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What does Antarctica sound like? I've attempted to put an album together that would flesh out the experiences I had on the "great ice". At times it was quiet and peaceful...and at other times, exhilarating and alive with wonder. There is no place like Antarctica, period. Below is a special music player I've put together which showcases every track from the album. Please do have a listen! Below the player is more prose - insights behind the music. Enjoy.  Crossing The Drake Passage - The place where the mighty Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet can be quite tumultuous. These are probably the roughest waters one will encounter on a cruise - this isn't the Caribbean! Our ship was able to navigate the Drake with relative ease. Deception Island - Back in the early 1800’s, sailors would pass right by this island, never finding the entrance (“Neptune’s Bellows”). Sealing and whaling stations eventually occupied this area for years, but fortunately, that no longer takes place. Deception Island is a beautiful place – most of its glaciers are covered in volcanic ash, which makes for some unique scenery. The first penguins we spotted were here, bouncing in the water. Zodiac Cruise - Zodiacs are heavy-duty, intertube-looking rafts. Each of them holds about a dozen or so people. These were the little boats we took on our various excursions. The first was at Cuverville Island. While much of the boat ride was very calm, and even soothing, it was exhilarating at the same time. Seeing the thousands of pairs of Gentoo penguins on the island, lovely ice formations, and a close-up encounter with a Leopard seal made for an awesome excursion. Blue Ice - When you see ice that is blue in Antarctica, you know that it's very, very old ice. It is ice that absorbs all of the different wavelengths of light, except for blue. And it is wondrous to see. Penguin Dance - Penguins are definitely among the cutest and coolest animals in the world, and I'm not just talking about the ones in the movies "March of the Penguins" and/or "Happy Feet". Or the ones at your local zoo (though they're pretty neat, too). To see them up close, hopping around at your feet, or choruses of Chinstraps yammering with their heads turned to the sky is something you'll never forget. Antarctic Lullaby - Much of the Antarctica I saw was teeming with life - it was not just a dry, barren, ice-filled landscape. However, there was one spot in particular where it seems like you could hear a pin drop - the Lemaire Channel (highlighted on the cover of my CD). There was such a quiet, loving calm about the place. Eerie, but beautiful at the same time. I made sure to actually LOOK at our surroundings where we were docked (as opposed to just snapping 100's of pictures there - though I did take several), and take it all in. The only noise there was from 2 penguins chasing each other around our boat. You'd see them bounce in an out of the water and hear a quick "plop" sound. But other than that, total calm… The Last Continent - Antarctica was the last continent to be discovered. Hopefully, it - along with the rest of our world's great continents - will be around for a long, long time to come. It is pure, pristine, and enchanting. Us humans haven't managed to screw it up, yet. I hope we can keep it that way. 20 Hours Of Sunshine - As you get closer and closer to the South Pole, the sun stays out longer...and longer...and longer. :-) Eventually, the sun never really does set. We didn't exactly get to the South Pole, so we did have just a few hours of mild darkness. Otherwise, it was sunshine all the time. We lucked out with our weather during our trip - only one day was a bit overcast and all the rest were sunny. It was the best 30-degree sun I've ever felt. Iceberg Maker - While at Paradise Harbor, we heard a distant crash. It was a rumbling thunderous crackle. I didn't see what had happened, but a Naturalist who was with our group said that it was the sound of ice breaking - either a couple bergs crashing into one another, or some ice ripping off a shelf somewhere. During our trip, we saw icebergs of all shapes and sizes - some "smaller" ones floating aimlessly about sea, and others of great heights, triumphantly looking over the Antarctic landscape. Return Voyage - Our cruise back through the Antarctic Peninsula onward to Ushuaia was a bit like watching the credits at the end of a movie, where they show some pictures or video on the side of the screen. The trip was sadly coming to an end, but it was a great, majestic end. We passed through the Drake Passage once again, and even got fairly close to Cape Horn. As great as these final sights were, thoughts of my days on and around Antarctica were already coming to my mind. They stuck with me the whole way back home to Chicago, and have been a part of me since. I'll never forget my trip to Antarctica.
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