Antarctica

I was here: 6 days, plus 4 navigation days, from December 25, 2007 to January 3, 2008.
Number of days needed: at least those 6 + 4.
My score: 4/5.

If a week ago I wrote about the most atypical place where I had spent Christmas, why not continue with the most atypical place where I’ve been when the year has ended and the next one started? This is an amazing trip:

Antarctica is one of those places that seem from another planet:
- Since there is hardly any sun, the sea looks gray; as far as the eye can see, the earth is white; icebergs, some of an unreal blue, each with their unique form, compete in originality and beauty; and it is always daylight, at least in summer, the most usual time to visit it.
- Endearing animals: whales, seals and penguins of different colors and sizes, so clumsy out of the water and so fast inside it… There are also many types of other birds that you can not imagine they could reach these latitudes.
- But above all, the most shocking is loneliness. The motto on this continent is “keep Antarctica pristine” and for now it is being achieved. Climbing to the top of a hill to contemplate the nothing, masses of ice and snow without name so immense that dwarf the most famous glaciers of the globe, provokes an overwhelming sensation difficult to understand and even more difficult to explain.
And yet, this trip is not for everyone:
- It’s cold, but much less than we might think. In the middle of summer the temperature does not usually go below 0ºC.
- It is very far from almost everything. Unless we live in Argentina, Chile, South Africa or Australia, a first trip to one of these countries awaits us with the aim of embarking on our destination, what does not have to be bad news, as they are some of the best in the world to travel.
- It is very expensive, and we must add the cost of air tickets to reach the southern part of the aforementioned countries.
- The sailing can be an authentic marine inferno. Me, who never got dizzy, I spent the first two sailing days lying down and unable to eat.
- It is monotonous. Although with its differences, at each stop we will see penguins, sea, icebergs and lots of snow; such is the case that in the last days many people will prefer to stay on the boat instead of doing more excursions.

That was not my case, 6 days of that monotony were short, I would have prolonged having had more days off; After all, how many times in life does one go to another planet?