Have you ever looked at a picture of the earth with the South Pole at the bottom and the North Pole at the top? Frommer's will leave it that way, and refer to Antarctica as being at the "bottom" of the world. It's been difficult to get there in the past, and expensive in terms of money and life, but now the journey is within financial reach, at least.
G. A. P. Adventures, that admirable Canadian-based adventure tour operator, has just purchased the Explorer, built by Lars Eric Lindblad back in 1969 for Antarctic cruising, and beloved as "The Little Red Ship." It carries only 100 passengers, is 73 meters in length (about 210 feet) and is captained by Uli Demel, regarded as a master of navigation in those parts. You use one of its 10 heavy duty Zodiacs to skim around in and get to shore in difficult places.
G Adventures will be running seven of its ten-day Classic Antarctica tours from late November this year through March 1 next year (2004/2005), with prices starting at $2,365 (US dollars, but $3,220 CDN) per person. In addition, they will operate four other trips that take in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and/or a Polar Circle routing. Antarctica, in addition to being famous as the most inhospitable climate on earth, has spectacular scenery and a lot of wildlife, including humpback and minke whales, Orcas whales, and a large variety of penguin and seal species.