Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica
Today was hectic to say the least. As of 8:30 last night, we did not have any of the departure information for Antarctica. Luckily we got the information first thing in the morning, and saw that we could drop our bags off in the morning and didn't have to catch the bus to the port until 3:30 PM, which allowed us to run errands, and plan a few things for when we returned to Ushuaia.
We got kicked out of our hostel at 10am and were not allowed to use the facilities anymore so we went to a nearby hotel/café for wifi. We had a laundry list of things we wanted to get done, but at the top on the list was figuring out the W circuit in Torres Del Paine. Jenny had been emailing a trekking company, but they weren't really being very helpful, so we decided to just book things ourselves so we'd have reservations. Jenny spent a few hours working out a plan and finding campsites that were available, but when we went to reserve them, the payment couldn't process. When we called the company to figure it out, we somehow ended up back on the phone with the people Jenny was emailing earlier and were helpful for a bit, so we decided to just go with their pre-set routes because it was easier, was in shelters, and was not that much more expensive than if we had to rent all the camping gear. Unfortunately everything is super slow and reservations take 48 hours to process and you can't pay until you have a reservation and they wouldn't take any payment information early. Super frustrating. We had to have Jenny's email forwarded to her mom so she could try and pay on our behalf while we were gone...she is an absolute lifesaver because it turned out to be really difficult, but she was able to figure it all out for us! THANK YOU!
Meanwhile, I'm running around town trying to book our bus tickets, because everyone says they fill up quickly. When I first went to buy bus tickets, I didn't have Jenny’s passport with me so I had to go back and pick that up. Once I had the passport, and went to pay, I found out I was 5 ARS short and had to get cash out to buy the tickets. After I got back from buying the tickets, I had to pick up rental ski pants. The ski pants were actually on sale and it only cost $40 to rent them for the 10 days!
Somewhere in the mix of all this, the internet died.To keep working in the hotel café, I had to turn my phone on hotspot mode so Jenny could keep working...we don't even want to know what that data is going to cost. Then all our devices and battery packs started dying and our travel converter was on the ship with our luggage. At this point, it was 2pm and we still hadn’t eaten lunch yet and we needed to catch the bus at 3:30pm. We had to split up again, Jenny would sit with the surface and try to connect to a free wifi spot in the city, while I would hunt down a charger or a travel converter. I walked down the street and I saw a girl who was also at our hostel with us, and was also going to Antarctica (Jenny had the ship names wrong in her head so the whole day we thought we were on different boats...when we finally realized it, we were happy because we thought we were all going to be the youngest people on the boats). I chased her down and asked politely if she had a battery pack we would use so we could book the rest of the things on our list. She said yes and was a huge lifesaver. Shoutout to Alanna for saving the day! Jenny was able to get her phone back to life, she booked the remainder of the items we had just in time to hop on the boat.
As we were on the bus to the ship, I realized that I forget to contact Tita or any family in Chile that we would now be there earlier than we originally thought. I send a quick text to Tita to figure it out for me which was a huge help. Thanks Tita!
Today was definitely hectic, but we had lots of people that went out of their way to help us, and we really appreciate it! Then it was off to enjoy our first night on the ship and meet fellow passengers and crew! The ship is definitely luxury living for us...our own room, bathroom, 3 meals a day and 5 course meals at dinner!
*****
Lodging: Quark Expeditions
Transportation: Ocean Diamond
Restaurants: Albatros Hotel Cafe
We got kicked out of our hostel at 10am and were not allowed to use the facilities anymore so we went to a nearby hotel/café for wifi. We had a laundry list of things we wanted to get done, but at the top on the list was figuring out the W circuit in Torres Del Paine. Jenny had been emailing a trekking company, but they weren't really being very helpful, so we decided to just book things ourselves so we'd have reservations. Jenny spent a few hours working out a plan and finding campsites that were available, but when we went to reserve them, the payment couldn't process. When we called the company to figure it out, we somehow ended up back on the phone with the people Jenny was emailing earlier and were helpful for a bit, so we decided to just go with their pre-set routes because it was easier, was in shelters, and was not that much more expensive than if we had to rent all the camping gear. Unfortunately everything is super slow and reservations take 48 hours to process and you can't pay until you have a reservation and they wouldn't take any payment information early. Super frustrating. We had to have Jenny's email forwarded to her mom so she could try and pay on our behalf while we were gone...she is an absolute lifesaver because it turned out to be really difficult, but she was able to figure it all out for us! THANK YOU!
Meanwhile, I'm running around town trying to book our bus tickets, because everyone says they fill up quickly. When I first went to buy bus tickets, I didn't have Jenny’s passport with me so I had to go back and pick that up. Once I had the passport, and went to pay, I found out I was 5 ARS short and had to get cash out to buy the tickets. After I got back from buying the tickets, I had to pick up rental ski pants. The ski pants were actually on sale and it only cost $40 to rent them for the 10 days!
Somewhere in the mix of all this, the internet died.To keep working in the hotel café, I had to turn my phone on hotspot mode so Jenny could keep working...we don't even want to know what that data is going to cost. Then all our devices and battery packs started dying and our travel converter was on the ship with our luggage. At this point, it was 2pm and we still hadn’t eaten lunch yet and we needed to catch the bus at 3:30pm. We had to split up again, Jenny would sit with the surface and try to connect to a free wifi spot in the city, while I would hunt down a charger or a travel converter. I walked down the street and I saw a girl who was also at our hostel with us, and was also going to Antarctica (Jenny had the ship names wrong in her head so the whole day we thought we were on different boats...when we finally realized it, we were happy because we thought we were all going to be the youngest people on the boats). I chased her down and asked politely if she had a battery pack we would use so we could book the rest of the things on our list. She said yes and was a huge lifesaver. Shoutout to Alanna for saving the day! Jenny was able to get her phone back to life, she booked the remainder of the items we had just in time to hop on the boat.
As we were on the bus to the ship, I realized that I forget to contact Tita or any family in Chile that we would now be there earlier than we originally thought. I send a quick text to Tita to figure it out for me which was a huge help. Thanks Tita!
Today was definitely hectic, but we had lots of people that went out of their way to help us, and we really appreciate it! Then it was off to enjoy our first night on the ship and meet fellow passengers and crew! The ship is definitely luxury living for us...our own room, bathroom, 3 meals a day and 5 course meals at dinner!
*****
Lodging: Quark Expeditions
Transportation: Ocean Diamond
Restaurants: Albatros Hotel Cafe
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