While cruising the polar regions with Quark Expeditions, passengers rely on Ultramarine’s well-stocked shop for all the stuff they should have brought from home. I bought several things myself during a recent Arctic cruise, despite doing some of my best pre-trip preparation. This Arctic packing list comes from my experience and the greater wisdom of Anna Mitieva, store manager aboard Ultramarine. She shared with me the top things people forget to pack and wind up buying on the ship.
Mitieva, a Ukrainian refugee, has run the shop since Quark hired her in early 2022. “I arrived destroyed, shocked, wrecked, exhausted. So they adopted me.” While Mitieva already spoke English, she had to learn lots of new vocab, like musk ox, narwhal, and carabiner. Quark took care of Mitieva, and now Mitieva cares for the shop and the needs of the passengers.
Anna Mitieva runs Ultramarine’s excellent shop. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
I try to turn my kayak in time but wind up sideswiping yet another iceberg. Kayaking in the Arctic is a steering challenge, what with chunks of ice everywhere. Navigating ice is part of the adventure while sea kayaking on a Quark Expeditions cruise to Svalbard aboard the ship Ultramarine. And does it ever pay off! Being surrounded by vast mountain ranges, paddling close to walruses, and listening to sparkling chunks of ice crack as they melt are unforgettable experiences.
“You’ll remember those sounds your whole life,” Jane Whitney, our kayak expedition leader, assured me.
I was extremely lucky to get a spot in the sea kayaking group, as only 10 were available. Our group got to paddle seven times during the cruise. Everybody else spent their off-ship time on land or taking Zodiac safaris. There was also a scaled-down paddle program, where people went out once or twice on sit-atop, inflatable kayaks.
Dodging ice. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Where is Svalbard?
This Norwegian archipelago lies between Norway and the North Pole. You get there by flying into Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost settlement of more than a thousand people. Longyearbyen is on Spitsbergen, the archipelago’s biggest island. Tourism isn’t new to Svalbard — American John Munro Longyear visited on a cruise back in 1901, then returned to extract coal from the impressive seams — but it’s become more accessible in the last couple of decades.
Now, Longyearbyen is the jumping-off point for trips offered by Quark and other cruise lines. After my 10-day excursion with Quark left from Longyearbyen, we saw few signs of human life except for occasional glimpses of other boats. Instead, we experienced vast ranges of snowy mountains, icebergs, floating sheets of ice, 24 hours of sunlight, and quiet broken only by cries of seabirds.
The mighty Ultramarine. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Whales in the Arctic
At almost 1 a.m. on our second night, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: a blue whale had been sighted near the boat. I stumbled out of bed, pulled on my Quark-issued yellow polar parka, slipped on some shoes, grabbed my key card, and climbed two flights of stairs to deck five.
There, I joined a handful of fellow passengers who had answered the call. Some were smart enough to put on wooly hats or grab their sunglasses. The sun on the water is ferocious in the middle of the night in Svalbard, at the top of the world. Most people threw on their yellow jackets or white robes. Their lower halves were mostly pajama bottoms or bare legs.
Scanning for wildlife on Ultramarine. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
The captain stopped our ship, and everything stood still. The blue whale had dived. It could take 30 minutes for the creature to reappear. In the meantime, the much smaller minke whale made an appearance, part of its back flashing in and out of the water. I held a hand in front of my face this way and that, trying to shield my eyes. Would I get frostbite and/or go blind from looking at the midnight sun before this whale resurfaced?
I almost gave up. But then part of the blue whale’s long back broke the surface. When it spouted, we heard a loud snuffling noise, like it was sighing out water. We see more back and more spouting as it dives and resurfaces. The dives were shallow — it must’ve been feeding close to the surface — so we never saw the tail. Our fingers were freezing, but we couldn’t stop watching. Every time I thought about going back to bed, that long, dark gray back popped up, and the spout sighed and snuffled. I didn’t stop watching until the ship started moving again, and we left the blue whale behind.
Penguins and other Arctic wildlife
In Svalbard, you have to put in the time to spot animals. Many passengers on my cruise had previously been to Antarctica, where apparently penguins are everywhere, and you don’t even need binoculars to see them.
“This is more like being on a safari,” fellow passenger Carol Lafrenaye told me. Quark had trained spotters stationed around the ship with binoculars 24/7. And they weren’t shy about waking us up for sightings, as we learned several times.
We had some excellent walrus sightings from our kayaks. Whitney has led tours all over the Arctic, among other places. She worries more about walruses than polar bears when kayaking.
“They won’t try to eat you,” she said of walruses, but they’re clumsy and curious. A 2,000-pound animal does not mix well with a tippy sea kayak. We were careful to keep our distance as we paddled by walruses, both when they were onshore and floating on sea ice.
Neither the walrus nor the reindeer were fazed by our presence. Reindeer kept grazing as our group paddled or hiked by them. Arctic foxes were warier and took off zigzagging up the mountains.
A local reindeer grazes in the middle of Longyearbyen. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Everybody wanted to see polar bears — to the point that several times when we saw seals, a fellow paddler wished aloud that a polar bear would show up to eat them. On the very last night of the cruise, we had an incredible opportunity to see a polar bear swim right by the boat, then hunt two seals that were floating on sheets of sea ice. Spoiler alert: the seals both got away. After its failed attempts, the bear dragged itself out onto an ice floe and proceeded to do a series of calisthenics. This included dragging its chest against the ice with its butt in the air and rolling on its back while waving its legs around. Truly amazing.
Walrus viewing by kayak. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Land excursions
Time on terra firma included hikes or perimeter landings. This meant that we landed by Zodiac, then stayed within the perimeter formed by our armed polar bear guards. Yes, a disturbing fact about Svalbard is the requirement to carry firearms. Expedition guides who revere wildlife must be prepared to kill a polar bear to save a guest.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
While sea kayaking was the best part of my trip, our best bird viewing was from land or on Zodiacs. At one stop, we climbed a snowy, icy hill to see a breeding colony of little auks, darling black and white birds. We sat and watched them swirl overhead. And, of course, everybody wanted to see adorable puffins. At Krossfjorden, our Zodiac drivers took us to the base of the cliffs. There, we were close enough to see the puffins’ red-orange beaks and feet.
In between off-boat expeditions and while in transit, we spent time on the deck looking through binoculars or in the auditorium listening to the resident geologist, ornithologist, historian, and marine biologist give lively lectures on the world of Svalbard.
Hanging out with Krossfjorden Glacier. / Photo courtesy of Teresa Bergen
Catching the Arctic bug
Not everybody appreciates the Arctic, Whitney tells me. She’s had people compare the austere rocks and ice to a gravel dump. “They didn’t see the light and they didn’t see the ice,” she said. “Other people are blown away by it. It depends how you see things. I think you either catch the Arctic bug or you don’t.”
Judging from my hundreds of photos celebrating a newfound appreciation for ice, I think the Arctic bug has bitten me.
Ice. It’s all over the place in the Arctic. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
It’s 7 a.m., and six of us are looking for pictographs while cruising along Canada’s British Columbia coast on a small boat. The air is cool, and the still water reflects pines and snowy mountains.
Our guide, Greg Shea of Maple Leaf Adventures, lives on the islands off the British Columbia coast. He won’t say exactly what the red marks on the rock faces symbolize — First Nations people have different opinions about what they signify, and if anybody knows for sure, they’re not telling the general public. One looks like a fish standing on its tail. The pictographs (made with red ochre and oily fish eggs, then sealed with urine) date back perhaps 250 years.
Desolation Sound pictographs. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Shea is a fast talker with endless knowledge of the British Columbia coast. While we ponder pictographs, he explains the Grease Trail that First Nations people developed for trading valuable eulachon (also called ooligan or candlefish) oil. They’d transport it inside the hollow tubes of bull kelp sealed with cedar corks.
“You’d put a stick across your back like this,” he demonstrates animatedly, an enthusiastic guide no matter what time of the day or night. “And then you would slide the tubes of your grease onto your stick. And you know, then they would walk. And you’d basically be going through the forest with a stick full of tubes.”
Then, he interrupts himself, saying, “Oh, a merganser!” He seamlessly slips from discussing First Nations culture to the natural world to George Vancouver’s travels and the difficulties of reading the complicated tidal patterns within Desolation Sound.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
For nature lovers who enjoy slow-paced adventures and lots of talk about trees, critters, and sea life, cruising Desolation Sound with Maple Leaf Adventures is bliss. Our group of 12 passengers and 10 crewmembers aboard the 138-foot luxury catamaran Cascadia had the extra luck of temperatures in the 60s and low 70s and no rain during our four-night springtime cruise.
What is Desolation Sound?
Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park is well known to boaters. This area of fjords and islands lies between mainland British Columbia and about halfway up the east side of Vancouver Island. Our cruise started in the Vancouver Island town of Campbell River.
As we wound around uninhabited islands looking for wildlife, snow-capped mountains towered over us. At Desolation Sound’s most dramatic point, the peak of Mount Addenbroke rises 5,200 feet above the water. Our boat floated 2,300 feet from the bottom of the sea.
Sunrise over Desolation Sound. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
“It is very awe-inspiring,” said Emily Grubb, our boat’s naturalist. “You feel so small because there’s so much water below you and so much land above you.”
“The beautiful blue color of the water is really special to this area,” Emily Grubb, our boat’s naturalist, said. “It is very awe-inspiring in the sense that you feel so small because there’s so much water below you and so much land above you.” Add in powerful waterfalls and some black bear sightings, and you have an incredible nature break.
One of the giant, crashing waterfalls of Toba Inlet. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
During our trip, we were often the only boat visible. But the area gets crowded during summer, when boaters come for the sunny days and warm water. In certain places, Desolation Sound heats up to a swimmable 75 degrees.
Cruising, hiking, and kayaking
Our main activity was cruising around admiring the scenery, either on the Cascadia itself or the two small crafts (called tenders) that took us into places too tight for a deluxe, oversized catamaran. As we sat comfortably on the padded seats of the Auklet and Puffin, Grubb and Shea pointed out trees and wildflowers.
We were a little early for the humpback whales that visit the area in summer. But one day, a pod of graceful and glistening Dall’s porpoises played in the tender’s wake. We also saw Pacific white-sided dolphins, harbor seals, Steller and California sea lions, and two black bears. Binoculars were a must for this trip, especially for safe bear viewing.
The Cascadia carries a fleet of tandem inflatable kayaks. Twice, Grubb took four of us avid kayakers out to see the wilderness at an even more intimate level. We got right on the shoreline of the inlets, where we could see ochre sea stars and watch barnacles in action. We almost tipped our kayak, peering into the water to watch the feather-like appendages sticking out of the holes in barnacles, combing the water for edible microscopic organisms. Curious harbor seals stuck their heads out of the water to stare at us.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
We also got a good look at many seabirds. Grubb, a bird enthusiast, is always happy when people hoping to see bears and whales develop an interest in birds.
“It is kind of neat how quickly people kind of jump on the bird train,” Grubb said. “Especially when you start talking about some of their weird characteristics.” We saw plenty of her favorite sea bird, the black oystercatcher, with its long red beak.
Our group also had chances to go for short hikes in the forests of red cypress, Douglas fir, hemlock, and Sitka spruce. There, we saw remnants of 1920s logging operations. A hundred years later, we could still see the holes in gigantic stumps where loggers had driven in springboards to stand on while they worked two-person crosscut saws.
Grubb explaining old logging techniques. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Maple Leaf Adventures’ three-ship fleet
This family-run business based in Victoria runs British Columbia and Alaska cruises on three distinctive boats. The Cascadia is by far the poshest, with a jacuzzi, spacious staterooms, and large lounging areas both inside and out. It even has a helicopter pad for winter heliskiing trips.
Guests can also choose to sail on the Maple Leaf, a 92-foot schooner built in 1904, or Swell, a 1912 tugboat. Each has a very different personality and feel.
When the helicopter is absent, Cascadia’s helipad is a perfect morning yoga spot. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
“[Guests] go onto the website and they will identify with one of three vessels,” said Shea, who frequently captains the Maple Leaf.
I initially chose the gorgeous tugboat Swell. But the dates didn’t work out, so instead, I wound up on the Cascadia. And it’s hard to argue with luxury.
“For some it’s a little bit uncomfortable on the smaller boats,” Shea told me. “Where Cascadia’s kind of bridging that and bringing that comfort to the wilderness, but also the adventure and the ability for the ship to go into remote places.”
Photo by Teresa Bergen
One of the other guests told me that she and her husband had also wanted to cruise on Swell — until they contemplated how his six-foot-plus frame would feel in the cramped confines of the tugboat.
Whichever boat guests choose, traveling with Maple Leaf Adventures is a slow tourism experience. During our five-day trip, the Cascadia only covered 132 nautical miles (151 miles for you landlubbers). Our average cruising speed was 8 knots (9.2 mph).
If you have a voracious appetite for scenery and want to enjoy watching waterfalls and bears, this trip is for you.
We were 10 snorkelers gliding above tens of thousands of black-striped Salema fish. They stretched ahead of and behind us, seemingly endless. Every rock on the seabed 40 feet below was visible in the clear water. It felt like floating through a fish cathedral. Underwater, we heard the crackling sound of sea life going about its business. Above water, the retching noise of male sea lions reminding us who was boss of Champion Rock in the Galápagos Islands.
I was on a new four-night western Galápagos itinerary with Hurtigruten Expeditions. The Norwegian brand is best known for cold water cruising but expanded into the warmer Galápagos in 2022.
Photo by Ashton Ray Hansen courtesy of Hurtigruten Expeditions
If the word “cruise” makes you think of casinos, nightlife, and a moving city at sea, know that expedition cruises are a different beast. The Santa Cruz II holds up to 90 passengers and is about getting outside and experiencing nature without sacrificing comfortable beds and upscale meals. As seasoned Hurtigruten guide Jhover Alvarez puts it, “Are the Galápagos for you? If you have a genuine interest in science. The thing is to understand what you’re looking at and the importance of conservation.”
Getting to know the islands
The Galápagos Islands are 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador and have been part of that country since 1832. Scientists estimate the oldest of these 127 volcanic islands to be around 4 million years old. They were formed by the Galapagos hotspot, part of the famous “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean. Magma came up through the Nazca plate, forming volcanoes. The volcanoes move with the plate, so subsequent eruptions through the hotspot formed more islands. Underwater volcanic activity is almost constant. “We are floating in an ocean of liquid rock,” Alvarez explained.
About 25,000 people live in the Galápagos, mostly concentrated in a few towns. Most of the islands are uninhabited and only reachable by boat.
Santa Cruz Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Because of the area’s delicate ecology, the Galápagos strictly regulates visits. Ninety-seven percent of the land is a national park, and visitors must be with a licensed national park guide. You can fly into one of two airports in the islands and arrange tours on your own, or take the much cushier option of joining a cruise, where activities and permits are arranged for you.
Animals of the Galápagos
Africa has the Big 5 must-see animals. Guests of Hurtigruten Expeditions look for the Big 15. Since different animals live on different islands, you won’t see all of them unless you visit the right combination of places. On my short four-night cruise, I saw 12.
Land iguanas nest at Cerro Dragon on Santa Cruz Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Galápagos wildlife watching takes place on land and in the water. Our activity choices included walks, rides in Zodiac boats, glass bottom boat rides, snorkeling, kayaking, and paddleboarding. On the more populated island of Santa Cruz, we also had a short bike ride.
Kayaking off Floreana Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
The Zodiac boats, also called pangas, were great for animal sightings. At Punta Vicente Roca on the west side of Isabela Island, we saw six of the Big 15 — flightless cormorants, blue-footed boobies, Galápagos penguins, sea lions, marine iguanas, and fur seals — on a single panga ride. Plus lots of animals that didn’t make the cut, like pelicans, manta rays, sea turtles, and a bright orange wrasse. Don’t forget your sunscreen and water shoes for this action-packed tour.
Searching for wildlife on a panga, or Zodiac. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Our walk at Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island was a highlight for lizard lovers. The area is home to immense quantities of marine iguanas. The animals lay in vast formations of scaly glory, draped over each other on rocks, sometimes with a sharp-clawed arm around a neighbor like reptilian BFFs. These are some of the oldest animals in the Galápagos.
The theory is that the marine iguana’s ancestors floated over from mainland Ecuador on rafts of reeds millions of years ago. Lacking much to eat on the stark volcanic islands, they adapted to living on algae, diving underwater and scraping it off the rocks with their teeth. Most marine iguanas have evolved to be darker than other iguanas, “until the whole skin turns black and is working as a huge solar panel,” our Hurtigruten guide Daniel Moreano explained. This solar power is important, as marine iguanas can lose up to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) of body heat in a single hour of algae foraging.
Can you believe Darwin called these cuties a “hideous looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid, and sluggish”? / Photo by Teresa Bergen
We also saw flamingos in several brackish spots around the Santa Cruz and Floreana islands. The lava really complements their pink.
Flamingos of Floreana Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Giant tortoise research
The Galápagos are famous for giant tortoises, so most visitors want to see these prehistoric relics. The Charles Darwin Research Station is the place to learn everything tortoise. This site has been essential for tortoise conservation and the repopulation of disappearing species. Workers hatch eggs in incubators, then number the hatchlings’ shells and color code them by island of origin. Giant tortoises are born with soft shells. The first few years are critical to their survival, as they’re easy prey for snakes, feral cats, and other hungry critters. A local exhibition center has more info on the center’s conservation programs and research.
A giant tortoise in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Interesting as the science center is, a trip to the highlands of Santa Cruz to see wild tortoises is more exciting. As our bus approached Rancho Manzanillo, we saw tortoises in the fields, then on the sides of the road, then in the road. Our driver carefully navigated around them — not only would it be terrible to accidentally run over an endangered tortoise, but doing so carries a ruinous fine.
The tortoises roam freely on the land. Our Hurtigruten guide Veronica Sanchez told us about tortoise life as we examined the animals’ giant shells, elephant-like legs, and skull-like faces. If you get too close, they seem to be hissing, but Sanchez explained that’s just the noise they make drawing their head into their shells — like an airlock door. We also watched fascinatingly bizarre tortoise copulation. The much smaller females look squished and long-suffering as the males slowly thrust and grunt. “The females usually try to escape,” Sanchez said.
A long weekend cruise
Hurtigruten offers several Galápagos itineraries. I was on the new western loop. For people who dream of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galápagos, four nights might be too short. You can choose a longer itinerary, or combine two cruises for nine nights, which many of my shipmates were doing. Or you can explore more of Ecuador by adding on a few days in Quito, or the Cloud Forest, or the many other special places in the country.
Turtles nest on this white sand beach on Floreana Island. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
If you like outdoor activities, science, and wildlife, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect place than the Galápagos. As I paddleboarded in a calm turquoise bay watching sea lions leap and play, it really didn’t seem that life could get any better.
