Dec. 27

Today we will take a 3 hour flight leaving from the Jorge Newbery Airport to the town of Ushuaia. We pack up our bags at the hotel and head out for a quick breakfast before returning back to the hotel to get the rest of our baggage. We decided to try Uber and order two different cars to take us to the airport. We are hoping that the vehicles will have enough room for all of our gear. It works out with having some luggage on our laps.

The airport is quite a bit smaller than the one we arrived to yesterday. It is also quite busy with people going on holidays. It seems that most people are going north so our gate isn’t overly crowded,

We have to pay for extra luggage. There isn’t a lot of English spoken here, so glad we know some Spanish. The plane is full and not as much leg room, but no worries as it is a relatively short flight compared to the one getting to Buenos Aires. When we land everyone claps and then in a very organized manner depart the plane. It is quite the contrast from flights we have been on previously.

We are fortunate to have a sunny day when we begin our descent into the airport.

Ushuaia is a town with the Andes as a backdrop. We plan to spend several days exploring the area before we board our sailboat to sail to Antarctica. We have arranged to pickup a rental car at the airport. We have to do a little searching, but eventually we connect and determine that it is going to take several trips to get to our Air B&B. Ryan and Beth take off, unload some bags and then come back to get us. We settle into our new home and get ready to go out to eat.

Very clean with some goodies left on the table for us.

Jamie and Julia are here as well and we make plans to meet them at a restaurant.

They arrived a week ago and spent it hiking.

We get to the restaurant about 9 which is the start of the Dinner hour here. By the time we leave the restaurant is just beginning to fill up. This is going to be an adjustment for us that normally have eaten by 6. Once again we discover the bargain of eating here with American dollars. The bill come to about $50.00 with tip for the six of us. We are looking forward to heading back to our Air B&B and get a good night of sleep. Ryan and Beth, plan to do some hiking tomorrow while Don and I opt to explore the town and do a local hike.

Dec 28 -Dec. 30

The next three days are devoted to exploring the town of Ushuaia and the surrounding area. We are glad to have the rental car. Ryan and Beth take the car to visit the Tierra Fuego National Park and do a hike.

Don and I opt to explore a hike that will take us up a trail behind the town.We pass several colorful homes and are enjoying all the flowers.

The view from near the top. We check out the calm waters of the Beagle Channel. On January 1, hopefully we will board our boat and start the Journey to Antarctic. We have been checking out the weather reports and there is a storm in the near future.

As we hike thru the forest we noticed that a lot of the Beech trees had a fungus growing on the bark.

Eventually it may kill the tree. It is called Indian Bread and at certain times of the year is edible.

We also explore the paths along the sea.

There are some large cruise ships here waiting to head south. We are excited that there will only be 9 of us on our boat.

The Southern Lapwing , a new bird for us

It wasn’t all fun these three days. Ryan has developed a cold and I got a bad case of food poisoning. A night of throwing up and ridding my body of all the stomach contents wasn’t pleasant. I spend the night in the bath tub. Ryan is worried about covid and I am hoping my illness is short lived.

The next day,Ryan begins to feel somewhat better and after taking an easy day at the Air B&B I am ready to go.

We have to take a Covid Test on the 31 st. If anyone of us gets a positive test, the trip will be cancelled. We try not to think about that scenario.

Dec. 31

We have received word from Voy, our captain to make our way to the boat where there will be dry suits to try on, a short orientation and what we have been looking forward to, the Covid Test!

At the dock we meet the Captain, Voy the first mate, Ewa, (Voy’s wife) and the last member of the crew Jim from Minnesota. Don, Ryan and I have brought our own dry suits. The rest of the crew have the fun of trying them on. We check out the boat which is docked on the other side of another boat.

It will be a bit of an obstacle course to get our gear on the boat tomorrow,

After trying on the dry suits, It is time for the covid test. A nurse arrives with our names on the test tubes and we line up for this fun activity, She tells us that we should have the results sometime today. She will send them to Voy who will relay the results to us. Voy tells us that he and Ewa have some more prep to do and gives us the time of 10 to show up tomorrow. He also tells us that there is a strong wind storm developing and that we may need to harbor in the channel tomorrow instead of heading out into the Drake Passage. Sounds like a good plan to us!

Before we go we take the group Photo

Voy, Jim, Jamie, Julia, Ryan, Donna, Beth, Don, Ewa

We come together with a variety of strengths and some of us ( Don, Donna and Jim) with a lack of ocean sailing experience.

Voy and Ewa are from Poland and have lots of sailing experience. They have just spent the last month leading a trip to Antarctica. The weather was quite stormy with very little sunny days. Not much we can do with the weather so plan to enjoy the trip for what ever it may bring.

We head back to our lodgings and hope that the results from the Covid test come quickly. Unfortunately they don’t and we wonder if there was a problem. We decide to hope for the best and pack up our bags. Beth texts Voy and he replies that he hasn’t received the results but will let us know when he does. Apparently he was too occupied with the prep work and forgot to let us know that all the results were negative. WHEW! Tomorrow the adventure begins.