akademikioffe-cheesemans
The ship ‘Akademik Ioffe’.

Packing for Antarctica

26 December 2012

In just a few hours, on Thursday, December 27, the 95 participants and 17 staff of the 2012-2013 GSA expedition, “Antarctica and the Scotia Arc: Tectonics, Climate, and Life,” will board flights from around the world to an overnight rendezvous in Santiago, Chile on our way to the Southern Ocean.

From Santiago we will fly as a group on Saturday, December 29, through Punta Arenas, Chile to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The same day, we embark our 330-foot polar expedition ship, the ‘Akademik Ioffe’. There we begin our 21-day completely self-contained voyage to some of the most wildlife-rich, geologically fascinating, and remote places on Earth.

My name is Kate Spencer and I am an expedition staff naturalist with Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris. I’ll be blogging as often as possible as we visit numerous sites in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Please join us virtually for the incredible geological and wildlife sights, a taste of life at sea, and tales of adventure.