they all started showing their flukes or their back fin. We learned that they're called flukes as they would dive down and dive deep. The other cool thing we learned about the fluke is the fluke is kind of like their fingerprint. And so one of our guides told us that there actually is a website that you can go and like upload your photos of those flukes and they would...
I guess probably using AI nowadays, but it would like assign that to a particular whale. And then they track some of those whale locations, I guess, based off the pictures that people see, which I thought that was really cool. So those flukes, those fins are unique to that whale, no two alike. We even saw some of them bubble feeding near the boat.
So in our first briefing, very early on in the journey, the expedition team said that we may see a few whales because this is like really the start of the whale season as they're starting, I guess, their migration back, But the numbers that we saw and the amount that we saw showing their flukes was just, I mean, it was just like incredible, like day after day after day. So we were really lucky in that aspect too.
So the whales are down there this time of year feeding on the krill, is an extremely abundant source of fish down in the Antarctic waters. So they'll be down there. They eat during the summer. And now they'll start to migrate back north again as winter is starting to set in in Antarctica. And then there were the orcas, which are always exciting to see anywhere in the world.
Orcas travel in pods and are actually the largest members of the dolphin family. I didn't know that, but they are. And we came across them in the Gerlach Strait. And it is a specific pod of killer whales. They called them type B that lived there in that strait. They primarily hunt penguins and fish.
We were in a lecture from the expedition team when the captain came on the speaker system and announced that he was going to stop the ship so that everyone could go out and see them. So it was amazing. Everybody just did this mass exodus out of the little theater that they had and everybody rushes outside and the orcas were really close up to the ship and the water was extremely clear.
And we kind of got the feeling that this wasn't something that they're used to seeing in these numbers. Yeah. I mean, some of them were going like right beside the ship too, to where like you could see them down in the water. So one of the passengers actually got a video of a mother orca pushing her dead baby in the water across.
the front to the side of the boat. And one of the expedition crews shared with us that the whales are very close family unit. As you may know about orcas, and it's not uncommon for a mother to keep a dead baby like that with the family for up to 30 days or more while it mourns that death before finally letting it go. So that was very sad to experience, because at first we didn't really know,
so somebody was like, look at that orca, has like a dolphin in its mouth or a shark, which obviously it couldn't be a shark. But into like questioning, okay, like what is that? What's going on? And so the expedition team shared with us that that was what was going on. And that's, mean, it's very sad, but it's also amazing to watch just the reality of
the circle of life and the reality of what, these animals, but they said that is so rare, I guess, to get to like see that behavior and especially so close up. And again, it was extra special because in the earlier presentation of the whales, they said we would probably see many of the other kinds of whales, but it would be unlikely that we would see.
the orcas and especially in these numbers.
Like we just learned so many things.
Well, whales are obviously the giants of Antarctica, but once you step onto shore, the real stars of the show might actually be the penguins. In this time of year, the number of penguins on land are starting to dwindle as they return to the ocean after the birthing season. December and January are when you're gonna see the greatest numbers of penguins on land and the most chicks in the various stages of development.
You're going to see more small babies and more medium babies and some larger babies. We saw mostly just the larger babies that are getting ready to go out to the ocean and they go through a molting process first. Cause when they're first born, they have these really fluffy feathers, but they're going to molt those shed them off.
And then they'll have that very sleek penguin feather that you see that helps to keep them warm and I guess dry. It's kind of like a dry suit, if you will, while they're living there in the ocean.
So that was really cool to watch because of this time of year, we got to see them on land, but then we got to also see a lot of them like either swimming in, don't know what you would call it, like almost there was some like little pond looking things. I know they're not ponds, but on a couple of the islands and landings, like where there's like shallow water that's not part of the ocean.
where they're like starting to learn how to swim which was really cute because it was like two or three of them and they'd swim across and swim back and so it was almost like swimming lessons or something like that and then of course we got to see them in the groups like swimming in the ocean so that would be something that you would see this time of year that you might not see other times of the year and also just like their behavior they're just like they're just so cute but looks like funny little I don't know just funny little
Like sometimes they would be just be like dancing around. mean, if you've, if you've seen videos of penguins, they're just adorable or, you got some really good pictures of one, like one touching the other shoulder and, and, know, just getting to watch them like that was just really, really cool. Yeah. They're very social and interactive creatures. And one of things that our family really loves is to learn what groups of animals are called. And out on the Zodiac tour, we learned that a group of penguins swimming together in the water.
is called a raft. I love that. Yeah, so you have a colony when it's on land, right? A penguin colony. You're used to that. But a raft, what a neat term.
And since our first expedition was a zodiac tour, we saw a raft of penguins before we saw a colony on land. I got some amazing photos of Gentoo penguins swimming in the water. And when they actually jump out of the water and kind of arch and go back in, and I learned that that's called porpoising. Which makes sense, because it's almost, it really looks like how a porpoise would do that as well.
And when we finally reached land, we saw the large colonies of the Gentoo penguins and the paths that they follow through the snow and they call them penguin highways. And so when we were on land, which we're going to talk a little bit more in a second, the expedition team would go out first and they would set up like cones or little markers. And, but we also had, they had told us like, try to stay away from the penguins. And then if
they're there, like don't get any closer to them. There's a certain like number of meters or feet or whatever, but just like in a, in a relatively safe distance. And if they start coming towards you, if you can like back up and give them space, Like almost like they have the right away, On these little penguin highways. And they would, it'd be several like following each other. It was really funny. We were waiting to board the Zodiac one afternoon and that area had been more like
more muddy, I guess you would say. There was a lot of penguin poop. And so they were having to like wash our boots a little bit better before we even got to the wash station on the ship. And Scott actually had a penguin that was starting to chase him, like got right under him. And the expedition team member that was standing there said that it was probably because it thought that he was trying to steal one of the penguins. He had his big long lens that's black and white striped. But it was really coming after you like, give me that penguin back.
Yeah, it was trying to like peck me. Yeah, so you got some really interesting pictures of that, but they're just neat little neat creatures to neat animals to watch. And then what other animals besides so we saw the whales, we saw the penguins. What else would people expect to see? There's a lot of birds that you can watch for, and right as you hit the islands, you start seeing a lot of the.
the shorebirds or the marine birds, like for example, the albatross is there. There were a lot of birds that they talked about in the expedition lectures that I didn't see as much of or I wasn't paying, I guess, as close of attention. It's kind of difficult to photograph birds. And when you have cute little penguins around,
you're not really looking at the birds flying over above you. But we also saw some fur seals. We saw a couple of Weddell seals. And then we saw some leopard seals. And those look so cute until they open their mouth. Yeah, they have some teeth on them.
And then one really cool thing that I think is a little more rare to see is it was a leopard seal that had a penguin in its mouth. We were actually on the zodiac kind of waiting. She was waiting our turn to get to where we needed to do to make the landing. And she was like, my gosh. And it literally had that, it was like tossing that penguin around in its mouth, trying to like bite off, pieces of it out in the water. So that was something that I think is
is pretty rare to see. that was neat. But seeing them on the icebergs, on a couple of different locations, and then of course on land, in some of the landings, they were there too. So a variety of those animals that you would expect to see. The fur seals kind of reminded me of dogs. They've got that kind of puppy dog face and they can cut you the side eyes like Lottie does to us a lot, our Bernadoodle.
for either one. And so it kind of reminded me of our dogs watching those fur seals. The other thing that reminds me of a dog with them is they yawn. And it's almost like our dog yawns sometimes when he feels maybe nervous or uncomfortable or, and I think sometimes they have that behavior as well. cause we're like intruding on their space. And there were times where they were just like, they literally look like,
I don't know, almost like, of course we weren't too close to them or dangerously close, but like we were, encroaching on their private space or whatever.
We also chose to do the optional kayaking expedition. And this is at an additional cost to be able to do that. We paid around $200. I think some, lines charge about 250, but it's going to be somewhere in that neighborhood to go out onto the kayak. And what they do is while one group goes and does a landing or does the,
Zodiac tours, they'll take a group of kayakers out. And we happened to do it in this one really protected bay. There was lots of ice around. There was a couple of penguin colonies on the shore that we could see. And that was really just a unique and different way to experience Antarctica. What I would say about that is they really do take the safety of this seriously. So several of those guides were like,
trained like majorly trained in kayaking, water rafting, guiding experience in that. And so it's got mentioned like you had to do a safety briefing. There was a special dry suit that you'd have to wear. We actually had to sit. You know, they told you, okay, here's exactly what this is going to be like, because here's the thing about this is you really don't want to fall in this water because it's so cold. Now they said, here's what you're going to do if you do, but like you had to sit.
swing your legs a certain way just to practice to say, can I get out of the zodiac and into the kayak and you know back and forth like that and all these different safety. So I appreciated that. they like everything we experienced like you could tell it was the utmost for everyone's safety, right? Because it wasn't just us the passengers, but it's the expedition team. It's like literally everybody and they want to have the the safest experience possible. Well, they do it because it's not a theory that you may
turn over your kayak. It actually happened to them on a different kayak group that was out there. And there was a gentleman from Mumbai and the ice got up underneath his kayak, lifted him and flipped him over and they went into the water. I don't know. I think that guy is still trying to thaw out. That's probably the coldest water that he's ever been in his life. No, just kidding. He actually is a sailor and
He's been experienced with water and so it's no big deal to him to go over. He did say that the dry suit kept him perfectly dry, that he was plenty warm and that he could have stayed out there and kayaked longer. But because they were wet, they had to get them back in. They needed to make sure that they didn't get hypothermia. But they're very well trained.
They have a safety zodiac that's out there with you. And so when he went in, they immediately jumped into action and got them out of the water. It's funny because one of the expedition leaders, as you get into the kayak, he's like, now remember what's the first thing we do if someone flips out of their kayak and, and someone yelled out, take pictures. He was like, right. So, ⁓
You know, hopefully somebody got some really good pictures. I know everybody was panicked a little bit at first when he flipped over, but ⁓ these guys are professionals and they had him out of the water in no time.
And the other thing I was going to mention about this just for information sake about, you know, choosing a cruise, et cetera, is that in some cruises, like this is something that's included. And after kind of learning about, you know, the safety and that kind of thing, I can see like why it's an extra cost because they also don't want just anybody and everybody doing it. And you think, okay, well,
I've never kayaked before, because that was one of the things in the safety briefing is that they said, look, we really wanted you to have some kayak experience. Now, not that it was anything, super crazy, because they're not going to pitch you out if it's, not super calm, if it's not safe. But if the winds change, like they said, they were like, oh, I just need you to be able to paddle, like not paddle in circles, that kind of thing.
And so then keeping it to that, okay, it's an extra cost because it was included. I just feel like they'd have to be like, well, everybody needs to have the opportunity to go, right? Because you kind of already quote unquote paid for it. The other thing is that you probably wouldn't want it to be included because what if you don't get to go? So we had enough people on the ship that had signed up to where they split it into.
four groups because they have a kayak so they can take 16 people at a time and they are double kayak so there's no single kayakers. And if conditions don't permit that you could go out all four of those times then like you've paid for something that you wouldn't get to use. So they wouldn't charge you if you signed up if you didn't get to go. As a matter of fact, our weather was so great that they actually did a fifth kayak trip if people wanted to sign up for a second time.
And so, of course, we stepped on our seventh continent. We made both landings on islands. And then finally, we got to do a continental landing, which is a big deal. And they really strive for that, it seems. That was a big deal for them to say this is going to be the continental landing. So this means that you could walk from that continental landing to the South Pole. And our expedition leader was really cute. He would show on a Google Earth.
like where we were and you know where it was in relation to places. So for this particular one in the briefing, he showed us like okay if you are where we're gonna land, how exactly you would get to the South Pole from there. 1800 miles, it would take you between three to six months going 10 or 20 miles a day. Not that we were gonna do this, but it was just really cute that they showed this. Well it's really only like nine. Right. Boop, boop, boop, yeah.
So it was just really cute that he pointed that out. Cause like, it's like, okay, well, we don't have skis. We don't have those sled. Like we're not doing this, but it was, it was cute because the rest of them were on islands, right? And so we did say, okay, the island landing would have counted for us because we live on island. We live in North America. We live in Florida. Like that would have counted and we would have been okay with that, but it was nice that we got to do that continental landing. So our expedition actually made four landings total.
Three on the islands, one on the continental. We were kayaking during one of those landings. So we did three and then the kayaking.
And so then speaking of the expedition, I want to talk a second about how the plans constantly change, even though we had spectacular weather, like that calm Drake, so many of the days we had sunshine. But you definitely have to be flexible. so if you ever look at an Antarctica itinerary, basically the landing days just say, Captain's Choice, Captain's Choice.
And so they will tell us like the day before we would have a expedition briefing of that day and here's what we're going to do tomorrow. And he would say, okay, in the morning we're going to do this and this is where we're going. Afternoon, we're going to do this. And literally not even just from one night to the next morning, because that happened the first time we were going to, the very first time we got off the ship, we were supposed to make a landing. And the expedition team went out, too much ice. It wasn't going to be safe.
immediately got changed to a zodiac. And then one of the days, literally we did the morning expedition. We were leaving to go to the afternoon expedition and they come over to the speaker and they're like, okay, actually our time is delayed. We have...
I guess we got close to it or they got weather reports or something like that. I'm not exactly sure. know they have obviously a lot of communication, but it was like, that's not gonna be a good place. The weather's not good. We're gonna go somewhere else instead. And this is gonna be the activity. So you have to also be very flexible. Cause it was gonna be like, okay, at 2.30, this is your time. And they would come on and ⁓ our cruise director Renata would say, okay, instead it's gonna be 4.30 or whatever. And so that would like,
plans would be very, very fluid, even with a polar plunge. It was gonna be, you know, the first day and then all of a sudden, no, we're not gonna do that. I think that was the day we saw the orcas and they didn't wanna have that experience be rushed. So you have to be very flexible. And the other thing, and I wanted to just make this comment because I made it at dinner
isn't it so interesting how we were supposed to go to this place, but we ended up going to this place. And one of the places, for example, was called Hidden Bay. And it was where we did the polar plunge and it was like mountains all around, ice all around. We saw the Leopard Seal. It was just incredibly beautiful. But we weren't going to quote unquote go there.
But because the conditions changed, we ended up in that location. I just thought how interesting it is, and this happened like so many times during this expedition, that we ended up seeing and experiencing somewhere else because the conditions weren't favorable in the ⁓ initial place. And so that just, that really stood out to me is that, the experience was what it was. And of course you don't feel like you miss anything, Because you don't know what these other places are like, but...
Sometimes it's like, well, we would have missed this incredible place, otherwise. So that was just kind of a neat observation. And for the landings, this is where the size of the ship that you choose is so important. There are ships that go by Antarctica and they're carrying more than 500 passengers. They're not going to be able to get in there. They're not going to be able to offload onto the landings.
They are just going to cruise by Antarctica and see it from a distance.
And then there's ships that have between 200 and 500 people. Now you only get a certain amount of time allotted to you in each of these areas. And that's governed by these IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. They are the ones who govern part of that tourism and they make the rules about how much
time, how many people, et cetera. And so if you're on a ship that has between two and 500, you got to think all 500 of those people have to fit into those activities within that allotted timeframe. And only 100 people max, including the expedition guides, can be on land at any given time. So
We've talked to some of the expedition guides and they said that on those types of ships where there's that many people,
They're just having to quickly rush them through. They don't have much time to spend on land. Now I would say there was a few times where we really felt rushed. They were like, we were late getting here or, like Melissa said, we had to change locations. And so they're like, we only have a short amount of time, but imagine now you're on that two to 500 passenger, there's a short amount of time. And maybe they just have to say, not everybody's going or
They just have to skip it altogether that day. And so we think that the ships with fewer than 200 passengers is the optimal ship to choose. And so that means there's only two groups that they need to basically establish. And those two groups will rotate through those exercises during your allotted time. And
It was never a problem for us to be able to do any of these expeditions. the one where we were a little bit rushed because we only had a short amount of time, but we got to do it. And if we had been on a bigger ship, I just don't think that we would have been able to. So I would say try to choose a ship that has fewer than 200 passengers. Ours, the capacity was 183 passengers.
Yeah, and I think we ended up with like 150 something. And also, we're going to talk about cost in a second, but don't think that just because the smaller the ship, the more expensive it is. That's not necessarily the case. There are quite a number of them that are between the 200 and 500 passengers that you'll find are actually more expensive than the smaller ones. So you have to take a look at that.
For us, that was 100 % our main criteria is that we were gonna do one that was less than 200. And so I wanna talk a little bit about the landing experience, starting with what you wear. They actually provide, and most companies do, but they actually provide a parka that ended up being a very warm parka. And they actually provide the boots as well. And so the boots are important because they have to clean them very, very well.
You leave all this stuff in the boot room as well and they have to make sure that they are cleaned in between the different places that you land because from one penguin colony to the other you can contaminate, if they have like some kind of sickness or some kind of something that could be contaminated from one to the other. And so they actually clean them really well and then you go through like a sanitizing little process and they clean them in between. So those are the things they provide.
⁓ And also, so and then underneath that, you need to wear some kind of base layer, waterproof pants. So you bring those on your own. Typically, we did like a base layer and then the waterproof pants, warm socks, gloves, hat, that kind of thing. And we'll talk about the weather in a second or whether that was enough, that kind of thing. But that's basically what you wear. And then you can bring, of course, cameras and sunglasses,
with you. We also recommend a dry bag just in case that made it easy to put stuff in have extra stuff not get wet on the the zodiacs and in the landings as well. Different landing experiences they also provide hiking poles and a couple of the landing experiences they were actually like emergency shelters that were there from like a long time ago. One of them
would have been like a whaling kind of outpost type of a thing, right? When whaling was an industry and for people who did expeditions and that kind of thing. So there was a couple of places that had like huts that were restored so that you could see that. But basically you're doing just a very short, I would say like hike some of them. What's actually cool, cause one of them they had set up, it was like more steeper. You could kind of choose your own adventure. could either go up that steeper hill.
or like a more, I guess, moderate one. And then that was probably the longest one. And then there was another time when it was just shorter. It was kind of up the hill so that you could look out and see another bay. So there wasn't like a ton of walking. I think max on land was just right at an hour at any given time as well. The other things that you can not do, you can't kneel down.
You can't sit down. You're not supposed to put your stuff on the ground again because of contaminating these animal populations. Anything else about the landing Scott that people might be curious about? So that was basically, that was basically how that worked. One of the times they actually had the Antarctica flag, I guess the continental landing, they had a cloth Antarctica flag. Also to note, I had brought some paper ones. did, there was one lady who had something that was laminated.
And she wasn't allowed to take that because of the plastic as well. So they have to kind of make sure, you know, people don't, you don't drop your stuff, you don't drop gloves, know, nothing gets left there as well.
The only thing I'd say is for the landings, do have to be able to get in and out of the Zodiac. It's not like you pull up to a dock and get off onto a dock. You're having to get out of the Zodiac onto the land. You may have to step in the water first.
you do have to have some mobility, but I don't think it's anything that's super limiting. Yeah. And also like probably the same kind of mobility you would have needed for the ship while they were elevators to actually get on and off of the ship, like in the port, not on here.
you had to be able to go down like up and down steps. Same thing to get to the Zodiac. You actually, you did have to be able to climb steps. So you can't be like on a scooter or a wheelchair or something like that and be able to do this. But some people didn't want to do like the walks. You literally could have gotten off and said, I stood on Antarctica and gotten back on the Zodiac and gone back to the ship because they were back at that point, since they were doing the different groups, they were running back and forth the shuttle. So you could stay as short as you wanted to.
Well, one of the most exciting things that I think that we did was the polar plunge. And this is something that we had been looking forward to. And I'm going to admit, I was a little bit scared of, I had this thing running through my mind is what if I jump into this cold water and all of a sudden my heart stops? And I'm going to say, I think people put that into my mind because I didn't have that before. I was really excited about doing the plunge, just fearful of how cold the water was.
But then on the ship, were people that were like, I'm afraid my heart would stop. And it's like, gosh, you know, is my heart going to stop when I jump into this cold water? but they had a team, a rescue team there that was right there. And then they also had the doctor was out there. so they were plenty prepared for anything that might happen, but nothing did. I think even an 82 year old man, did the polar plunge.
They also put a strap around your body as you're waiting there in line and then they have a rope that they attach to that because they also don't want you to swim off or anything like that. Nobody's swimming off. nobody's swimming off. But I don't know, you might have that person, but nobody on our ship would.
I don't think we'd even try. brain takes over at some point and says you need to survive. Get your body out of this water. Yeah. I honestly, I was afraid to like write it. You know, I knew I was going to do it, but just like when it got to be like the time, it was just like, my gosh, like this is really happening. But honestly, it happens so fast. I mean, I look back at the video. it's like less than 10 seconds that you're even the water. like you said, you don't even think your brain is just like swim to the ladder,
And they have that exhibition team there to like just help you, if you need help and they were great about video and then the ship photographer like take a picture and all that was included. So that was great. But that was a really, really fun experience. Yes, cold, but like honestly, even easier than like trying to get in a cold plunge or go in the ocean or something like that because you literally are jumping in. One lady did ask if she could climb down the ladder and they were like, if you want to, but I don't think you could. I don't think you could do it. You get your toes in and you're going to stop.
I mean, this water was around 29, 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Um, they actually had to use the Zodiacs to push the ice away from the boat, so that we could do this. So it was exhilarating. We got the pictures in an email today. And so it was so fun to look back through there and see everybody. as they would do it, they told you to look over at the camera and, you saw some people would, do a dive.
Some people did cannonballs. Lots of funny faces. One man did a belly flop. And so somebody was like, my God, didn't that hurt? And he was like, I didn't even feel it. Like, I don't think you would feel it because it would be like the cold would take over from the belly flop. Some people dove too. Yeah, like you said. my gosh. Well, let's talk. So let's answer some of the questions that we've gotten from listeners about Antarctica and traveling there. And I think the first one that
obviously comes to most people's mind is how much does a trip to Antarctica cost?
So that's a great question. There's not a cut and dry to answer because different months are gonna be different and different cruise lines are gonna be different too. So November and March are the shoulder season. That can absolutely provide the best value. It's realistic to expect anywhere from 10 to 15,000 on the shoulder season. And then during the peak season, so that would be December, January between 12 and 18,000 per person or more.
So I should say or more because if you did, like a two bedroom suite or, nice accommodations. We had one that was called their Horizon State Room, think that had, didn't have the balcony, but it was almost like that balcony space was inside. And then we had a window that went down, which we're going to talk about in another episode, but that's basically where you are at.
I would think a good budget to plan for is that 10 to $15,000 a person. And honestly, what you get for that is absolutely incredible. Yes, you would have to get yourself two Buenos Aires on top of that, but then they get you there. This tour's included the transfer. mean, all the food.
So these are then typically luxury cruise lines ⁓ and then most everything included from there, except for the kayak camping internet, but depending on when you book or who you book with, like some of those things might be thrown in. So it really, it just depends, but that's essentially what you're gonna need to budget for the trip like this.
The next question is, isn't it incredibly cold in Antarctica? So remember that expeditions to Antarctica occur during the Southern Hemisphere summer season. So they have that window, like I just mentioned, from November, maybe the end of October, but really November to March, and that's it. So that's...
the time period that you need to plan for. And so while we were there, the average daily temperature is around 33 degrees Fahrenheit. So, and you're dressed like more than appropriately, like that coat was probably rated to like negative something, wouldn't you say? The parka that they gave us that had a vest and between that and your base layers, honestly, a lot of the times when we were on land, we're wanting to pull this stuff off. I took off my hat, took off my gloves.
The parka had like straps that you could, the one where we did the longer walk, like several of us were pulling these off. We were sweating. In the parka, one of those Marmot or Marmo or whatever it's called. Oh, I don't know if it was the, yeah, they had it, brand, they're branded, but they were very, very nice. Yeah. think it's, you know, like Melissa said, it's one that's rated to well below the temperature of what it's going to be like while you're there.
⁓ we did have one day that was incredibly windy and snowing. ⁓ that was when we did the landing on the continent and, it felt good that day. I had already zipped out the vest liner in there. That was one of the first things I did is I zipped that out and I'd wear the vest around the, boat accidentally left it on our flight back from Buenos Aires. so it's
it was in the overhead, somebody has a vest now, but, take that out and what you're doing is you're dressing to protect yourself from the wind, not the cold. Yeah, we had both taken both like glove liners and ski gloves. Neither one of us ever used our ski gloves. And like I mentioned, there was a couple of times on land where I took them off because it's obviously easier to take pictures.
And the other thing I found incredibly useful was like a very thin buff. I took like a thicker buff, but I didn't even need that. So honestly, it's not as cold as you would think. There were times when I actually got colder, like as we were on the side of the ship, like looking at the wildlife, but that was because I didn't, run down and get my jacket. We learned also very quickly to like keep cameras, jackets.
hats, gloves with you on the ship at all times. Cause you don't want to have to run back to the room when like everybody else was looking at the whales. next question that we got is why would anybody travel to Antarctica? And I think that we've answered the reason of why during this episode, but the reality is only 0.002 % of the world's population is ever going to visit Antarctica.
It's not easy to reach. And for most people, it's pretty cost prohibitive. But if you want to visit all the continents or you love nature and wildlife, this is the trip for you. my gosh. It is just. Undescribably beautiful. I don't know that we've like really talked about that, but especially when the skies are blue and you have the white, you're seeing glaciers everywhere that.
water and the sky is just pristine. The ice is incredible. What was so interesting, we didn't talk about that either, but there were times when we, like there wasn't really wildlife around, but the guides were taking us through in the zodiacs and talking about the ice. Like this ice is this many thousands of years old because it's the clear, and because of the pressure and just learning about all that. When we were kayaking, I put my hand in the water and said,
I heard somebody else comment, this is the cleanest air that you are ever going to breathe.
That's true. I also thought about one of the times when we were sitting in one of the lectures, they were showing a video of I think the very first expedition cruise to Antarctica, maybe in the 50s or something like that. And then she showed a chart, the number of people per year that had visited Antarctica because they keep up with, mean, obviously since so many people,
Not many people go, right? And it's very regulated. They keep up with all this data and she was showing all that. And of course nobody went during COVID and that kind of thing. I came to the realization that when I was a kid or growing up or even probably when I was in my twenties, I never would have thought visiting Antarctica would ever even be a possibility. I don't know that that thought had ever occurred to me before.
I always thought it was something I think reserved for like hardcore researchers, scientists, these people who were like, I'm going to ski across Antarctica and beat these records. Not that a place that you would or could visit on vacation. And so I think I'm just incredibly grateful that that's an opportunity, but I'm also incredibly grateful that they have put these boundaries in place. Like I mentioned, it's so regulated.
that it's being protected, And they are educating you as you're doing this on a variety of topics, whatever you're interested in and the expedition guides are there to talk to you. And that was one of the things I think they wanted us to carry from that is
how we do need to protect this place because it affects the rest of the world.
Well, let's get a couple of more quick questions. What happens if there's a medical emergency?
So there was a whole like medical place on the ship. There was a doctor, I think there was a nurse at the very beginning. I never really saw her again, but on our voyage on Atlas, there was emergency med evac insurance that was built into the fair. There was also a helipad on the ship. Now there wasn't a helicopter on our particular ship. There are some on some of them. And so I think there is...
infrastructure around that's not far away that you don't really see. So thankfully that they didn't have to use that, but that is something that is included because I'll be honest with you, that is something that I think they have to include because it's not like you can go get that from anywhere else, but they are equipped for that just in case.
Yeah. And like I said, we had an 82 year old gentleman who was on our ship. it's not just for the young people, I would say, there wasn't very many young and that kind of goes to our next question is can kids go to Antarctica? So kids can go, but from everything I have found on any expedition ships, you have to be eight years old, um, to go.
so you might want to, check into that to see, I did see that maybe there's one where you could be younger, but then they weren't allowed to go on land. and actually one of our guides, Glinda told us that that's because it's just very hard to control like them touching and sitting and, and then also that they are something about more susceptible to like carrying those germs and, and could be a danger, as well. So,
I think eight is the minimum from what I've seen. The youngest person on our ship was 12, a son that was there with his dad. And then there were a couple like high school college age kids, but most everybody older than that. So we had no kids on our ship.
So Scott, have one last question for you before you sum it all up. What does Antarctica actually feel like?
Well, I'm going to start out by saying I didn't see any UFOs down there. So I think that's just a bunch of bull malarkey.
The landscape in and of itself is just beautiful and gorgeous. And then you layer on top of that, the wildlife that lives there. And you just think about how they actually thrive in this climate. And it's just such a special place. And then layer on top of that, you're going somewhere that so few people ever see outside of a photo or a video. And that right there.
is just kind of, I think, summary of Antarctica.
This Antarctica trip was also special for us because it was one of the group journeys we host through Sunshine Travelers Experiences. Traveling with a group of like-minded explorers added another layer to the whole adventure. If Antarctica is something you've been dreaming about, we'd love to help you plan it. Whether it's joining a future group trip or creating a custom itinerary, you can reach us at sunshinetravelersexperiences.com.
And in our next episode, we'll talk more about the expedition cruise experience itself, including the ship we sailed and what life is like on board in Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (53:55)
Well that's it for today's episode. Wherever you're listening from, we hope we've added a little spark to your travel dreams today.
Speaker 2 (54:02)
If you've been enjoying the show, a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform goes a long way. It helps new listeners join our Sunshine Travelers family.
Speaker 1 (54:10)
Be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (54:14)
and join us on Instagram or Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember, that's Travelers with one L.
Speaker 1 (54:19)
And if the stories, tips, and adventures we share bring a little sunshine to your week, you can even buy us a cup of coffee now. You'll find the link in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (54:29)
And of course, share this episode with a friend. Adventure is always better together.
