Trip to Antarctica is a penguin-palooza

I've been obsessed with penguins for two decades. But I just wasn't getting the same thrill from visits to aquariums and zoos, my penguin jewelry and clothing, or the "modern penguin" decor in my home.

Once I saw "March of the Penguins," the best of many penguin documentaries I've seen, I knew what I had to do: go to Antarctica.

I booked a 12-day cruise from Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctica Peninsula in February, when it's late summer, the pack ice has melted and penguin rookeries are at their busiest, with fuzzy chicks squealing and chasing adults for food.

I got everything I dreamed of and more. I was in Penguinland.

Every day for a week, I was surrounded by hundreds to thousands of penguins, standing amid their raucous rookeries, with some running right by my feet. There were so many penguins, I had to be careful not to step on them as they checked out me and my shipmates.

Antarctica cruises

To get details on companies offering Antarctic cruises, go to www.cruising.org, the Web site of the Cruise Lines International Association, or contact a travel agent. Seattle-based REI Adventures is among those offering Antarctica cruises, www.reiadventures.com/ or 800-622-2236.Seattle-based Holland America, www.hollandamerica.com or 877-932-4259 also offers some Antarctica excursions on some of its South America cruises.

What to take

When traveling to such a remote place, be prepared. Among the essentials to take:

• Knee-high rubber boots, for getting in and out of Zodiac boats in the cold ocean.

• Water- and wind-proof jacket and pants.

• Binoculars for watching birds and whales.

• Wrap-around sunglasses to protect your eyes from wind and glare.

• Twice as much film or digital-camera memory cards as you think you'll use.

• Waterproof container for your camera gear. One splash of salty seawater coming over the side of a Zodiac can trash an expensive camera and your other electronic gear.

Associated Press and The Seattle Times

I watched penguins waddling around on rocky islands, sprawled on their bellies on lichen-covered hillsides, climbing up steep rock cliffs, and strolling by waddles of snoozing seals that would terrify them in the water.

There were Adelie penguins (the classic all black-and-white ones), gentoos, chinstraps and even a pair of macaronis, one of the four crested species with yellow punk-looking feathers for eyebrows.

They were landing on beaches, diving into and swimming in the sea, hanging out on ice floes, preening each other. The chicks, with feathers starting to emerge from gray down, kept flapping their wings to build their swimming muscles.

Beyond the birds

The trip wasn't all penguins — I saw albatrosses with 11-foot wingspans following the ship as we crossed the infamous Drake Passage, the roughest seas on Earth. I made it both ways without getting seasick, but many shipmates weren't so lucky.

I bounced over ocean swells as we were ferried twice a day to the peninsula and neighboring islands in rubber Zodiac boats from our ship, the Aleksey Maryshev, a former Russian research ship comfortably retrofitted for 50-passenger cruises to the polar regions.

An incurable night owl who often closed the ship's bar with buddies, I happily hopped out of my bunk as early as 5:30 a.m. for excursions. I became adept at getting ready in minutes, pulling on thermal underwear, wick-away-the-moisture shirts and socks, wool socks, two layers of shirts, ski bib, rubber boots, scarf, hat, four-layer wind- and waterproof hooded jacket, life preserver, sunglasses, waterproof backpack full of camera gear, gloves, mittens.

I joked about the Monty Python albatross sketch, and, of course, the penguin-on the-telly one, which I had illustrated on one of the T-shirts I wore. (The Dutch and German passengers didn't get it.)

Never a birdwatcher — except, of course, of penguins — I learned to identify several kinds, including Antarctic terns and snowy sheathbills. I marveled at glaciers, snowfields, icebergs and ice floes, and saw four kinds of seals, massive next to the foot-high penguins.

I likely set a record, charging $353 in 20 minutes in the only souvenir shop we visited, at a historic British radio and research station on a tiny island in Port Lockroy teeming with penguin chicks.

I ate some lovely meals, enjoyed some great South American wines and beers, and discussed everything from wildlife and photography to sports and international politics with fellow passengers from a dozen countries.

And within a day, I had a new life mission, to visit all 18 penguin species in their habitats.