Day 5: Ahoy, Antarctica by way of King George Island

Today is the day! Quark Expedition Tour contacted us that our flight to Antarctica is being moved up due to weather conditions expected to be bad for flying the next few days. Luckily, I am scheduled to get to Punta Arenas early enough that the early departure does not really impact me much.

One of my hosts Domingo agreed to pick me up to go to the airport at 5:40am for my 7:30 flight. Not for free obviously, but still I would rather have him than trying to find an uber or taxi at that early hours. Domingo knocked on my door right at 5:40am. I opened the door, buenos dias, from his smile, I already knew he is a very kind and friendly guy. Oh we talked so much on the way to the airport, he is born as Chilean but was living in London for so many years, and a few years ago, they decided to move back to Chile with his wife Monika and his daughter. We talked about living aboard, about travel, just one of those moments you find some instant connection and you get to know someone very briefly. Just like that one of Humans oF NY IG feeds that you learned about some people via a photo and a brief description, except that it is a live person and you get to ask the question.

The airport ride was smooth, and the weather was nice today. My flight took off on time and even got to Punta Arenas early. I walked out the arrival hall after picking up my bag, I was not sure if Quark would have someone to pick me up. In the email, it sounds like they would. I did see the sign of my name. It seems I was the only one arriving at that time. My driver is a Venezuelan, again he is a friendly and interesting fellow to talk to. Maybe he was only working for his tips, but I am not scouting for a boyfriend. It is just another quick connection. I asked him if his family is still in Venezuela, he said Yes. I asked why he came to Punta Arenas, so far south and so cold in winters. It is the tourist money. On the other hand, I talked about life in the US and Hong Kong. He was totally preaching to the wrong crowd that he keeps praising China and how great it is. I half closed my ears on that one. Nonetheless, he stopped by a pond to show me a flamingo he spotted, and he drove me around downtown areas and told me where to visit. Quark paid for the ride, so I think he was only working for the tips, which I did give him.

Punta Arenas, to my surprise, actually was quite a nice town, with a lot of old colonial buildings from the 1800s. Everywhere looked pretty clean. Anyway, he delivered me to the Dreams Casino Hotel for my expedition check-in. I picked up my parka jacket which we can keep and the mud boot which we need to return after the tour. Did my health declaration and biosecurity for which I originally thought it was related to COVID, they were actually vacuuming our daily bags, hats, gloves and outerwears to make sure there are no weeds no strange biomaterial we are bringing to Antarctica and killing all the wildlife there. Reading the essential list though, I realized I did not bring a waterproof pants which are required for getting on and off the zodiac boats, and a hat is strongly recommended. I don't wear hats and gloves in Boston or Chicago, those are the last things I would think about when I am packing. I ended up walking down the street to a local active wear store and got a pair of pants and a hat. That came out to like 61000 pesos (like, not Walmart price, even though the pants were definitely made in China. They are more expensive than my 2 tours from the last 2 days combined. I don't think I have a choice at this point, I am the sheep that was ready to be slaughtered.

I found my bus stop for when I return, I will take a bus to Puerto Natales for the next destination. I found some place for quick sandwiches and coffee. Then I walked back to the hotel to meet Dimas, for my roommate for the next 7 nights. We did not know each other, except that we have some connection on facebook, that we were both friends of so and so. And we happened to ask the same person about Antarctica, and he connected us, and we decided to go together just because it would save us both quite a lot of money. Since we agreed to do the tour together about 2 years ago, we met once in Boston just to make sure we are not killers.

Got the orientation briefing, and we were scheduled to leave for the airport at 5pm-ish. Be honest, the feeling was still not quite kicked in yet. We were going to fly to King George Island in between Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage, where we would change to take a zodiac boat to continue to the cruise. All the demo and life saving instructions were coming in so fast but not quite sure how much I retained them. As we were being transported to the airport, Dimas and I were on the subject of paying tips for the cruise staff, do we need to do that? I did not think of that. How would I know? I don't usually travel like this. So, he said that his trip to Galapagos for 15 days, he paid like 500 bucks for tips. $500!!! That is a lot! Are you crazy? So, that triggered me to google around and see how much people are supposed to pay for tips for an Antarctica trip. On Tripadvisor, some people say 10-15 per passenger per day. Not quite sure where that reference was from, probably pre-COVID. And then, I looked up Quark FAQ, which says to budget "up to 20 bucks" per passenger per day. So, our tour is technically 7-8 days, so it would be $140-160. That is still a lot but at least it sounds more reasonable than $500. I plan to do $150 on the tips at the moment, we'll see how it goes.

As a very positive note, we got to the airport, successfully boarded and took off to King George Island at 7:15pm. The journey took 2 hours, it was still broad daylight out, at this time of the year, there are only 2-3 hours of darkness. We arrived at the Chilean military base which was sandwiched between the Russian and the Korean, South Korean. We were already wearing waterproof pants but before we got off the plane, we had to change to the mud boot. As we landed, the feelings started to sink in, it is a pure uninhibited land with nothing but wilderness and ice and wind. We were transported to the beach where we put on a life jacket and then we were guided to hop on the zodiac. It looked pretty solid as we first got on and sat down, after we were given a quick safety instruction, we were off to cruise, since it was getting quite late, and we had not even eaten dinner yet. The zodiac boat was a bit scary actually, maybe because it was quite windy and we were driving a bit faster than normal. It was just all a bit surreal, at the location we were at and doing what we are doing. There were a few penguins sending us off the zodiac which was super cute.

After a late dinner and we finally reunited with our bags in the cabin we were gonna spend 6 or 7 nights, 2 single beds. By 11pm, the cruise started moving, and I could start feeling the waves, the last time I cruised it was 15 years ago and on a much bigger cruise. I was worrying I would get seasick. But I tried to go to bed anyway, since we have an 8am wake up. Overwhelmed with emotions and feelings of excitement, nervous about getting seasick, the remoteness of where we are, the crazy adventure I am on and the scary feeling I get earlier on the zodiac boat, all melted into I don't know what. But I am going to sleep on it for now.

Day 5 Photos: Here

Day 4: Rainy Day and Tuesday... Chiloe Island

If yesterday was a fantastic day for touring, today is quite the opposite. The weather has been dreary and rainy all day until almost 5pm, the sun was out. A different tour company, still one of those small cargo vans with 12 passengers, a guide and a driver. All Chilean except me and a German girl. I was told that the guide speaks english, of course, she did not. Or she really did not try. After her giant introduction of today's agenda and probably introduction about the islands, when we got the first stop, I asked her "hablas english ok?" She said, "No" and then "so-so". So, I said I understand very little spanish, and if she can give me important information like when we are coming back to the car, or how many minutes we are spending in this location. It is not the first time I am on a full spanish tour so I am kind of used to it. The only inconvenient part is that everytime we stop somewhere, I need to make sure I understand when we are coming back to the car.

Chiloe Island is a huge island, so we and the vehicle took a ferry across the channel to the island. The ferry was literally at snail pace. Today it was just raw weather wise, I had my layer and still felt a little chill, so I stayed inside and looked at the calm sea and we were moving very very very slowly. The island kind of reminded me of Nova Scotia actually but not as nice. We made stops in a couple of towns. The first two were pretty much a waste of time, there was really nothing interesting to see or take pictures for. Meanwhile, we passed by some ship factory or warehouse and some colorful houses, I wished they would stop closer to that area, so I can walk back to snap some photos, instead of this stupid fort with tourist traps vendors.

The third town Dalcahue was a little better, but still not a whole lot catching my eyes. After we went on a boat tour, where most everyone got wet from the waves, it was not fun on a dreary day like this. People were either hungry or tired. We were going to have lunch as it was getting quite late like 1:30pm. Earlier the guide explained the food selection to everyone and took everyone's order. When she came to me, I said, "ok I heard comida, something to do with eating, right?" Yes, but she had no intention of trying to repeat the options in english, so I heard "pollo", "asada", "papas frites". So, "pollo y papas frites para mi" then, y bebida "sprite". Not until we got to the restaurant and all sat down at a communal table, I saw what everyone ordered, many seafoods, salmon, hake or sea bass, a whole bowl of clams and other shellfish. And this asian fella had a fried chicken leg and french fries. It was a good chicken leg, but geez, if I had known the options, I would have wanted some of the seafood.

At lunch, it was when everyone was loosening up a bit. The German girl started the conservation, who comes from where, her name is Josephine, she is taking a 2 months break between jobs, and going on a long solo vacation. I had met other Germans like her before, they are very self-dependent and self-sufficient. I admire that. She was in much better shoes, since she spoke spanish. She spoke to me the most, and then there was another "pothead" chilean couple, I believe they were from Santiago, they also tried to speak to me some. The others pretty much just stuck to themselves.

Last town to visit is the capital of the island, Castro. Not quite that Castro in San Francisco. Also church, square, more or less the same thing. Until we were about to leave, the sky was totally lightened up, blue sky. Could we have that weather earlier? I think I would like to see Chiloe Island on my own, rather than with a group. We passed by some interesting things that I would have taken a lot of pictures with, but we were not stopping at those places, but rather stopped at the main square with the freaking churches and gift shops every town we go. It was kind eh..

Got some updates on the Antarctica tour. The tour agency sent out an email that because of the weather forecast, they are moving up the flight to King George Island, Antarctica. We were originally scheduled to fly on Friday morning, but now we are leaving at 5pm tomorrow. Drake Passage which separated Antarctica and South America is known to be rough and have unpredictable weather. I checked King George Island, and it looks like they are expecting a few days of snow. Anyway, we'll see how that goes. Tomorrow, I have an early flight to Punta Arenas where we will check in with the tour group and we will have to go through the "biosecurity" (covid test and anything else), finger cross I will pass with flying colors! I have not tested positive once during the last 3 years, I do not plan on getting a positive result coming all the way here either!!

Forgot to mention about this crazy yellow flowers I saw all over the island, the yellow were so bright, it was almost look like god dump some yellow paint on the leaves and say hey here are some colors for ya!

Day 4 Photos: Here