Fire & Ice

Fire & Ice, that is what I have dubbed this upcoming adventure.  Today, after meeting up with Kate in Houston, we head to Buenos Aires where it is hovering around a cool 85 degrees.  On Tuesday, we travel down to Ushuaia, Terra del Fuego, an archipelago off the southernmost tip of  South America, across the Strait of Magellan, which literally means "Land of Fire".  From there we board the ship, Silver Cloud, and we are off to summer in Antarctica, a balmy 30 degrees - if we are lucky.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to roll. As usual, I probably have way too much. There's warm stuff and cold stuff and lots of layering for the tundra plus having never been on a fancy cruise ship before, I threw in some "nice" stuff.  There was also all the electronics and toys that Geoff usually packs because he barely takes any clothes at all.  At the last minute, I managed to procure a small rolling case to carry on instead of my usual backpack. Kate mentioned it in passing and I thought it was a good idea to roll instead of carrying the load on my back.  So, I'm all set! 

But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that everything was going to go smoothly.  I have been dealing with my friend Carlos at Silversea for this excursion.  Everything seemed fine until I decided to check on our ground transportation from the Ushuaia airport to the ship.  You see, we are not traveling with the group - not too unusual for me.  This tour actually leaves from Santiago, Chile.  We opted to have some fun in Buenos Aires for a few days instead and made our own arrangements to get down to Ushuaia.  This was all worked out with Carlos.  We even got rebated for our hotel and airfare.  However, there was no transfer indication on our documents to get to the ship!  Fortunately when I tried to call Carlos, he was out and I got a lovely woman, Lisa, who actually is familiar with the area having worked on that expedition.  "Oh no, we can't do that, there aren't enough vehicles to accommodate everyone making special arrangements."  Apparently, had I known previously, we could have taken an earlier flight down and met the charter bus for a tour and lunch and then off we go to the ship.  As it is, we arrive too late.  After lots of calling to her manager, Lisa's solution: take a private taxi to the Albatross Hotel and she arranged a charter to meet us there at 3pm to take us to the ship.  Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we can drop our bags and see some of the town before getting picked up.  I am now working on getting some kind of compensation for this faux pas.  And Carlos definitely needs more training!!  Personally, I think we are better off on our own then being stuck on buses with 150 other people.  But that's just me.

Silver Cloud Expedition Ship

Next time... Waking up in Buenos Aires