On the "Road" Again - 2015

What are you going to do and see in Antarctica? This was the most common question we received before our trip. I believe this was a question rooted in a real curiosity about what you can see in Antarctica, other than ice. Our answer has focused on seeing the wildlife, ice floes and mountainous scenery – which is unlike any place we’ve ever visited. The thoughtful trip preparation, daily dressing in warm expedition clothes, physical isolation, spectacular views and disappearing environment all add to make Antarctica a special destination for us. For wildlife, we’re hoping to see a variety, including elephant, Weddell and leopard Seals, skuas and Adelie, chinstrap, gentoo penguins. We may also visit an historic Antarctic research station. Our Antarctica landing schedule is somewhat fluid as the weather is a major factor that determines on  a daily basis whether we can board the zodiac boats for a landing.  Weather permitting, we hope to make two zodiac landings each day.

Punta Arenas, Chile

This morning we started on our long somewhat direct flights to Antarctica. On our return trip, we’ll take a side trip Iguaçu Falls, which straddles Argentina and Brazil. This itinerary requires us to pack both cold (Antarctica) and warm (falls) weather clothes for this trip. We did a couple of dry runs  packing our duffel bags, so we've been ready for some time. During our trip, the opportunities to purchase cold weather clothing items that we need in Antarctica, such as waterproof pants, gloves and warm clothes, are limited. We hope that our luggage doesn't get lost while changing planes. My wife and I swapped a few packing cubes of clothes between our duffel bags so that if one checked-in duffel gets lost, we can somewhat recover.

Our initial journey will require three flights - from San Francisco to Dallas and Dallas to Santiago, Chile and then a smaller jet from Santiago to Punta Arenas. After a couple of nights in Punta Arenas, we board a small jet or turboprop plane to King George Island. This is the largest island of the South Shetland Islands. The island hosts research stations from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, Peru, Poland, Russia South Korea, Uruguay and the United States.

Just before departing Punta Arenas for King George Island, we'll need to repack our luggage. We'll leave our Iguazu Falls clothes at our Punta Arenas hotel. We are limited to ten pounds for our carry-on luggage on the flight to King George Island and that has required some creativity. I'll be wearing my somewhat heavy full frame DSLR with 70-300 zoom lens around my neck and my jacket pockets will bestuffed with spare glasses, extra camera batteries, DSLR lens filters, gloves and prescription meds. In my carry-on waterproof day pack, I will carry my laptop computer, one spare cropped frame DSLR camera body, a mid-range DSLR zoom lens, Kindle reader and noise-canceling headphones.We will be wearing our expedition jackets and waterproof pants and boots as we disembark the plane and take a mile walk to the zodiac boats. Apparently, there is no ship dock near the King George Island landing strip. The zodiacs offer the best way to board the Sea Adventurer, an A1 class ship with an ice strengthened hull.

You might wonder if we'll be sailing through Drake Passage, one of the roughest sections of ocean in the world. Actually, we'll be flying over this stretch of water and will only see it through our plane window.

As Internet and time permits, I'll try to update the blog with a few photos from the trip.