Cruising Through Antarctica

By Author: Ashton Brynn-Alvarez
Total Articles: 3
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Cruises are a great way for the average person working with an average income to see distant parts of the world comfortable and safely. The Caribbean and Mediterranean are famous for their cruise ship tours, but there are other areas of our bright and beautiful world that are easily viewed from the deck of a massive cruise ship. An Antarctica cruise will boggle your mind with the strange, unique beautiful of huge ice bergs, frozen water landscapes and a horizon of flat tundra. Of course, there are animals and plants, too, that manage to endure the environment here that you will get to see first hand.There is some geographical confusion about the two poles that divide our planet. If you go as far south as possible, you will run into Antarctica. It is a continent with a base of earth and rock just like all the other continents. It can support animals as well as plants.On the opposite side of the globe, the Arctic is where the North Pole is located. In essence, the Artic is a massive amount of ice built up at the northern tip of our planet, but the area doesn't actually have any continent below it. This means plant life is rare ...
... if at all present because there is little to no earth present. Just ice and snow.As Antarctica is as far south as you can get, Argentina is often the closest country to stop in. The southern part of Argentina makes up the most southern point of South American in general so the choice of stopping in this port is obvious.As an actual continent, the Antarctic is fully able to support penguins and other wild life. Many people incorrectly associate penguins with the north pole, or arctic. In reality, penguins only exist on our southern pole.Lots of other species manage to live and even thrive in Antarctica despite the harsh weather. For many people who take an Antarctic cruise, seeing the unique and rare wildlife of the area is a high point of the trip. Spring is the best time to travel to the Antarctic because, despite the mental image you may have about it being all ice and snow, spring flowers will be bursting with blooms and wild animals will be coming out of their harsh winter gloom.One thing to keep in mind is that the Antarctic is in the Southern Hemisphere which means the seasons are upside down compared to the Northern Hemisphere. Spring in Antarctica takes place in what we consider autumn. So to see the beautiful Antarctic in full spring glory, head south in September or October just as colder weather is setting in up north.To learn more about Antarctica cruises, click here