01/26/2003

From Staff and Wire Reports / The Dallas Morning News

St. Lucia resort to host March astronomy week

Ladera Resort in St. Lucia will host its first Astronomy Week March 16-23. The stargazing event will feature Derrick Pitts, host of "Sky Talk," a weekly radio program on National Public Radio.

Mr. Pitts will provide guests with guided viewings of the constellations each evening, exploring the phases of the moon and planetary system.

Professional-quality telescopes will be installed on the public terraces.

Rates start at $395 per night for a one-bedroom suite with plunge pool. Ladera is an eco-lodge offering luxurious treehouse living in the St. Lucian rain forest. Each room was designed with three walls, affording spectacular unobstructed views of the night sky. Information: 758-459-7323; www.ladera-stlucia.com.

Antarctica is becoming a scheduled air stop

Antarctica, one of the last great tourism frontiers, is becoming more accessible with the advent of twice-weekly commercial flights from Argentina.

A revamped cargo plane operated by the Argentine air force is scheduled to begin service from Ushuaia, on the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, to the country's scientific base at Seymour Island (called Marambio by the Argentineans) 600 miles south. The 70 passengers on the Hercules C130 will take a three-hour tour of Antarctica.

The excursion's $630 price includes an orientation dinner in Ushuaia as well as the flights, with a champagne toast when crossing the 60-degree south latitude into the internationally protected territory of Antarctica. Once on Seymour Island, in the Weddell Sea, passengers will take an easy ice trek with English-speaking guides, followed by a light lunch. Three hours later, they will re-board for the 2 ½ -hour flight back to Ushuaia.

Until now, the only way for most tourists to reach the continent was by sea, on a private yacht or one of the few dozen cruises that pass by every southern summer while circumventing the tip of South America. A record 15,000 tourists visited Antarctica in 2001, about the same number that came during the entire 1980s. Although Qantas has offered scenic flyovers of the South Pole periodically since 1979, the Argentine venture is the first to land tourists on the continent by air on a regular noncharter basis.

The excursion is organized by Aerored, a Buenos Aires-based travel company, in association with the Argentine air force's commercial airline, Lineas Aereas del Estado. Contact: 011-54-11-4328-1923; www.aeroredes.com.ar.