Hello from ANTARCTICA!

Hello to all of my friends and family who have been following along with my trip to Antarctica, and an extra warm hello to all of the wonderful friends I have made aboard the Viking Octantis! It has been a privilege to share my trip with everyone, and I wanted to share a few quick photos before our journey ends.

1) An Adélie penguin waddles along the sea ice.

2) A humpback whale sticks its tail out of the water as it goes for a terminal dive at the same exact moment that a gentoo penguin propels out of the water.

3) A female elephant seal lounges on the smallest patch of visible land while snow falls around her.

4) The same seal as she is viewed by a zodiac boat of fellow cruisers. Our guides have done an amazing job of teaching us about the wildlife while respecting their boundaries.

5) A gentoo penguin portrait, where you can see their slick feathers that help them swim quickly and catch their prey, typically krill.

6) An Adélie penguin peeks curiously at a zodiac boat full of onlookers.

7). An Antarctic cormorant, also known as a blue-eyed shag lands on the snow in front of a glacier.

We are leaving Antarctica tonight and are currently sailing the Drake Passage. The conditions are pretty wild with 12-15 foot waves and the boat rocking quite a bit, and yet this is considered very normal here.

Thank you for the quick check-in, and expect many more photos to come soon!