The End of the World
Hi gma and parents!
We're safe in Ushuaia! Made it to country #2 - Argentina.
The drama for this flight actually started last Thursday, when we realized our layover involved an airport change (an hour and a half away). Drama ensued, along a few other things that made the end of the week super stressful. So, we enjoyed a nice weekend in Santiago sans phones and just reset!
Our flight to Ushuaia arrived and we were SO excited for the 2nd leg of the adventure to begin! First flight was uneventful, other than the seats were so so uncomfortable. We were able to switch our flights so we now had a 1am - 7am layover in Buenos Aires, which was brutal. You can mentally prepare for that, or at least try to, but it is always so much worse than you imagine. We sat at a coffee shop sipping on OJ and one espresso for 3 hours before we could check our bag and head up to the gate. It was there, on the nasty blue carpet, with black gum circles, that we got a nice 2 hour nap. Lol. New low.
The time came to board and off we went! If you are curious what the flight passengers look like going to Ushuaia/Antartica - it's exactly what you're thinking. A bunch of old white dudes (from around the world) with their eclectic wives with colorful hair (from around the world). There were some polo bro's too but not too many. I couldn't help but giggle at the stereotype fitting so perfectly.
Anyway, we are exhausted and I immediately put on my eye mask and an audiobook and start to fall in and out of sleep. I wake up 30 minutes into the flight because of some turbulence and am angry it's only been 30 minutes. Erik and I catch up and talk about how sleepy we are when we start to hit some seriously horrible turbulence. I'm a nervous flier, so I always sit by the window and I took a peek out and there was nothing. Just nothing. Now the plane is bucking left and right and up and down and I decide it's time to duck and cover. I pull my knees up and hug them along with one of Erik's knees and try to ride it out. It lasts a little longer than I anticipate, so I come up for air. At the exact time we drop BIG, our butts come off the seat and I literally think "This is how we die. On this trip, this is horrible" - and I resume the duck and cover position. We continue to be thrown around like rag dolls are a few more seconds and it finally calms down. I'm nauseous and shaking uncontrollably and the old French lady (with red/orange hair) next to us is in absolute shock. If you know Erik, you know he's as cool as a cucumber, even as cool as a sea cucumber - or so he looked... He told me later that even he thought that the plane might go down. Yuck.
Only 3 hours to go.
Needless to say, we got off the plane and I got as far away from it as I could as quickly as possible. Yish. kfjas;dlfkjas;lefjasoo;dilag;lskd.
Travel continued after that to the hotel and it was smooth and seamless and our room happened to be ready to check into three hours before it should have been. Yay! We took a nap and met Nancy (Erik's aunt) in the lobby and we went out for dinner and drinks and ate and drank too much along with a leisurely walk along the shoreline. It was a perfect end to a horrifying day.
Our first full day in Ushuaia, we decided to sleep in (aka sleep it off) and start the day a bit later. Around 11:30 we decided to figure out how to take the train to the end of the world.
Slept in too much and it was sold out. However, we knew the Tierra Del Fuego National Park wouldn't sell out! So we hopped on a bus and started on, what we thought, would be a 4 kilometer easy hike. After 3+ hours, many butt scoots on steep rock edges and 5 kilometers later - we arrive at the café where we are to wait for our shuttle back to town.
The hike was breathtaking and exactly what we needed after the travel day/disaster of the day before. At one point, Nancy told me "I feel alive!" And it was the truest statement. While it is always easy for me to be anticipating what's next, especially with check in for our Antarctica adventure happening tomorrow, hiking through this unbelievable location gave me a few hours of being present and so stinkin' happy it hurt.
