Manuel Marquez, MD, is a former family physician turned tour director. Experienced in guiding visits to destinations across the United States and beyond, Manuel Marquez, MD, draws on cruise experience in the Alaskan Inside Passage with Holland America.
Located in the southernmost portion of Alaska, next to northwest British Columbia, Alaska's Inside Passage consists of the Glacier Bay area as well as the northern and southern regions. The Glacier Bay area features the scenic Glacier Bay National Park, which is home to some of the most breathtaking tidewater glaciers in the world. The park offers visitors access to more than 50 named glaciers, including the world-famous Margerie Glacier, which advances 12 feet to 14 feet per day.
Visitors to the Margerie Glacier also enjoy being within viewing distance of the Grand Pacific Glacier, which in the late 1700s filled the full bay. By the early 1900s, the Grand Pacific had retreated 65 miles from the mouth of the bay.
Some visitors to the park have the opportunity to see one of the 12 active tidewater glaciers calve new bergs into the bay. When this occurs, a block of ice as much as 200 feet high breaks away from the parent glacier and falls into the water.
Glacier activity is only one of the natural phenomena that visitors can enjoy within the park. The area is also home to black and brown bears as well as whales, moose, mountain goats, and seals. The area's seals are particularly visible, as they are fond of sunning themselves on rocks and chunks of glacial ice.
