Can you believe it? There’s someone right here at Monte Vista High who was able to accomplish the goal of traveling to all seven continents of the world, completing her very last continent over winter vacation this year.

     Junior Bella Romano, along with her dad, traveled to the place people rarely get the chance to- Antarctica. She was fortunate enough to be able to observe the coldest continent on Earth and see things people never get to see in their lifetimes.

    “I think overall, her trip was really cool; they visited their last continent to finish going to them all and that’s a goal for so many people, which I think is really awesome and unique. She was super excited, and I was really excited for her,” Natasha Shagafi, Romano’s best friend, said.

     The first question that popped up in many people’s minds was: why Antarctica?

     “My dad and I travel a lot, and we had been to six of the seven continents so far. So this winter break, we wanted to go to our seventh,” Bella Romano said.

     It’s incredible that she was able to, for the lack of better words, travel the world, in a sense. Romano flew a total of 14 hours on two planes: one to Houston, and then to Argentina. From there, she took a boat and headed toward the Antarctic peninsula.

     “The coolest thing I was able to do was see the penguins and the icebergs,” Romano said.

     She was able to see penguins, seals, and whales in their natural habitat for the first time, and got to see the icebergs and mountains, once only dreamed of and seen in pictures, come to life in front of her eyes. She also lucked out on avoiding the normally unbearable freezing temperatures of the continent.

     “It was about 20-30˚, so it wasn’t that cold because when I went, I got super lucky with the weather. They said it was the best it’s been in a really long time,” Romano said.

     Despite the fact that Antarctica is too cold for any native people to make a living in its continent, Romano saw a lot of scientists living there to do research. If it’s too cold for people to live there, then what did she eat?

     “Since there aren’t any hotels or restaurants there, or any buildings, I ate on the boat, so I had a lot of chicken,” Romano said.

     She was also able to break the stereotype many have about Antarctica and confirm that she did not see any eskimos or igloos;once again, the continent is too cold for civilization to begin to build and live there.

     “I would definitely go back. Overall, it was a really great experience to go somewhere where no one lives and to see a place that is untouched by civilization,” Romano said.