In addition to attempting to get to 100 countries, I am also trying to make it to all seven continents, so a trip to Antarctica was required. After much cajoling, I was even able to convince Brenda to come on this trip, after convincing her that they did not have squat toilets in Antarctica. What I didn't tell her was that they don't have any toilets in Antarctica.
Unless you're filthy rich, the only way you can get to Antarctica is to take a boat from either the southern tip of South America or from the southern part of Australia. If you are filthy rich, I believe you can take a charter flight over, if not to, the South Pole. For our purposes, the easiest way was to fly to Ushuaia, Argentina, and cruise from there.
After doing much research, we chose to cruise with Quark Expeditions, on their Antarctic Explorer tour aboard the Sea Spirit. There is no cheap way to get to Antarctica, but we were able to get a 25% early booking discount from Quark, so the cost was merely painful, and not debilitating.
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| The Sea Spirit |
The RDU-Ushuaia nonstop flights don't operate during the winter (which is summer in Antarctica and South America), so I had to cobble together an RDU-Miami-Buenos Aires-Ushuaia itinerary. We broke up the journey by spending a couple of nights in Miami Beach.
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| Getting to Ushuaia, and then to Antarctica |
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| Our journey on the Sea Spirit |
Next: A Stopover in Miami Beach
