Dreamscapes magazine features The Antarctic Dream
Dreamscapes, a travel and lifestyle magazine published in Canada, features an Antarctic cruise expedition with The Antarctic Dream in its Winter-Spring 2011 issue. To read the story in the digital edition of the magazine, click here and start on page 50.Writer Reed Glenn experienced Antarctica on this small, 78-passenger ship, which allowed for landings, up-close wildlife encounters, and even swimming. Glenn writes:The water was actually warm—scalding, in fact. Deception Island—the site of our otherworldly beach—is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, the protruding northwest finger of the Antarctic continent that beckons toward the tip of South America.Eons ago, the huge volcanic cone on Deception Island collapsed and filled with water. Our small expedition ship, the Antarctic Dream, actually sailed into the caldera (crater), a natural, safe harbour. Before our swim, we hiked up to the crater's rim to glimpse the primordial landscape. Afterwards, the crew dug a pool on the beach about 15 metres from the sea, where the thermal water bubbled up, making a steamy though murky Jacuzzi—"a penguin mud wallow" one bather remarked."OK, everybody in the ocean!" someone shouted and we dashed barefoot from our warm beach bath over the somewhat painful volcanic rubble to the surf. While some he-men and she-women dove right in, I came to a screeching halt when the frigid ocean waters hit my knees. As our ship hovered offshore like a phantom in the mist, its attentive crew stood by us in full polar attire handing out fluffy white towels.The Antarctic Dream is a 78-passenger luxury cruise ship that was originally commissioned by the Chilean navy. Now this modernized, luxury ship transports travelers on Antarctic cruise expeditions. An expedition with The Antarctic Dream features up-close wildlife encounters both on land and in the ocean, kayaking in Antarctica, and Antarctic camping, new for 2011. Find out more at http://www.antarctic.cl/web_eng/.The Antarctic Dream is offering a 20 percent discount for its February 18 departure.