Antarctica cruise from Buenos Aires takes travelers on the penguin trail deep into the southern hemisphere for spectacular viewing

Gentoo penguins are recognized by their bright orange feet and their reddish beaks.

They are a bit over three feet tall when mature and lay a single egg. After it hatches, parents take turns keeping their young chick warm in the folds above their feet. It's an ingenious, generations old technique that mostly works. 

PENGUINS OF ANTARCTICA DELIGHT  VISITORS WITH ANTICS, SURVIVAL INSTINCT, REARING OF THEIR YOUNG 

Christene "Cookie" Meyers and Bruce Keller tour at Bluff Cove in the Falklands (Las Malvinas), surrounded by dozens of busy Gentoo Penguins. They arrived by cruise ship on a two-week Antarctic tour.

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS

PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER

"The Carpe Diem Kids"

I LOVE penguins. Since childhood, I've yearned to commune with these beautiful creatures. My dream to view penguins on an Antarctica cruise from Buenos Aires has twice come true.

The dream trumped a nightmare. Years ago, near Three Forks, Montana, my parents paid 50 cents a head for our family to step inside a large trailer and view two forlorn penguins on a block of ice. I was shocked and saddened to see them looking listless and lost.

King penguins are distinguished by their bright orange markings. Here they are communicating with one another. Each has a unique sound and pitch so parents and young can find one another in crowds.

They sat stoically on the ice and I envisioned them free, doing what penguins do. This wouldn't happen now -- it shouldn't have happened then. But it propelled me into a lifetime of animal advocacy, love and respect. It encouraged me to travel thousands of miles -- twice -- to view penguins in their native habitat of the vast Antarctic and blot out the nightmare.

Bruce Keller and Christene "Cookie" Meyers by their Celebrity ship enroute to view penguins.

Our Antarctica cruise from Buenos Aires didn't disappoint. We saw hundreds of charming, resilient and adorable penguins.  They made us laugh as they moved, and their young are captivatingly cute.  We chose a Celebrity cruise out of Buenos Aires to travel south to the Antarctic. Delta flights direct from Bozeman to Atlanta, then on to Buenos Aires. We arrived a week early to tour Buenos Aires for a week before our two-week cruise.

The purpose was to see wildlife, primarily penguins, the top of my "favorite wildlife" list.  Of the 18 species on the planet, 11 are threatened, so we wanted to see them again while we're still agile enough to make the 6,452 mile trip from Bozeman -- 8,600 miles from our other base in San Diego.  

A drawing on our Bluff Cove guide's jacket illustrates the importance of penguins to tourism.

WE CHOSE Celebrity and its beautiful Celebrity Eclipse.  We love the ship and it went where we wanted to explore, with a detailed focus on wildlife viewing.

The largest colony of Magellanic penguins is found on Punta Tombo, where this pair seems content and healthy and did not shy away from our cameras.

Our Antarctic penguin cruise route allowed us to spend several days watching three main species, although we saw others.

Today's feature focuses on the King, Gentoo and Magellanic penguins -- the latter named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He, too, was captivated by penguins during his five expeditions to South America in 1519, which opened trade routes across the oceans to the East Indies.

The journey by tender from Celebrity's Eclipse takes passengers deep into the Antarctic to view penguins. Getting to them involves a long journey to the southern hemisphere, in our case to Buenos Aires, then boarding tenders or zodiacs to search for the various species of penguin colonies.

There are 8 species of penguins in Antarctica and the surrounding region: Emperor, Adélie, Gentoo, Rockhopper, Macaroni, Magellanic, Chinstrap and King.

All are devoted to their young, and mostly monogamous, at least during pregnancy and until the youngster is able to fend for himself. "Then it's up to them," our guide said. 

PENGUINS ARE amazing animals. Their characteristics have long fascinated that brotherhood of animal lovers around the world.

They go incredible distances to find food for their young, sharing responsibility for maturing each precious egg. 

"Keller and Cookie" enjoy communion with the Magellanic penguins of the Falklands.

The Emperor penguin marches - some say "waddles" - 75 miles one way to find food for his or her baby. In all the species we viewed, both parents participate in the care of the egg and feeding of the chick once hatched.

Among other fascinating evolutionary traits, their stomachs have adapted to allow them to drink saltwater. Each species is unique in its appearance and habits.

THE FIRST ones we met were the Gentoo penguins. With flamboyant red-orange beaks, white-feather caps, and peach-colored feet, Gentoos stand out against their drab, rock-strewn Antarctic habitat.

Our Antarctic itinerary on a recent Penguin expedition with Celebrity Cruises

At Bluff Cove, they share the space with King penguins, the second largest species of penguin, slightly smaller, but similar in appearance to the Emperor penguin. We found these guys and gals irresistible with their shiny black heads, chins, and throats.  A distinctive mark is the vivid orange, tear-shaped patches on each side of the head. This striking tangerine hued coloration extends to the upper chest. 

Most of them came up to my shoulder -- about 38 inches. The young are furry, and develop the waterproof skin as they get closer to their diving and swimming debut with the water. 

What is magical about being with penguins is the rapport with these splendid creatures. As Keller said, "Viewing them in a majestic place, we feel the remote locale and the unique experience of communion." 

The tranquility and order -- with everything in place as nature takes its course -- lingers in our hearts, minds and memories. And often in my dreams.

A mother King penguin tends to her plump little chick. The parents lose up to half of their body weight during the first crucial year of feeding their young.

More information:

celebritycruises.com

worldwildlife.org

Delta Air Lines has a great direct flight to Buenos Aires from Atlanta. We base in Montana part of the year. We were thrilled to take Delta's direct flight to Atlanta from Bozeman. Nice connection. Saves time by avoiding the extra stop from Billings to Salt Lake or Minneapolis. 

www.delta.com

From a distance, these resemble penguins, but they are cormorants, great divers, near the town of Ushuaia.

UP NEXT: While we're way south of Buenos Aires, we take readers on our foray to Ushuaia, where we continue our wildlife explorations. Ushuaia is a pretty resort town in Argentina, where residents crave the sun which visits only occasionally. It's located on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the southernmost tip of South America, nicknamed the “End of the World.”

The windswept and tidy town, perched on a steep hill, is surrounded by the Martial Mountains and the Beagle Channel. It's the gateway to Antarctica, where we took a day-long boat trip from our cruise ship. The nearby Isla Yécapasela is known as “Penguin Island” for its penguin colonies and stunning cormorants.   Join us, remembering to explore, learn and live. Soon, we'll visit stately Colonia in Uruguay, the magnificent opera house, Colon, in Buenos Aires, and the turtles of Poipu on the island of Kauai.