Drake’s Passage lies in all its frightening glory between the continent of Antarctica and the southern tip of South America. Drake’s Passage is 400 miles wide. With no land to break the squalls and colliding currents, this is the spot with the globe’s worst weather on the sea. Drake’s Passage is a real adventure before the adventure of Antarctica. I was only expecting to see penguins and icebergs. I really didn?t know what else to expect. I hadn?t researched the history or geography of Antarctica and didn?t know what immense power the continent held.

We didn?t see the infamous and deadly side of Drake?s Passage on our way to the continent. On the sail home, the Passage lived up to its evil reputation. A gray, cold sea met us that first morning in Antarctica. Your one-stop resource on antarctica cruise adventures is waiting for you.

All we could see off in the distance were gray-brown mountains covered in snow, but soon enough we had our first ice sighting. In the water, large chunks of ice were floating and bobbing along like buoys. Thankful for the red expedition parka that I had been issued upon arrival, I zipped it up as I grabbed my camera and dashed into the icy air.

We?d run outside to see the penguins, dolphins or whales that anyone else had seen. We also listened to the ship?s naturalist. We had high expectations setting off in the small raft, putting the mother ship to our stern and closely approaching the bobbing chunks of ice.Penguins lined the shoreline and contemplated the water. They stood on an icy, rocky island and considered us as we floated by.

Penguins had completely surrounded us. Itty bitty little gentoo penguins were kind enough to share their little island in Paradise harbor with a group of researchers like us!They waddled to and fro with a purpose we could only begin to guess at. Some of them stood on rocks and observed us smiling and pointing at the, occasionally snapping a photo or two. Soon they went about the business of their day. The baby penguins were left alone by their parents and had to fend for themselves. It appeared as if some of the little penguins were in denial regarding their condition.At this stage in their young lives, they were given a down covered sack of krill, which is the food that their parents would regularly eat up from the sea and throw back up into their chick’s mouths. Further resources about antarctica cruise vacations are located there.

The penguins had also started molting. A large portion of their baby coats had already changed into smooth feathers resembling scales, but spots of disheveled, grayish down was still visible in the difficult to scratch locations on the tops of their heads and on their backs, which gave them the appearance of wearing caps, earmuffs, or as if they had fallen victim to an atrocious barber.We floated back by some suspended ice as it bobbed along in the bay as we made our way back to our ship. Our driver took us straight past a big jagged piece of mountainous ice on which a lone seal was majestically stretching. He presented us with a large, pink-tongued yawn, by which he could have been indicating just how impressed he was that we were there, but which certainly was an ideal manner of concluding our day.

The penguins began displaying their very penguin-like behaviors. We all found them extremely charming. I guess it is the waddle and the gawkiness. Those shockingly orange feet highly contrast the formality of their black and white feathers. The penguins were more clean than others because this particular area had more rocks than dirt. And to make them even more fashionable, they had a thin black line under their chins, giving them the impression of round cheeks.