A Trip to Antarctica
We are just back from the trip of a lifetime,
wandering around the white continent and cruising through the Chilean fjords.
It is hard to describe this place in words but in one line I would say that
whatever vague notion of heaven we have in our minds; Antarctica is as real as
it can get. Here I will talk about all the different parts of our travel and
the planning to help out other fellow travellers, especially from an Indian
point of view. Also I will share some photographs taken by my wife to further
inspire you :). We started from India on 3rd December.
All the major airlines go till Sao Paulo from there you have to take any South
American airline to reach Santiago. We arrive at Santiago on 4th
December 1 AM and left for Calama at 6 AM to visit the Atacamas. It’s a
wonderful place and it is a good idea to club it with your Antarctica trip if
you are going through Chile. We reported to our Cruise company on 6th
December afternoon for our tour briefing and overnight stay at Santiago. The
Ship starts sailing on 7th December from Punta Arenas.
Visa
Most of the ships leave from Argentina but a few
(like ours) start from Chile. The visa application for Chile is fairly straight
forward now. But the web site is not updated and it is hard to even find the
right application form. We ended up filling an outdated form and turned up at
the embassy. The guard pointed us to the right link. https://tramites.minrel.gov.cl.
The list of documents required can be found from here.
You have to fill in the application form here and
make sure that it is actually submitted and you receive the 6-digit application
number. Once it is approved you have to just take the print out of the form
along with your passport and submit at the embassy at Vasant Vihar, New Delhi.
In case you have a valid US/UK visa then you can assign a visa agent to
submit/collect it on your behalf. They will give you a receipt to deposit fees
in a nearby bank and usually the passport is ready for collection in 2 working
days. They don’t necessarily update the status online and you have to call the
embassy and confirm it.
For Antarctica you don’t need any visa/permit.
Everything is taken care of by the cruise company.
Choosing the right Ship
Both the bigger ships and the smaller ships have
their pros and cons for Antarctic voyage. The bigger ships have more facilities,
are more stable in the Drake’s passage and they have state of the art emergency
rescue systems. The smaller ones will be a bit shaky and may not have the above
facilities. But since there is a restriction on the number of people that can
land at a given area in Antarctica, the bigger ships will put people in batches
and ultimately you end up landing for 1-2 hours each day (though we always used
to come back in the last Zodiac from the land but some companies may strictly
follow the rules ). In the smaller ships you can spend the entire day on the
land. We went on a mid-sized ship MS Midnatsol operated by Hurtigruten. The ship
was amazing and cruise experience was much above our expectations. It is
absolutely worth all the money that you are paying them. We booked a polar outside cabin for 11,000
euros for two people. The lowest rate that I can see on the website is 4000
euros for triple occupancy in a cabin with no window. We booked a cabin with
view but since you stay outside throughout the day it won’t make any
difference. Some people do directly reach the departure point few days before and try to get the best last minute deal. If you have ample time and are a risk taker then thats not a bad idea.
On Board MS Midnatsol
The ship has all the regular facilities that you
need. A library, a science center, panoramic observatory, gym, hot pool, lot of
interesting lectures in the conference room, 3 well stocked bars and variety of
food. Food is included in the cruise ticket. For us Indians though it got a
little monotonous after a while as we started missing our spicy food. So be
mentally prepared for that. You can carry your own alcohol which can only be
consumed in your cabins. But the on board bar is also not prohibitively
expensive (INR 300 for a mug of beer) and you can have it while relaxing in the
lounge staring at the vast ocean and ice.
Here are few photos of the ship.
Above is our cabin. It was small but very
optimally designed. So it seemed quite spacious for two people.
The Antarctic Experience
Now comes the real part. While cruising through the
fjords leaving Chile, you feel like you are inside the sets of Game of Thrones.
You will be sailing through lush green mountains and crossing the lands beyond
the seven kingdoms.
We had a stop at Port Williams which is considered
to be the southernmost town of the world. Though there are two more claimants
for this: Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. I guess they all have a different
definition of city. We had the full day to explore this port town and the Omora
National Park. This is home to the Yamana tribes and there are still roughly
100 pure blood Yamanas living on this port town. We had few lectures on them
during our cruise.
Here are few shots from this place.
Cape Horn is the last piece of land that you will see before you reach Antarctica. It was customary for the ships going south to stop here and pray for a safe passage. They have even installed a life sized sculpture of an albatross. Their wingspan can grow as big as 4 meters. There is one house on that island where a navy officer stays with his family. He maintains the light house. You also get the option to put a full page cape horn stamp on your passport as a souvenir. It has no official meaning but good to have :).
Then comes the dreaded drake’s passage. In our case
it was not as horrible as we had read online. It was bumpy for around 40 hours
but nothing to make you sick. And you cross a lot of albatrosses during your
voyage and they make sure that you have a safe passage through this fusion of
the Atlantic and the Pacific. Here is one of the pics that we managed to
capture.
And once you land in Antarctica, you quickly jump to
the sets of star-wars. The ice is all around you.
I will split our Antarctic continent journey into
different landing sites that we visited. The ship gets a good place to anchor
itself and we use the zodiac boats to visit the landing site.
Half-Moon Island (62°35′24″S 59°54′36″W) – 12th December
This one of the outermost islands of Antarctic
peninsula. You can see Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins, seals and some sea birds
at this place. Temperature was close to 1 degree Celsius and you have to warm
up as per the wind conditions. There are a lot of penguin colonies here and the
horrible smell of their excretions will always tell you where they are.
Deception Island (62°58′37″S 60°39′00″W) – 13th December
The first ship that tried to land here just kept
circling it and was not able to find the entry to this circular land. Hence the
name deception island. It has an active volcano and all the land here is
covered from the ashes of the eruptions. It gets extremely windy and the trek
to the top is not as easy it seems. Not much wildlife here but you see a
different face of the Antarctic landscape.
Neko Harbour (64°50′S 62°33′W) – 14th December
Now
this one is on the mainland Antarctica. So it is our first step on the main
Antarctic continent and in our minds we finally put a check on the 7th
continent. We had an amazing cruise experience here followed by landing. Apart
from the small land patches where the penguins make their nest out of stones,
the land mass is completely covered in ice. The weather was amazing and we
could let go of our heavy jackets on land. We got some of the best wild life
shots at this place. A standard 18-55 mm lens may not be very helpful here and
you need 200mm-300mm lens to get a close up shot of the seals/penguins.
Cuverville Island (64°41′S 62°38′W) – 15th December
This island is again dominated by the Gentoo penguin
colonies. As you approach the island you can feel the horrible stench created
by the penguins. The weather was not great and it started snowing as well. The
only silver lining is that we managed to get some got shots through the snow J.
Damoy Point and Port Lockroy (64°49′S 63°29′W) – 16th December
Domoy point has couple of cabins where some
explorers were residing decades back. You are allowed to get inside those and
have a glimpse of the lifestyle that they we were having while stuck in
Antarctica. Also land is not very hilly and the snow look like sand dunes on
this island. It looks like a white desert. Again lot of Gentoo penguins and
some super lazy seals. We waited a for a very long time for the seals to make
some movement which we can capture but they are absolutely bored of humans and kept
ignoring us.
Wilhelmina Bay (64°38′S 62°10′W) – 17th December
There
were no plans for a landing here but the expedition team members found out some
really good sea ice where we can walk around. These plates are a very integral
part of the Antarctic eco system as it supports the seals as a resting place in
their hunt for food. A lot of smaller organisms also depend on them for
planktons. During our entire journey from the past few days we could spot a lot
of humpback whales and once we got close to a pack of half a dozen of them. But
this was our lucky day. One humback whale was feeding in that bay and it was
very close to our zodiac. We had a good look at this majestic creature.
And here is our pic after completing our bucket list.
Conclusion
We
started moving northwards through the drakes passage and finally crossed it on
19th morning. Again apart from little uneasiness it was smooth for
the most part. All thanks to the ship. We made quick halts at Cape Horn and
Port Williams for operational reasons. This time the ship made some strategic
halts on the beagle channel and we thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of Chilean
fjords. We also made a quick cruising trip at Tucker Island and saw Megallanic
Penguins and a lot of other local bird species. The trip was ending on 21st
and the atmosphere was very gloomy on the ship. It was hard for everyone to
leave this serene place and jump into the hustle bustles of our daily lives. It
was not like any other vacations where there are threads tying you to the real
word. Here you are lost in the sea and ice and living some of the best moments
of your life. It is like waking up from a beautiful dream and you long to get
back to it. May be not now. May be not in near future. But definitely someday
we are going back :).
