Antarctica!

We arrived at the Antarctica Peninsula on January 18th.  60 degrees south of the equator is considered "Inside the Antarctica Circle."  We had 3 experts of Antarctica on board the ship giving several lectures during the day and giving commentary from the bridge of some of the sights we were passing by.  One thing they said that we never really thought of is, "The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents and Antarctica is a continent surrounded by oceans.  We woke up on January 18th at 62 degrees south and 30 degrees fahrenheit in temperature with several iceburgs in view.  So amazing!  Below are just a few photos of the 3 days we spent cruising the Antarctica Peninsula.

 Penguins on a huge iceburg

 Video of penguins swimming and jumping out of the water

 We took this on the deck at 10 p.m. with the sun still pretty high in the sky

 Moving down the peninsula

On the bow while cruising through some narrow passages

 It's nice to have a heated pool while in Antarctica

 Family of seals sunning on the ice

We dropped anchor at the U.S. Palmer Station and several research scientist and other personnel came on board our ship to tell us what they do there.  Very interesting!

 We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions

After 3 days cruising in Antarctica, it was time to head back north and cross the Drake Passage once again.  More high swells and more rocking with an unexpected storm and 76 mph winds.  Below is a video we took from our room.