The phrase “squeal like a pig” became crystal clear to us after a visit to the animal market in Otavalo, Ecuador. And “letting off steam” was brilliantly showcased by our visit to Baños, Ecuador during the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano.
Now that we are in Ushuaia, Argentina preparing to cruise to Antarctica, we are starting to appreciate a couple of other new phrases.
Waiting for our ship to come in
This trip has been planned since June of last year. We always wanted to see Antarctica, but we thought it would be out of our price range. As we were planning the Seattle Meet, Plan, Go event for last fall we met Erin from Gap Adventures, and after a few conversations we took them up on the summer sale of 35% off. We have been anticipating this trip now for 7 months.
We arrived 2 days before our departure date on an early flight from Buenos Aires. We did this mainly because this trip costs a lot of money, it can only happen within small window of time each year, and there is no “catch up” option if you miss your boat.
Because of this, we have had 48 hours to kill before we leave. Excitement is high, especially after seeing a familiar face from home who just so happened to be leaving for Antarctica the day we arrived.
We were walking around town yesterday morning and happened to look out as a red and white ship was sailing into port. Warren thought it might be our ship, which I highly doubted. We walked to the shore to take a closer look, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t our ship. We watched it sail in to port and became even more excited about our upcoming journey.
I mean, really, we got to watch our own ship come in, and we finally go the meaning of that phrase. It is hard to contain your excitement when you see the visual representation of your dream sailing into view.
Going to the ends of the earth
I won’t kid you: it takes a long time to even get to the starting point of this journey. Ushuaia does truly feel like the end of the earth, even though it is a nice little town with all the modern conveniences.
We were lucky to already be in South America and to have the luxury of spending time with new friends in Buenos Aires to break up our trip, but most of our fellow travelers have come from North America and Europe. They traveled for sometimes 2 days to get here.
Ushuaia is so remote that the prison built here in 1901 and in use until 1947 had no perimeter fence. The warden correctly stated that anyone who ran off would either find the landscape too inhospitable and return immediately or quickly die of starvation and exposure to the elements before they found help.
Idle hands are the devil’s work
Maybe it because we are in a holding pattern waiting for departure, or maybe it is a little leftover bad mojo from staying too long in Lima, but we are definitely experiencing some friction in our relationship.
We are frustrated with each other and a little more sharp than usual. Is it because we are excited to go and frustrated the trip hasn’t started yet? Are we nervous about where we are going, especially after a few recent accidents in the Antarctic that our friends can’t help but email us about? It probably doesn’t help that we read about several accounts of shipwrecks in the Maritime Museum and saw the St. Christopher run aground on the shore right off Ushuaia.
Or is it option 3, where being at the end of the world brings everything into a stark focus, dusting off the rosy warm lens we normally use to see?
There are a few more phrases we hope to experience during our journey:
- Seeing the light - the aurora australis is the Southern Hemisphere version of the aurora borealis. If the conditions are right, we should be able to see these lights in the sky.
- Smooth sailing - Drake’s Passage is one of the roughest seas in the world, and we will take 2 days to go through it on each end of the journey. We are prepared for sickness with medicine and an emergency stash of crackers, but we hope to not have to use it. As we get ready to leave today the wind is very high.
- Take a chill pill - once we hit the cold sea air and have to bundle up to stay warm, we expect our hearts to warm up a bit and take the edge off. The last few weeks have been tough for a variety of reasons, and we’d like to freeze out those feelings and get back to our steady and easygoing selves.
Beginning the journey
Today we board the ship and set sail. We don’t know what this journey holds, but we do promise to take pictures, videos, and share our thoughts with all of you.
We will be posting daily on our Facebook page, and depending on the internet connection we will also be posting daily on the blog, including pictures. To follow along, just click “like” on our Facebook page or sign up to get our blog posts emailed to you every day.
We are very excited about this journey and can’t wait to share it with you.
PS: PENGUINS!
About Betsy
I don’t know you guys personally, but I am thrilled for you. What an experience this is going to be! I’m a little green right now… both with envy, and at the thought of the Drake Passage.
I can’t wait to read your updates and see photos of this amazing journey. I received my Gap Adventures brochure just yesterday, and curled up on the couch with it last night, as if it were a favorite novel. Today, I am daydreaming of my next trip. I am not one to take “tours” when traveling, but there are certain parts of the world where I would deem it necessary. I’ll be very interested to hear your take on the “tour” part of the experience, as well.
Here’s hoping the seas are calm, and the sickness is minimal.
~
PS - we have an anthropomorphic penguin that lives in my house, who is very excited about the prospect of penguin encounters! (Yes, we’re that weird).
So looking forward to this series, although you couldn´t pay me to go there right now, its so cold in Cusco.
Hi Guys, so stoked for you both, and still can’t wait for the pics! We’ll be sitting on a beach or hiking some lava rock path and wonder what you two are up to! Clearly we’ll have to connect when you head west, in the mean time we look forward to fun pics with penguins
(you guys will chill out just fine when you get going, and we believe you will come to no harm, have a phenomenal time and regale us all, think positive, breathe, relax; hugs from HI to you!)
I’m so excited for you guys! I know you’ve been looking forward to this for so long and you’ve been making your way through South America to get to the end of the earth. Wishing you a calm Drake Passage and many penguins!
You look so skinny Baby Girl……and so happy! I cannot wait for the updates and the pictures! Enjoy - Enjoy - Enjoy!
Yay! This is going to be one heck of an adventure and I can’t wait to follow along. What a fantastic journey. I’d bet that the gruffness of your relationship probably has a bit to do with the worry about rough seas and shipwrecks, but I’m sure you guys will be fine and once the ship is moving you’ll probably ease back into your old selves. Can’t wait to see all of the photos, especially of the penguins!
Wow, I am beside myself with anticipation for you guys. The penguins, the penguins! Ah.
I’m also sort of relieved to hear you’re not getting along as perfectly as usual. Sorry, but it means you’re human. The longest trip I’ve ever been on with my husband has been 5 weeks and some of our worst arguments have been while traveling. Some of our best friends had their worst fight ever on their honeymoon, almost called the whole thing off. They are one of the best couples I know. So really, there’s a lot of stress with all those changes and difficulties and 24 hours a day together. Not to mention all the decisions, and they can be a lot more life-threatening than where to eat for dinner.
You’re doing it!!! You guys are my heroes this week.
Exactly, Angela! My thoughts exactly. My husband Luis and I were so annoyed with each other on one extended trip that we didn’t speak one word to each other for the duration of an entire 20 hour bus ride!
Or maybe you’re just short with each other because it’s time for a bit of a break (of course that’s hard in Antarctica…) Put your irritation on hold and then take a day off from one another, in some way. I remember you (or one of your guest bloggers) mentioned that time apart was a must. But thanks for sharing EVERYTHING with your readers.
Love you guys. Oh! Just ask, What Would Margit Say? (No ego…) At least you’ll get a laugh out of the question!
Re, your sharpness with each other, it could be option 4: you’ve been traveling together for almost five months. Luis and I start to get on each other’s nerves after about 7 weeks of traveling
and we almost never fight at home. It’s a combination of the pressure of traveling: living in very close quarters and spending every waking moment together; nervousness about making buses, trains, boats; pressure to enjoy the trip because of the money and time you have invested in it; exhaustion; having to constantly debate and weigh the merits of even the smallest of decisions. Traveling, especially backpacking, bears very little resemblance to everyday commute/work/commute/home life. In short, you’re human. 
Wishing you both a wonderful trip..and btw, I can completely understand about the relationship stuff; my husband and I are always stressed out just before an anticipated trip…but everything ends up okay (especially with a sense of humour!)
Thanks for all your support! Things are better now that we are underway, and we are traveling with a really great group of people. We are suffering a bit from seasickness, but we think it will pass when we leave the Drake Passage tomorrow for calmer waters.
Our internet connection is very slow so we will probably not have the bandwidth to upload a bunch of pictures, but we will keep you updated here and on Facebook and try to share at least one picture per day.
Congrats guys - on seeing on of your lifelong dreams come true! We opted out of that on our trip thru, we left the cold of Canada for a reason!
I hope you get to see everything you hope to, and can’t wait to see all your pictures!