After grabbing our breakfast, we were gathered in the lounge room and the expedition leader delivered us with the bad news, due to the low visibility, the airline has yet to decide whether we can or cannot fly today. From the radar image, it is extremely unlikely. Not only today, the condition tomorrow is even worse. That being said, the expedition team predicted that the earliest we may be able to leave is Friday December 23 later afternoon. That was a bummer indeed. They advised people to start looking for switching flights and do any adjustment to the trip as needed if we do not hear anything change from the airline by 1pm or 2pm.
These Antarctica trips are pretty much running every week. That being said, there is another group of passengers waiting in Punta Arenas to fly here, get on our cruise while we would take the same two flights back to Punta Arenas and go our own ways. The logistics of it all is quite complicated, since each run would need two planes to carry over 100 people. The runway is a short gravel road, the pilot needs to see the entire runway before they can land. In any case, so now what?
I felt a little trapped and a little ancy, but have been trying to keep my cool. It is beyond what I can control anyway. So, at this point, I can only deal with the options laid in front of me. From the look of it, I will lose two days in Puerto Natales if I get to Punta Arenas really late on Dec 23. There are evening buses from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales, one at 7pm, one at 9pm. It is a 3 hours journey. I really do not want to get in a new town at midnight to try to find my accommodation, which only accepts check in up to 10pm anyway. I can try to check if the B&B can accommodate a late check in. But still, if I can help it, I will try to get on the 7pm bus, despite it being really very tight. I have communicated with the B&B in Puerto Natales, the booking is not refundable, but I have bought travel insurance this time, so I should be able to claim the loss with the right documents.
Originally I was going to do 3 tours in Puerto Natales: (1) to visit Torres del Paine for sure, (2) to visit Grey Lake Glaciers, and (3) to cross the border to Argentina to see Perito Moreno Glacier. I probably will have to give up the idea of going across the Argentina border, that is a long tour (possibly 13-15 hours). Ideally, if I manage to get to Puerto Natales on the Dec 23 evening, I would still have 3 whole days to do tours, and I am only losing one night of accommodation. If I don't get to Puerto Natales until Dec 24 afternoon, then I would have lost 2 nights of accommodation and only left two days (Christmas and Boxing Days) for sightseeing, I am not even sure if the tours are running on those days, Chile is a Catholic country. We'll see.
The Quark expedition team tried to keep the moods up, we have activities on board. Various talks, yoga class, and a Antarctica trivia game night. Tomorrow, we are supposed to have a charity auction, a movie and more talks, if the weather permits, we might do an extra zodiac excursion nearby. They are doing the best they can, which I appreciated. But please please please take me back onshore soon.
The animals we have seen in this trip:
The expedition team:
