At Sea to Ushuaia, Argentina
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Antarctica in all of her splendor is personally and uniquely ours. On a day when we leave the storied Drake Passage behind, we begin by remembering.
The seventh continent holds and gives her very own magic, like no other place on our planet. The song of ancient glaciers calving, millions of hues of blue reflected from towering ice cliffs and majestic icebergs, silence of snow falling and freezing on seawater, a leopard seal vocalizing, and penguins calling for their mates. Antarctica touches us with extraordinary moments and in the most unexpected ways.
As we navigate the last of the Drake, dolphins ride the bow of National Geographic Explorer. Albatrosses, the great flyers, soar and circle overhead constantly looking for a meal. Land comes into site. The Beagle Channel greets us with welcomed calm water to sail in. Our galley team treats us to a special tea time with Argentine lomitos on the back deck. A pilot boards the ship to assist in the navigation of shallow waters and docking in Ushuaia, Argentina a quaint South American town where we will disembark.
We are closing and commencing, all in the same breath, as life is a perfect circle. As Emerson so eloquently said: “What lies behind us and before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Each of us, individually and collectively, holds what no other can take from us, the experience of the only true wilderness left on our planet. May we use our images and voices to preserve and protect the last continent shared by all nations.
