I never had the money or time to travel. But at 64, I'm done only seeing the world through photos and videos.
05.03.2024 - 14:15
/ insider.com
/ Drake Passage
I've dreamed of travel ever since my uncle gave me a subscription to National Geographic magazine for my 8th birthday.
I still remember flipping through beautiful photos of Antarctica and dreaming about one day seeing such a wondrous place with my own eyes.
But travel was never really in the cards for me. I grew up living paycheck to paycheck in a large family in a small Long Island town. I've been working since I was a kid, and I never even left North America.
But I decided that, at 64 years old, my dreams have been on hold for long enough.
I finally have the money and time to travel, even though I'm not retired yet (I still have about three more years until then). I started my bucket list, and I'm determined to check things off.
First up was my dream adventure to Antarctica.
A cruise seemed like the best way to visit Antarctica — it's generally more cost-effective than flying — so I booked one that embarked from Santiago, Chile, this past December.
It was my first time leaving North America, and I was petrified of heading to South America, alone, for 16 nights.
But I also knew that if I didn't overcome these fears, I would only see the world through pictures and videos. I'd be depriving myself of my life-long dreams.
Fortunately, I summoned the courage and boarded the plane for the long flight to Chile.
The cruise itself was quite the journey.
I bundled up and tried to maintain composure as temperatures dropped, and we sailed through the notoriously rough and rocky Drake Passage.
I felt like I was in a movie as the ship approached Elephant Island, awed by the majestic snow-covered peaks and glaciers and the enormity of where I was swept over me.
As we continued toward the Antarctic Peninsula, we sailed past magnificent icebergs of various colors, shapes, and sizes — some as tall as a 20-story building.
We even passed a research station, where the inhabitants came out and waved to us travelers as we sailed by. From my balcony, I saw penguins, whales, birds, and other sea life.
While stopping at the Falkland Islands, I took an excursion to a penguin rookery and watched thousands of penguins walking on glaciers and diving into the ocean.
It was pure magic.
The trip was everything I thought it would be, and more.
It made me more confident that I could overcome some of my fears of traveling to foreign countries, especially doing so alone.
Next on my bucket list is visiting other places my 8-year-old self dreamed of seeing, like Norway and Iceland. Later this year, I'm flying to England to board another cruise for another long-awaited adventure.
Although it took decades to get here, I'm glad to finally be pursuing my travel dreams — now, there's no turning back.