lexispence10

After our return from Ushuaia, we stayed at the nice hotel, Palacio Paz, near our previous Sheraton Hotel and in a nice park setting. I'll go more into some random nights in Buenos Aire later, but this was just a holdover for our early morning ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay. We checked out of the hotel around 5:30am and walked about 20 minutes to the Buquebus Terminal. Here, we had a very easy, smooth check-in, including immigration for both Argentina and Uruguay in one location. It is a lovely terminal and we just got some juice and coffee while we waited to board. Our ferry was almost empty so we had our pick of seats. I slept 2 of the 3-hour ride to Montevideo. On arrival, we quickly picked up our backpacks and exited the terminal. I ... read more

At 7am, we arrived at Portal Point on the Reclus Peninsula, on the west coast of Graham Land. I was in the Dome and it initially looked like bad weather, but it quickly cleared. The kayakers were taken out first, while the groups were sorted with their times. We would be back at the end of the first rotation. This was our last excursion and we were excited as this would be the time that we could set foot on the actual continent of Antarctica! No asterisks for those super serious people who judge your adventures in the future. Plus, it would be L's 7th continent and we would have the opportunity to pose for photos with the flags to make it "official". We had 90 minutes at the site which was the perfect amount of ... read more

I woke fairly early and was finally starting to feel better after my pesky cold. Thus, I started my new routine: I would get a cup of hot chocolate from Paula's Pantry when it opened at 7am, then go up to the Dome Observation Lounge to read and relax for an hour on my own before we would get breakfast. I am pretty sure we were in Neko Bay that morning, though, as usual, plans change and did that day as well. Typically, I had the lounge to myself and today I was the only person up there, about to go back to my room, when I saw some swimming penguins. I enjoyed them for a couple of minutes, then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Did I see a whale breach ... read more

This morning, our first excursion of the day was a zodiac ride around the ice crusted bay near Berthelot Island. The swells were pretty good, but the waves and wind were minimal, so it was actually a very nice morning. Which was good since I was a wee bit hungover - L had to zip me up into my parka because I just.... couldn't. Even the second group of kayakers got to explore the area. However, we were unable to make a landing, which is why we just got to enjoy the zodiac. We were among the first set of the main group to go and set off fairly early. We had two guides with us and one was learning how to drive the zodiac. And she had a bit of learning experience ahead of her ... read more

Our day started at the 3:45 breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel. It was a nice buffet breakfast with a large room full of other guests that were probably going to be our fellow passengers. I think many people were just waking up so it was a mostly quiet experience. We were on the second group to leave on chartered buses, departing at 4:30am. Our names were checked off and we sat in silence for the 35 minute trip to the EZE airport. From there, our group followed a guide directly to the security line as they had given us our boarding passes on the bus. Since it was a domestic flight, we were in the waiting area pretty quickly. It was very crowded though, and not a very large area, so we found a seat where ... read more