Yeah, apparently tourism to Antarctica is picking up. The trip I took was run by Aurora Expeditions (http://www.auroraexpeditions.com). We embarked at Ushuaia, Argentina and crossed the Drake Straight, which took about 2 days. We then spent the better part of a week traveling along the peninsula. We made two landings a day and the trip was catered for photographers and climbers. We made it almost half way down the peninsula and had brilliant weather. The ship, the Polar Pioneer, was a converted research vessel with a capacity of 50 passengers, excluding the crew and the expedition staff. It was a nice size group, as we got a lot of personal attention. We did see a normal crusie ship down there, as well as smaller vessels, like sailing yachts.

We did visit two research stations, one manned by Russians and one by Brits. We received stamps in our passports from each and were able to buy souveniers and send postcards/letters.

If you’d like more info, feel free to email me at ssun@ssun.net

Spencer