Antarctica?? Why in the world would anyone want to go there? It's cold and only penguins live there! Well, not really. Being the South Pole, November-February is the warmest time of year "down there", so one can expect temperatures in the range of 20-40 degrees fahrenheit. Not bad. And yes, penguins do live there but there are lots of people there too, doing either research or exploration. And when you count the ever-increasing number of tourists (like me), you get the idea that many people want to learn more about Antarctica.
The two week journey to "the bottom of world" enabled me to satisfy my curiosity, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In spite of the warmer weather, my trip didn't include visiting all of the ice and mountain mass but certainly enough to give me an idea of what it's like. More specifically, my group spent its time visiting the Antarctic Peninsula, as shown in the upper left hand corner of the graphic shown here.
So, what motivated me to go "there"? Well, for starters, I offer the age old response, "I've never been there before". But to list other motivations, I felt I wanted to see, first hand, the views I had only previously seen in magazines like the National Geographic - icebergs the size of multi-story high rise buildings, or penguins in their natural habitat. I wanted to set foot on the same ground as famous explorers, being able to say "I've been there!". I wanted to see whales frolicking in their own "neighborhood". I wanted to visit research stations and learn what they are doing, probing the ice pack to learn something about the evolution of Earth. A fantastic journey to the "bottom of the world".