A few months ago, I was texting my BFF, Jolie. (Yeah, yeah, Juli and Jolie.) We hadn’t talked in a while, so I was catching her up on my life – cataracts, arthritis, maybe glaucoma – and she said, “Well I just got a huge promotion at work and then Lucy and I are going to Antarctica.” I was speechless for a split second and then yelled, “OMG can I go with you?” Well, I yelled via text. And two days later Chad and I had booked tickets on the same trip.
I never thought I would actually go to Antarctica, but once the opportunity was staring me in the face, it became real. I thought, I could wait until I retire when I’m older and my knees are tired and I might have physically difficulties, or I could just go now RIGHT NOW with my BFF of 50 years and her wife. Oh, and with my husband, which was a touch and go decision for a little bit because of the potential for epic seasickness. (More later on Drake’s Passage, the roughest water on the planet.)
To prepare for our trip, we had to purchase a few layers – wool socks, sock liners, long underwear, base layers, fleece, waterproof Gor-tex gloves, wool glove liners, wool neck gators – things I never thought I would purchase as someone who lives in the South. The travel company provides a parka, winter overpants, and boots. You have to give the pants and boots back, but you get to keep the parka. Which will be so useful in Georgia.
The Antarctica portion of the trip takes about 2 weeks, itinerary is below. And then we decided that, as long as we’re flying all that way, let’s spend Christmas week in Buenos Aires because 1) Buenos Aires is beautiful and 2) Christmas in a Catholic country is probably pretty amazing. And thus our December in the Southern Hemisphere was born.
We went to the Emory University travel clinic primarily to get seasick meds (Drake’s Passage), but we came away with all kinds of prescriptions and vaccines for covid, Hep A, Hep B, typhoid, tetanus, traveler’s tummy. The travel clinic was doing its job and preparing us for illnesses that aren’t so common in the US but that we might be exposed to in Argentina. The nurses also told us not to eat the street food in Argentina. As if. I’ve already figured out where the food trucks are in B.A.
Now we’re finishing up the work week, super-cleaning the house for the Rover house sitters, and thinking about how we’re going to get all of our stuff into carry-on bags because we don’t check luggage. Here’s a photo of my stuff from our 6-week trip to Italy in 2018 – carry-on is possible! But cold-weather clothes for Antarctica are bulky, so there’s that.
Here are some things we expect to see in Antarctica – gentoo penguins, Weddell seals, whales, glaciers, antarctic terns, giant petrels, other birds, whaling heritage, geology, fur seals, chinstrap penguins, and southern elephant seals.
Chad plans to unplug, but I will not! I will be the Intrepid Travel Blogger! (Except for maybe the Drake’s Passage seasickness part.) So check back for more posts over the next month if you want to follow along.
Itinerary:
Day 0 – depart Atlanta 7:30 pm
Day 1 – land in Buenos Aires 7:30 am, meet up with Jolie and Lucy at the Intercontinental Hotel, spend the day exploring the historic city center, stay the night
Day 2 – fly to Ushuaia, southernmost town in Argentina, board the boat, pray to the Gods of Calm Water
Day 3 – sail Drake’s Passage
Day 4 – arrive in Antarctica and anchor for a week, take a Zodiac cruise up the coast to explore
Day 5 – hike on Danco Island
Day 6 – travel down the coast in a Special Ops Boat, whatever that is
Day 7 – hike around Nekko Harbor
Day 8 – hike on Portal Point
Day 9 – hike around Mikkelson Harbor
Day 10 – hike Half Moon Island
Day 11 – Drake’s Passage, have mercy on us
Day 12 – scenic sail around Cape Horn, Chile
Day 13 – arrive back at Ushuaia, fly to Buenos Aires
Day 14-20 – Christmas in Argentina, lots of things to see and eat, more details to come, red eye flight out
Day 21 – arrive in Atlanta 5 am, Sunday – tired and maybe cranky at each other, but loving the experience…once in a lifetime…