day 4-5, Ushuaia and Drake Passage

after a very early flight to Ushuaia, known a " fin del Mundo", or the end of the world. It was a 3 1/2 hour flight and most of us slept. The Ushuaia airport was quite a striking building, and landing there was exciting because on my side of the plane all I could see was water, even after we landed, so it looked like we landed on the ocean!

We had a few hours in Ushuaia before we boarded our ship, so souvenir shopping and wine purchases were the activity for most of us. It's an interesting city at the base of the mountains so all the streets are very steep but it's a nice friendly place since they get lots of tourists who leave from there on various trips to Antarctica as well as quite a bit of cargo shipping.

 My roommate and I found our cabin on the 5th level of 6 levels of the ship, and fairly nice for research ship accomodations. We had the mandatory safety drill with life vests and finding our lifeboat, which was a small, enclosed vessel which held half the people on the ship - which would be about 50 -that would be a very claustrophobic experience if we ever had to use it! We had dinner and a briefing of our next few days, then set out for the infamous Drake Passage. After leaving the Beagle Channel the water started getting a bit rougher and we all put on seasick patches. The boat rocked through the night and I found it quite calming and fun to feel the rise and fall of the ship while I was sleeping!

Day 3, Buenos Aires

well, I have already missed my vow to post daily, best laid plans and all that, I guess.

Monday in Buenos Aires we walked to the Cathedral where the new Pope had been the Cardinal, and also to the Casa Rosada, site of the famous Evita balcony speech and many other events in Argentina's colorful past. The city seems to be under a lot of construction, almost every street was being worked on, and someone said it was because of the upcoming elections and the current politicans are trying to make it look like they are accomplishing a lot- some things are the same in every country!

A group of us went to a popular local area and had lunch in an outdoor cafe, which was very nice. Three women and I had reservations for a tango club dinner and show, and we enjoyed it very much- nice to see the tango show

since it is a big part of their culture. We got back to the hotel at 12:30am and had a wake up call of 5am to get ready to fly to Ushuaia, so it was a short night but hey, we can sleep on the 3.5 hour flight to the very end of South America!

Day two, Buenos Aires

I have vowed to post every day about my trip so will continue that schedule despite some personal setbacks and the horrible events in Boston today. One of the very fast women in the Antarctica race was in Boston but finished well ahead of the explosions.

Sunday morning March 24 we had a tour of Buenos Aires and saw a beautiful city which is very colorful and lively- see photos. The tombs at Recoleta were fascinating, like a city of very small beautiful buildings, with some families there honoring their deceased and many tame cats wandering around. Of course we saw the Duarte family crypt with Evita's tomb.

In the afternoon I went with a friend to a huge artist's market and bought a few things, the day was lovely and warm.

The evening included a banquet for the runners and was a good chance to meet more of the people on the trip.

First day of the trip

An easy overnight flight while reading a pre-publication copy of a book by a friend, Lori Nelson Spielman. It's a great read and Lori is doing her first book signing at my library in August when the book comes out!

The plane landed through a wild thunderstorm so that was pretty cool to see. I got to Buenos Aires airport early Saturday morning and the first person I met was John "the Penguin" Bingham of Runner's World fame! I always enjoyed reading his column since he wrote about being a runner who was not fast and not shaped like a runner. With a nickname like The Penguin he is a natural for Antarctica and he works for Marathon Tours so he was one of the trip organizers.

The 20 of us who had flown from Atlanta got on a bus for downtown BA. The weather was glorious- 75 and sunny. My first order of business was finding a Diet Coke, and I learned quickly to say Coca Cola Light.

After I got a six pack of Coke I took a 3 hour nap then met with other runners for a scheduled run in a park near the hotel. It felt good to run but the heat was a big change from my usual running weather.

Home from an amazing trip

As some of you know, I finally made it home Sunday night after 2 1/2 days of travel. Long story so I will start with the end of the trip first, then go back and start from the beginning and add photos.

 It was so incredible to be in Antarctica that I am still processing everything. I feel so lucky to have gotten to go and for my dream trip to be even better than I even expected!

Last Friday we landed at Ushuaia early in the morning and got off the ship and had a couple of hours in the town, then got a bus to the airport. The airport is very cool looking, I will attach a photo. The downside is there are not very many flights a day, and Aerolineas Argentina does not have a good reputation for being on time. Our flight was delayed over 3 hours, which put us in Buenos Aires 30 minutes before our flight for Atlanta, which was not enough time to get through security, change luggage to Delta, etc.

When we landed in Buenos Aires the Aerolineas folks met us and had made arrangements for the 14 of us on the Atlanta flight to have transportation, hotel, and meals until the next Atlanta flight Saturday evening. They also said they had booked us on that flight, so once we all reconciled that we were not getting home on Saturday we had a good time back in BA for another day.

A bus took us back to the airport, about 45 minutes away from downtown BA, so we got there at 5:30pm for our 8:30 flight, which turned out to be just barely enough time! Each person took at least 20 minutes to check in and get a seat assignment and then get their connecting flight worked out. I was told that when I got to Atlanta I needed to get a seat assignment for the 7:30am flight to Detroit - that sounded fine.

We landed in Atlanta at 5:30am and I raced through baggage, customs, loaded my bag again for the Delta flight, and ran to the gate for the 7:30 flight, anticipating being in Detroit by 9:30am. Unfortunately I did not have a seat, I was on standby! Julie, another Michigander, also was on standby. And so were 23 others! Plus the flight was oversold by 4 people, as was the next flight at 9am. The perfect storm of the end of spring break and basketball tournament in Atlanta made Detroit a very popular destination.

Julie and I went to the customer service counter and said we just had to get seats for Detroit after travelling for so long. They worked and worked on it and finally came up with sending us to Baltimore, then to Detroit. So on Sunday afternoon I had crab

cakes in Maryland, which definitely was NOT on my list of places to be this weekend....

We landed in Detroit at 7pm, and after retrieving my suitcase which had been there almost 12 hours already, I was home by 9pm. A shower and clean clothes were quite a relief!

Here I go!

Buenos Aires bound

In Atlanta waiting for Buenos Aires flight. Once I leave here I will turn my iPhone into an old-fashioned phone with only texting until I get back to Atlanta in two weeks. I may have Internet on the ship but not really sure what the capabilities will be, but pretty sure I can't send photos until get back to the US, unfortunately.

Off for an 11 hour flight!