The End of the World/Argentina

The holidays are almost over and I hope you received the spirit they impart. My holiday treat came on Boxing Day when the last of the five Star Wars kittens that I'd been fostering were adopted to three loving families. They all stole my heart as kittens will do. If I wasn't still traveling, I would have adopted all five myself.

All's good so far at the tip of Argentina. I've made it past the fog in Atlanta to make the connection to Buenos Aires, then on to Ushiaia, where I'm writing this. Tomorrow we head out on a land tour of Tierra del Fuego before getting on the Polar Star in the afternoon. The good news and the bad--I'll be out of internet range until 23 January. What will I do? Well, I brought my laptop so will be able to write as I go and download the submissions all at once when I'm back in range. Of course, that all depends upon how the boat is rocking and rolling. The winds are forecasted to gust up to 60 mph over the next few days. So yes, those were white caps I saw from the plane today.

Many of my fellow traveling companions have been to Antarctica before--numerous times. Some have said you get the Antarctic fever once you've been down here once, so we'll see. I'll have to figure out what job to apply for for that to be in my future. Right now I'm still thinking this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Flying into Ushuaia was exquisite with the snowcapped mountains all around, dropping into the clear blue ocean. The landing strip make those at Boston and Reagan National look far from the watery shores. We circuited the town before arriving at our hotel, the Hotel Albatross, in namesake of what we're to see tomorrow and the coming days. It reminded me of some of the ski areas in Colorado 20 or so years ago before they were built up.

The passenger list is multi-national, with the majority being from outside the US. Not only will I be hearing from naturalists, biologists, botanists, geologists, ecologists, historians, photo and video journalists, and more, we'll all get perspectives from people from various cultures.

I feel blessed to be making this trip. I just listened to the account of the sinking of the Explorer, the boat I was to have been on last year until it ended up in 4300 feet of water. And I'm certainly glad I planned and paid for this trip before the market crashed, otherwise my conscience might not have allowed me to be here.

It's off to bed so I can take in all we're to see and learn tomorrow from all these "-ists".

Happy New Year!