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Antarctica (Nov-Dec 2025) - Part 2: Beagle Channel and the Drake Passage

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From a pelagic birder's perspective, this journey feels as if it is divided into three legs: the Beagle Channel/inshore South Atlantic, the Drake Passage, and Antarctica. Though there is overlap, each of those three segments has its own vibe and wildlife diversity that is different than the others. Here I am combining both the outgoing and return journeys through the Beagle and the Drake. Antarctica itself deserves its own post. In the weeks leading up to the trip, as I was telling friends and family where we were headed, the one question I received the most was "don't you have to sail through the roughest waters in the world to get there?" Even to the uninitiated, the Drake Passage is famous for its volatility. Depending on the weather, you might be greeted with the feared "Drake Shake." But if you're living right, you'll get the "Drake Lake." We were lucky in that our seas were light to moderate. Not exactly a lake, but the shaking was to...
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Antarctica (Nov-Dec 2025) - Part 1: Intro & Ushuaia

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Few locations on earth allow the imagination to run wild the way Antarctica does. Not only is it the least visited continent on the planet, but media from the White Continent is not something one stumbles across often unless you are a follower of adventure travel Instagram accounts. And even if you have caught up with photos and videos of the place, I find it nearly impossible to give justice to such a vast landscape via media. Simply put, you have to be there to appreciate the magnitude of the place. Though it is a land I had always dreamed of visiting, Antarctica was not in the plans for 2025. In fact, there was a solid chance it would have to wait until much later in life (retirement?), when one starts to prioritize "bucket list" destinations. The reason? The cost of the trip. Getting to Antarctica as a tourist is financially daunting. But rather unexpectedly late last year, Caroline and I were presented with a deal on a cruise to Antarctica that we could not pass up. So w...
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