We started our journey from Santiago down to Antarctica yesterday. We didn’t really have time for anything in the morning other than to go to the airport. It turns out the reason for the previous day’s flight schedule drama was that they needed a bigger plane for all of the passengers, so wound up on a 787 which was only about 2/3rds full. That was a nice surprise, we hadn’t flown on one before. I enjoyed the electronic dimming windows instead of the usual sliding shades. It was somewhat incongruous landing such a big plane in the small airport serving Punta Arenas.
The town, and unsurprisingly the region of Patagonia was beautiful. It was chilly and rainy, which was a nice change from Santiago. There were wild flowers everywhere and lush hills right against the ocean. Honestly the town wouldn’t have looked out of place on the northern California coast. Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of time there. After we got to the hotel we had enough time to make some calls before we dropped out of connectivity for a week. Then we had equipment distribution, weigh ins, briefings and a group dinner for the cruise.
The next morning it was finally time to get to Antarctica. After lots of time on group logistics we made it to the airport for more group logistics. Oh and our plane was painted like a penguin! The plane was a strange narrow body jet with 4 engines and only about 100 seats, but they only fly with 70 people or so since they need to be light weight to land on the airstrip on King George island. We had to get all of our gear on in the plane because as soon as we stepped off we would be outside in Antarctica. This meant trying to get everyone dressed in a bunch of bulky gear in a cramped plane and then standing around in a hot plane with a bunch of cold weather gear while we waited to get out. Once we were out though… It was shocking, an immediate blast of frigid, clear air and spectacular views of glaciers. The airstrip is in a Chilean military base which we weren’t allowed to take pictures of. We had to walk across the base, and next to a Russian base it turns out, to get to the zodiacs waiting to take us to the ship.
We had a very “sporty” ride on the zodiac where we all got pretty soaked from splashes. During the ride, Jack and I discovered that our water proof pants, weren’t. So we are going to have to do something about that.
The rest of the day was a nice dinner and more briefings. It was also our best shot at seeing an Aurora Australialus but after staying up until 11:30pm, it’s clear it doesn’t get anything like dark enough to see it because it was barely dusk then, so we gave up and went to bed.