Background information

We are heading on another adventure soon – this one to Antarctica. People are asking me why and my answer is “because it’s there”. This will be our 7th continent and the one most people don’t get to. As an added boost for me, this actually gives us all 7 continents in one year. As some of you know, we did a World Cruise earlier this year which hit all 6 of the other continents. I’ve always wanted to visit Antarctica to see and photograph the penguins and icebergs. We will be traveling with our friends Alice & Dick Bardsley and their son Rich & his friend Alice Goedl.

We looked at a number of options for the trip and decided on Hurtigruten’s MS Fram. MS Fram is named after explorer Fridtjof Nansen´s most famous polar ship. She is the newest (2007), most luxurious vessel in their fleet and is specially designed for cruising Arctic and Antarctic waters. The technical standard is state-of-the-art and she handles icy conditions with no problem. MS Fram has 128 cabins, which feature two lower berths or a twin-size bed, and several suites. The panoramic lounges and wide deck spaces give every guest the opportunity to enjoy a fantastic view on this masterpiece of an Arctic/Antarctic cruise ship. With all berths filled, she can hold 318 passengers, but for Antarctic cruises she will carry only about 200. This is to allow all passengers to do the landings in their Polar Cirkel boats. There are very strict regulations in the Antarctic as to how many people can land at one time. Vessels carrying over 300 passengers are not allowed to make any landings; they can only cruise by the areas we will be able to explore. The Polar Cirkel boats are similar to Zodiacs but have rigid sides and seating and handrails at the front for use in embarking and disembarking the boat.

Our adventure will start November 24, 2009. We fly to Miami and overnight there; on the 25th we board our LAN flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina where we also overnight. On Nov. 27th we fly to Ushuaia, Chile to board the ship. After 9 days at sea we will do the reverse itinerary arriving back in Denver late on December 7th.

I will post a few more times prior to the trip and then I hope I am able to post daily. Stay tuned!