Day 1: End of the World, Start of a Journey
Your voyage begins at Ushuaia, Argentina, reputed to be the southernmost city on the planet, and nicknamed “The End of the World”. Starting in the afternoon, you embark and sail the scenic, mountain-fringed Beagle Channel for the rest of the evening.
Day 2 – 3: Path of the Polar Explorers
Over the next two days on the Drake Passage, you will experience what the first polar explorers felt: cool salt breezes, rolling seas, maybe even a fin whale blasting up sea spray. After passing the Antarctic Convergence – Antarctica’s natural boundary - You`ll notice the variations on the landscape and lifeforms, not only does the marine life change, the avian life changes too: A variety of albatrosses and petrels show up, along with Cape pigeons and southern fulmars. Then, near the South Shetlands Islands, the first icebergs flash into sight.
Day 4 – 6: Enter the Antarctic
Gray stone peaks sketched with snow, towers of broken blue-white ice, and dramatically different wildlife below and above. Sites you may visit include:
* Cuverville Island – The island houses a massive colony of gentoo penguins as well as pairs of breeding brown skuas.
* Danco Island – Activities here may focus on the gentoo penguins nesting on the island, in addition to the Weddell and crabeater seals that can be found nearby.
* Neko Harbour – An epic landscape of mammoth glaciers and endless wind-carved snow. Opportunities for Zodiac cruising and kayaking provide you the closest possible views
* Paradise Bay – You may be able to take a Zodiac cruise in these sprawling, ice-flecked waters. Chances of seeing humpback and minke whales.
* Port Lockroy – Settlement of a former British research station – now a museum and post office. You may also be able to partake in activities around Jougla Point, meeting gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags. There are great opportunities also for kayaking and camping here, and when conditions are right, you can even snowshoe around the shore.
Day 7: Scenes of South Shetland
The volcanic islands of the South Shetlands are windswept and often cloaked in mist, but they do offer subtle pleasures: There’s a wide variety of flora (mosses, lichens, flowering grasses) and no small amount of fauna (gentoo penguins, chinstrap penguins, southern giant petrels). In Deception Island, the ship plunges through Neptune’s Bellows and into the flooded caldera. Here you find hot springs, an abandoned whaling station, and many birds species. . Conditions on the Drake Passage determine the exact time of departure.
Day 8 – 9: Familiar Seas, Familiar Friends
Your return voyage is far from lonely. While crossing the Drake, you’re again greeted by the vast array of seabirds remembered from the passage south. But they seem a little more familiar to you now.
Day 10: Back in Ushuaia
We arrive in Ushuaia early in the morning, where you will disembark after breakfast.