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NBC News Correspondent Kerry Sanders and Producer Nery Ynclan recently returned from Antarctica. Below, Ynclan chronicles the journey; you also can click on the map above for more dispatches from across the breathtaking seventh continent.
ANTARCTIC PENINSULA -- Visiting Antarctica is like visiting another planet, where the aliens are friendly and greet you in tuxedos.
A recent study found that global temperatures are warmer now than at any time in the last 4,000 years -- and getting warmer. With that in mind, NBC's Kerry Sanders recently traveled to the bottom of the earth, to Antarctica, where this warming trend is already having a big impact.
Seeing the seventh continent is a bucket-list must, and it is more accessible than ever before. About 35,000 people visit each year.
Anyone over 13 years old can go to Antarctica using most of the 40-plus companies that host polar expeditions.
Trips can cost anywhere between $4,000 and $50,000 for 11 to 20 days. Prices depend on how early you book -- two years ahead for the best deals -- and whether you bunk with strangers or want VIP accommodations on a private yacht.
But the sights and the meals are the same: incredible for everyone.
In the elements
It is called an expedition and not a cruise for a couple of reasons: The storied Drake Passage is seriously rough, and the weather decides where you are going. Motion-sickness medication is a necessity.
Unless you live in Argentina or New Zealand, getting there is a schlep. We traveled from Miami to Buenos Aires, and a day later flew another four hours to Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost spot, where we spent the afternoon in Tierra del Fuego National Park.
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Nery Ynclan in front of signs showing the distance of various international destinations at the Brown science station in Paradise Bay, Antarctica.
The next day, we boarded Quark Expeditions to Antarctica with a busload of people from all over the world for an adventure that 100 years ago seemed impossible.
Our destination: A rocky land mass about twice the size of the continental United States, frozen over by mountains of ice and snow dating back hundreds of thousands of years.
After a merciful 18 hours through the Drake Passage, we disembarked onto Zodiacs and headed for our first landing on Antarctica.
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See photos from NBC's Kerry Sanders' voyage to Antarctica.
‘Lucky to be here’
Perched on the Zodiac, Louise Lewen of Canada capsulized the excitement of seeing our first wild penguins: “They’re all here as if they’re coming to say, ‘Welcome to my home, welcome to my world.’”
We were surrounded by glaciers the size of skyscrapers, Gentoo and Chinstrap chicks chasing parents for food and a beach awash in giant chunks of ice – it was unreal.
Marine biologist Fabrice Genevois tells NBC's Kerry Sanders, with their ability to mimic, the Adelie species is the "most funny" of all penguins.
“I feel so lucky to be here,” said Eva Mallis of New York.
A big part of these eco-travel trips is onboard history classes. We had some extra special guests: Falcon Scott and Jonathon Shackleton, descendants of two of the most famous polar explorers who traveled to Antarctica more than 100 years ago.
Chile's connection to Shackleton's adventure
The original Scott and Shackleton traveled together to Antarctica in 1901 in one of various turn-of-the-century attempts to reach the South Pole. Scott finally reached the pole in 1912, but died along with his men on the bitter trek back. Shackleton secured his place in the history books with the 1914 trip of the Endurance, the storied ship that became trapped in the ice, stranding the crew for nearly two years years and forcing them to eat seals and even their sled dogs. They were eventually rescued.
NBC's Kerry Sanders meets up with the descendants of legendary polar explorers Sir. Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott.
‘Sleeping on ice’
Another highlight was spending the night camping on the ice, splayed out like elephant seals. The critical choice was whether to sleep in a traditional tent or a bivy sack -- essentially a plastic-zippered body bag to shield your sleeping bag from the elements.
With limited bivy sacks, we arrived early to be first in line -- it was our way to be closer to Mother Nature. That night, we were hit with rain and snow. No bivy-wackers slept a wink (except Kerry – correspondents are perpetually exhausted and can sleep anywhere, even when surrounded by penguins and leopard seals.)
NBC's Kerry Sanders and producer Nery Ynclan reveal what it's like to camp out on a sheet of ice in Antarctica, zipped up in a bivy sack.
A warm shower on the ship got us all back in the frozen wilderness mood and the Zodiac rides and landings that followed were each as magical as the first. Whether we floated up to rocks covered in penguins or an iceberg covered in napping seals, or spotted a pod of mammoth whales bobbing off the bow, it’s as if we entered an episode of “Planet Earth.” Everyone was quiet, partly to not scare the animals, partly in sheer awe.
Particularly spectacular was watching penguins “fly” on Cuverville Beach. Penguins don’t fly through the air, but they fly through the water in teams, like synchronized swimmers.
Catching it on film? Not so easy, but what fun trying.
Marine biologist Fabrice Genevois speaks with NBC's Kerry Sanders about Gentoo penguins and their extraordinary way of swimming which at times can appear as if they are "flying."
- Day 1: Greeted by dirt, not ice
- Day 2: Climate change decimates food supply for penguins
- Day 3: Watching Mother Nature in action
- Day 4: How to sleep outdoors in Antarctica
- Finale: Trips to the seventh continent are not just for scientists
Leave a Comment:
Nice to know, your remembered for freezing to Death! Way to go,Shackleton! Now, Lets talk about Ted Williams!
$5,000? I'll take the Billion dollar Obama tour!
You want to tour the Solyndra plant?
40 plus companies selling trips for $4,000 to $50,000 per person. No comment on how many barrels of oil must be burned to get one person there and back, but I'm guessing it's more than a few each. Article on nightly NBC news yesterday talked about the decline in animals due to ice melting due to global warming from burning of fossil fuels. Today this article is hawking trips for the wealthy. The goal is to see them before they are wiped out from going to see them. I know a guy who took his family of four to see the Galapagos a couple of years ago. Eco tour they call it. They burned fuel for 2.5 days to get there from Florida, toured for 3 days and burned fuel for 2.5 days to get back. A year or two ago the Galapagos recorded an extinction of one of the turtle species. OF course none of the scientists who get paid by universities and gubmints, have seen any connection between the massive amount of fuel burned to go see the remote places and the destruction of those places. Galapagos has a trash and sewage problem from all the eco tourists. The critters are doomed. The fun the scientists are having "studying them" is about to end, unless one of them finally grows a spine and starts a campaign to cut down eco-tours.
Maybe because it isn't a massive amount of fuel?
IReadyou
I was thinking exactly the same thing as I was reading this. I also read the article on the declining penguins yesterday. Lets promote tours so that more pollution can be reaped upon the south! Makes about as much sense as liberalism.
Heard a scientist in radio interview say the PPM of carbon in the air is over 400. Never been that high in human history. MHR83 : Any frivolous barrel burned is a barrel too much if you are being choked by it. Some penguin rookeries are 10% the size of 10 years ago. Those pesky scientists have done ice bores in the antarctic and tested ice containing atmospheric records going back 400,000 years. At no time was there carbon in the air like we have it today.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous most likely not for the working stiff here
I'm thinking the same people who are in the top 5% of the income brackets are also the ones burning fuel far and away more than the avg folks. Skiing in Colorado or the Andes, summer in Europe, Business trips coast to coast (they invented phones and Internet now) 8k sq ft homes, with another at the beach. heated and cooled 4 car garages, heated pools in Florida, running the AC real hard to enjoy a fire in the fireplace (I've been to homes where this goes on), several propane heaters on the patio so the party goers can enjoy a 45 degree night chatting, and on and on. Then let's take an eco tour to see the penguins before they all die !
For those who can't make the trip, a large photo book from Barnes and Noble, read while soaking both feet in ice water might be almost as good.
I have been to the outlying parts of Siberia. It was -70 degrees for a few days there. Once was enough. Same for Outer Mongolia.
Antarctica is the only place on earth governed by a Treaty which stipulates no military allowed, no resource extraction (oil/mineral) and that the continent's primary use will be one of science and peace.
Every other piece of land north of Antarctica with a government could learn from such a Treaty.
What, no gourmet dinning, skiing to Vinson, or flyby to the Pole?
I'd rather see penguins at the zoo and snow in my backyard.