The Arrival and the Adventure

6th Jan 2009

Today the rest of the Antarctica group arrive. The Maria Mitchell Association has a total of 16 (including me) participants. We are the only group on the boat and we will be sharing the experience with about 80 other people.

Since "work" Technically started today for me, I met the Lindblad/National Geographic reps in the morning to receive information of arrival times for my group. Since so many were coming from all over they were spread out between four different flights. Unfortunately the flight from Miami was canceled and so 4 of our participants were stuck in Miami overnight and missed visiting Santiago at all.

For the other 12 however, they were able to take advantage of the Grand Hyatt for a couple of hours before we headed to Santiago's PreColumbrian Art Museum and a city tour. The city tour was done via bus so while I got some good glimpses of the architecture, the markets and the government buildings, there was not enough time to truly experience them (guess I will have to return to do it another time). We drove through the Plaza de Armas filled with colonial architecture, bustling people, and the government buildings, such as the presidential palace. The tour guide stressed Chile's relatively new democracy, the 21 Supreme Court judges, how there is almost no violent crimes (no Chilean carries guns except the Policia), and how Santiago is split up into several cities each one with their own major.

Everyone I had spoken with that had visited Santiago and even the locals expressed that experiencing the Precolumbian Art Museum was a must. The Museum chronicles 4500 years of precolumbian cultures. Each room represent a different countries cultures through beautiful artifacts: masks, pottery, statues, jewelry and baskets. This was definitely a worthwhile visit and I would suggest anyone who visits Santiago to make sure they fit it into their schedule.

***Can you name the most recent Chilean natives, which only survive as a mix with the Spanish in the Chilean race?***

After the tour we had a meet and greet and dinner. It is very easy to make friends when you have something in common, and we all do-we want to see penguins! I headed to bed around midnight knowing that our travel to Ushuaia would begin at 5am the next day.

***Why is Ushuaia, Argnetina such a famous port?***

7th January 2009
I awoke at 4:30am, bags pack and excited but groggy since I had to use the sea sickness patch. But, even my doziness couldn't discourage my excitement because I knew that in about 5 hours I would travel through Tierra del Fuero National Park and sail the Beagle Channel.

We all had a brief breakfast then headed to the airport. I have been very impressed with Lindblad's ability to manage 120 people through the airport and customs so efficiently. Once we all got our tickets and went through immigration we headed to the terminal. It was going to be a 4 hour flight to Ushuaia. However when we got to the terminal it was explained to us that all flights to Ushuaia were cancelled because their navigation system was down. Well, Lindblad had to work quickly to figure out how to get 120 people to Ushuaia today. Luckliy, they had a chartered flight which gave them the flexibility to change the destination. So, the new plan was to fly to Buenos Aries, Argentina then another flight to Rio Grande, north of Ushuaia and take a 3 hour bus ride through Patagonia. What was suppose to be a 4 hour flight just turned into a 14 hour traveling day.

The group was a little disgruntled but realized quickly it is all part of the adventure of getting to the other end of the earth. The flight to Buenos Aires was an hour and a half. We then had to get our bags, go through immigration and customs again, then recheck our bags. Again, it was a bit of a pain but went relatively smoothly. Once at the terminal, we all seemed to crash a bit. People were anxious and tired (especially since the Miami flight only got about an hour sleep). But around 2pm we got on the plane and 3 and a half hours later landed in Rio Grande. I actually got an entire row to myself so I took that opportunity to catch up on my sleep as did many others. I wanted to make sure I was awake for this unique opportunity to drive through Patagonia.

Rio Grande was a rundown town surrounded by ranches and farms. Our guide told us that this area gets 8 days of sunshine on average and 200 days of rain. We were very fortunate because we caught one of those non rainy days and the temperature was about 45 degrees, very comfortable. I got to see Alpacas in the wild almost immediately, they were running on the side of the road. Several times we saw herds of them in the steppe landscape.

****Can you explain what a steppe habitat is?****
***What do the local people use Alpacas for?***

I also caught glimpses of some good birds including the Crested Caracara, the Black faced ibis, Chimango Caracara and the Southern Lapwing. The steppe habitat quickly changed as we gained altitude. The mountains had white tops and even a few permanent glaciers. Our ride over the mountains brought us to the Lake District, which is a great fishing spot for locals and visitors. In fact, non native trout are throughout the lakes in this region and very popular to fish. The area reminded me of the northwest mountains outside of Seattle.

****What is a glacier?****

Finally, at 8pm we arrive to Ushuaia. We drove directly to the boat, so there was no time to walk around and experience this town. We are hoping for an opportunity on the way back. First thing I noticed about the boat was how small it was compared to the other cruise boats docked. Linblad does not want to negatively impact the areas they visit and they want to give their participants the best experience they can so they keep their boats small and keep participants numbers low, unlike most of the other cruises heading to Antarctica. In fact, many of them will not be able to even get off the boat.

All of us were hungry and tired. Our luggage was delivered to our rooms (I am on the main deck) and unpacked immediately. It was very important that I unpack and secure all my belongings for the potentially rough ride through the Drake Passage. Never having been on a cruise boat before I have nothing to compare my room to-but is very nice and spacious enough. The others said the same for their rooms as well. Then headed to a well deserved dinner. after dinner I headed to bed. Tomorrow I will explore the boat some more (that is if I can stand the rocking of the boat).

****How many miles will I travel to get from Ushuaia to Elephant Island?****
****Can you guess which channel I traveled through first before hitting open ocean?****
****What ocean or oceans will I be sailing on throughout the trip from Ushuaia to the South Shetland Islands?****