After being home since December 18th, it feels good to be on the road again. It was great recharging my batteries at home for almost two months, I do have to admit. We traveled so much last year that I never really had a chance to anticipate our next adventure. I was too busy doing laundry and repacking my suitcase. This trip I savored the anticipation. And what a fabulous adventure to savor. I adore Antarctica and to be able to go back there is an absolute miracle. But first we have to get there—an adventure in itself!
Our travel to the great, white continent is spanning several days. We are making our way there with Overseas Adventure Travel in stages. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are Stage 1. Yesterday we flew to Miami and then to Buenos Aires. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 7 this morning. We’ll spend today and tomorrow here and then Thursday we fly to Ushuaia which is the last city in Argentina and the kick-off point to most Antarctic expeditions. We’ll spend Thursday night there and do some hiking on Friday before boarding our ship the Hebridean Sky. Once onboard we’ll said through the Beagle Channel and then take on the Drake Passage. Depending on the weather in the Drake, it could take us a day and a half or two days to reach the Antarctic Peninsula. And then the real fun begins 🙂
However, the last two days haven’t been without their adventures. Flying is never without its hiccups these days. Our flight out of Tampa wasn’t until after 3 PM so we had a leisurely wake-up and last minute check before heading to the airport. We boarded the plane right on time and then sat on the tarmac for the next two hours. Some hatch panel on the exterior was broken and wouldn’t close. They had to call for maintenance to come out and repair it. I think the actual repair job went quickly since all they did is tape it closed. It was the paperwork portion that took forever. I was glad that we had a long layover in Miami or we would have been in trouble. As it was, we made it with less than an hour to spare whereas we should have had 3.5.
We left Miami pretty much on time. This go-round we are flying Premium Economy because Business class was way too expensive. Originally we had Business Class seats when we were doing Antarctica back-to-back with Machu Picchu and Galapagos. Then our post-trip to Rio was cancelled leaving us with nine days between trips instead of 4 so we decided to just go back home in between. Because of that, OAT had to completely redo our flight itinerary. And the cost of flights had increased much that even though we originally bought Business Class seats, to get seats on the new itinerary would cost an additional $18,000 for Business. That was on top of what we had already paid! It was highway robbery. As it was we had to pay some additional for Premium Economy. It was crazy.
So, after being spoilt with Business Class for so many flights, I have to admit, this wasn’t the most comfortable flight. It was okay but nothing to write home about. And I did miss getting my warm nuts :-). I watched a couple of movies and tried to snag some sleep. We made it to BA on time which was the important thing and didn’t have any issues while flying.
The flight attendants woke us at 4 AM Florida time for breakfast. That made it 6 AM BA time. The breakfast was fruit and a cinnamon roll, as well as granola and yogurt. It was far better than the dinner they served last night. I filled up on the fruit since it was going to be a while before we ate again.
The landing went smoothly and we disembarked fairly quickly. It was a novel experience traveling without my boot and a wheelchair at the airports. I enjoyed every second of it although it would have been nice to scoot through the line at Immigration. It was a long line but nothing like what we saw in Charlotte when we came home from Spain. There were plenty of booths open so we zipped through fast considering the number of people waiting.
By the time we reached the luggage claim area, my suitcase was already coming around. Chris’ (he is the friend we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with and went to Spain with) bag came off soon after. Doug’s, however, was a no-show. I double-checked the American Airlines app and it said that both bags had been loaded in Miami. I was confident it was somewhere. And it was. Doug finally spotted it on the other side of the carousel. Somebody had pulled it off over there. Whew!
Our next stop was going through Customs which was just a matter of putting everything through the x-ray machine and then it was out to Arrivals and to find the OAT person picking us up. She was right there waving her sign. We didn’t have to wait on anybody else to arrive which was nice. She was picking up four of us and we were all there. Another lady came out about the same time we did. After a quick trip to the baño, we loaded up the small bus and began the drive to our hotel through Buenos Aires’ rush hour traffic. It took maybe an hour to reach out hotel down off of Florida Avenue. We haven’t stayed in this part of BA before so that is good. We are staying the next two nights at the Libertador Buenos Aires Hotel.
Pablo our trip leader met us at the door. He got us checked in and quickly ran through the itinerary for the next couple of days with us. He already knew that the two of us and our friend Liz who we did Patagonia with last year and had met originally in Southeast Asia, were skipping the city tour of BA tomorrow and were going to Uruguay for the day instead. We nailed down the plans for the COVID PCR test that we have to take in Ushuaia and all that jazz because we won’t see him again until Thursday morning when we leave for the City at the End of the World. Plus we just had a nice chat with him to get to know him a bit.
I had already made plans with our trip leader from Patagonia—Julio LLanos—for us to meet with him at lunch today. We had all just loved him. And fortunately for us, he was between trips so we had a chance to get caught up. It isn’t often you get to see your old trip leaders again so I was very happy.
We had a couple of hours before meeting he and Liz for lunch so we got unpacked in the room (we were lucky we were able to get straight into our room). Once everything was squared away, I decided a power nap was the order of the day. I had a nasty headache and was figured some sleep would be the best remedy for it. I laid my head down and was out for the count until Doug’s alarm went off at 11:30.
It was a bit of serendipity that we hit the lobby just as Julio walked in. I almost didn’t recognize him because he’s let his hair grow out quite a bit. But underneath the dark locks was the same smile and irrepressible personality :-). I was disappointed that he was wearing a rather ordinary T-shirt instead of one of his Star Wars shirts. He always entertained us with his T-shirt collection.
We had a great visit while waiting for Liz. She arrive around noon. After she checked in, Pablo took all of us to get our money exchanged. You don’t want to pay dollars for anything here or use a debit or credit card. You’ll end up paying much more. You go to a money exchange person who does exchanges on the “blue” market. You get a far better exchange rate. For example, if you exchange at the bank for one dollar you may get 100 Argentinian pesos. However, on the blue market, you get 300. I’m not sure that was the actual rate today but it gives you a picture of why the blue market is the one everybody uses. You get way more bang for your buck.
After everybody had done their exchanging, Pablo and the group went one way and we went with Julio another way to a small restaurant. We had a great time catching up with everybody’s lives over the past year. Julio had been as busy as we had been. He spent some time in France working with new OAT guides there. His wife was doing the same thing in Italy. Then they both went to Edinburgh for a month to work with OAT guides there. Now between his regular guiding trips, he is helping out in the OAT office and mentoring new guides for this area. He is perfect for that job because he is such an excellent guide. OAT is so lucky to have him.
We also caught up with Liz as we haven’t seen her in a year either. She had just gotten back at the end of November from going to Bhutan, India, and Nepal. And she has her first granddaughter :-). Lunch was like old home week. It was great.
The time went by way too fast. Julio had to meet a co-worker so we couldn’t dwaddle all afternoon swapping stories. He headed to the office and we made our way back to the hotel where I promptly took another power nap. I just couldn’t seem to shake that headache. I woke up in time to get ready for our 4 PM Welcome Briefing. This was our first chance to actually find out who all was in our group.
There are twenty-five of us. Interestingly, we have one couple from Kauai and a lady from the Big Island. Boy, they had a long trip to get here! The couple started their trip on Thursday so that they would have a day or two to recuperate here. The lady from the Big Island started her trip Sunday and arrived here this morning. She had to be beat. She is traveling with her son who works on NBC’s “The Today Show!” He has even won several Emmies. Wow! Others in the group are from California, New Jersey, South Carolina, etc. It appears to be an eclectic group which is fun. A large number of us had been teachers with several also having worked in libraries. That’s always fun. There is one couple who has one more trip than we do. They have 27 to our 26 :-). It will be interesting to see how our group gels during the trip. Last time we had such a fantastic group. We had a blast ever night at dinner. Hopefully this group will prove to be as wonderful.
After our meeting we had a several minutes before meeting in the lobby to head to dinner. While we were marking time, I checked my email and saw the dreaded message from OAT. They had officially cancelled Machu Picchu & Galapagos. I knew it was coming since the violence in Peru is still ongoing but darn! We have been trying to take that trip for three years! Guess I’ll just have to wait another year. We are too booked this year to try to squeeze it in. Such is life….
Since Argentina is famous for their steak, that’s what we had for dinner. The restaurant—Mirasol del Puerto— was down on the Rio de Plata (Silver River) in the same area we had dinner last year on our Patagonia trip. This place was equally good. The steak was perfectly cooked and was thick and juicy. The empanada and chimichurri sauce was excellent. The wine and the flan for dessert were excellent as well.
After we stuffed ourselves silly, we took a walk down the river. It was still daylight so the river wasn’t lit up like the last time we strolled down it. However, this time we were better able to see the ship the Corbeta A.R.A. Uruguay. It is famous for a rescue it made. A group of men had gone to Antartica to see if they could survive spending a winter there. Their ship dropped them and their supplies off and then sailed for home. It was suppose to return in a year and pick up the group. Well, that ship got caught in the ice and ended up sinking. It would not be returning. One of the men on the expedition happened to be Argentinian so the Argentinian navy sent their best outfitted ship to mount a rescue. Let me tell you, this ship was not big at all. AND it was a sail boat. How they made it down there during winter and rescued those men, I’ll never figure out. But save them they did. Now the ship is a museum. It was built in 1874 and was rebuilt in 1903 for Antarctic rescue. It was an amazing story. When we were here for our first Antarctica trip we actually boarded it. It was so neat to actually walk around on a wooden ship that had made the trip to Antarctica. The men sailing her had guts, that’s for sure. We saw the Uruguay last time only from a distance. At least this time we got to see her close up. She seemed even smaller tonight.
We also walked across the Women’s Bridge which was beautiful. It was modeled after a bridge in Milwaukee. The architect was the same one who did the City of Arts and Science in Valencia, Spain and the Oculus in New York City. The idea behind it was basically to show support to women. Santiago Calatrava who designed it said the design reflected the tango. None of us could see tango in the bridge but maybe we hadn’t had enough wine with dinner :-). Back behind the bridge there was a series of silos painted with words of empowerment for women. It made an interesting backdrop for the bridge.
We finished out the evening with a bus ride back to the hotel. My headache had finally gone away. I was feeling more awake than I had all day. I just regretted that there was no hot water kettle in the room. No tea tonight to help me stay awake. Of course, falling asleep early would be the best thing for me as we have an early wake-up. We are being fetched for our jaunt to Uruguay at 7 AM tomorrow. Thank goodness breakfast opens at 6:30 so we can eat a little bit of something before we go. I feel bad ditching our group tomorrow but hopefully Colonia will prove interesting. Julio said they have great food. We’ll find out tomorrow 🙂
Tales from the Trail 