Dry Land! (Day 14 – 12/5/2016)

We’re back in Ushuaia! It didn’t really hit me until we were sitting at breakfast, and someone walked by the window of the boat. Whoa! Oh, on the dock. Wait we’re at the dock! YES!

 

I mentioned it in my last post, but as it turns out I’m not a boat guy, and I’d been on this one long enough (no complaints about the boat or the trip, I just was ready to be back on dry land for a bit)! That morning had already been interesting… we’d been at the on-ship bar somewhat late (11:30 PM for me, and no idea what time Jen came in but it was even later), and I had left to pack and get ready. Jen’s things were sprawled all over the cabin still, and we had about 30 minutes to get everything ready before breakfast and disembarkation. Jen ran around and packed, and I cleaned up last-minute things, and prepped the room in general. We put our luggage outside the door, one backpack and one suitcase each, and then headed to breakfast. Luggage handling on the trip has been very efficient, and in this case you were to grab one of three types of ribbons, or have no ribbon, to indicate what happened to your luggage. Some passengers (and their luggage) were headed to the airport, and this was one type of ribbon. Another was headed to a place where passengers could store their luggage during the day while they walked the town and waited for flights, and another was for passengers with a prearranged trip through the national park. We didn’t really fit any of these areas, as we had a private transfer already set up and would be headed straight to our hotel, so we didn’t tag our luggage at all.

 

During breakfast, we began saying our goodbyes. Jen had more to say than I did (being sick with a cold doesn’t make you the best at socializing on the boat). With that said, I really haven’t mentioned in my posts all the people that made this trip amazing. Every meal was shared with different people, and we met quite an array of people and got along amazingly well with many of them. I ended up spending the most time with Keith, mostly because we share a love for Talisker and being bombastic (and most of the time, those two things together). We also got to know his wife, Moraine (we think) who was only referred to as “Mo”. They reminded me a bit of my parents when they were younger, and many of Mo’s mannerisms were things I have seen in my mom. Keith was very likely to step into the middle of any conversation, and take it in his own direction, but his direction was always a fun one and most times we’d all end up laughing about whatever he was up to this time. Keith either rubbed people the right way immediately, or the wrong way immediately, there wasn’t really an in-between. My favorite part of getting to know him was that he gave Jen just about as much trouble as I do, and anyone who does that is a good friend of mine!

 

 

 

We also said goodbye to Natalie and Kathy, two people I haven’t mentioned but that were extremely friendly on the trip. You may have seen Natalie sitting with us at the teatime picture earlier in the trip. Natalie is Kathy’s daughter, and the two were traveling together to visit Antarctica after Natalie’s initial interest spurred her mother’s as well. They are both great to talk to, great to wander the shore (and base Esparanza) with, and had a good sense of humor. We had tea with Natalie on the deck on the day we were surrounded by icebergs, and they were one of the ones we exchanged contact information with and look forward to keeping in contact with (Keith and Mo, too). Kathy gave me a hug shortly before exiting the ship, and we have talked since about how we miss them, and had a great time getting to know them on the boat.

 

 

 

There were other characters as well, both from the crew and other passengers. I mentioned Caitie once (and finally have a correct spelling of her name), I met her and her parents (traveling together in a group of three) in a presentation where her mom introduced them by saying “Hello, we’re the <family last name> family” very matter-of-factly. It was funny to me most of the trip because Caitie appears to be one person around her parents, and a different person when by herself. Either way, she’s quiet and reserved, but with something about her that makes me think there’s a lot more depth there than she lets on. She watches people a lot, and I think that it would be extremely enlightening to hear what she was thinking in those situations. Her parents were an interesting couple and her dad seemed to have a good head on his shoulders overall as well. I’m sorry that I didn’t have more time to get to know all of them, but I suppose I feel that way about many that we talked to. It was a boat full of intriguing people and backgrounds. There were quite a few successful people on the boat who had built their own company, had a successful IPO, sold their business to large conglomerates, etc… and one who had built a social-media brand that gave them outstanding travel opportunities to help bring in business with “new media”.

 

The social media on this trip was the responsibility of a guy named Neil, who I can only describe as a 30-year-old version of Sammy from “The Wedding Singer” who just hadn’t quite figured out how life ends for Fonzie if he keeps growing older. He had received the trip from Poseidon in return for social media engagement and live-casting to places like Instagram. I’m sure we’ll be linking to his content where we see ourselves (he has a few videos of us on boats), but we’ll get there when we get there. Neil was a pretty interesting guy to talk to. Many of the people on the boat essentially lived out of their cars moving from adventure to adventure, including Neil, and I imagine if I had an expendable income and no chance of ever burning through it I would be doing the same thing. This is the ultimate life goal for me, traveling without an end date to any place in the world I want to… with a car full of belongings and new memories ahead of me. What a way to live!

 

 

Back to my reality though, I still had more of this trip ahead of me and we sat in the bar area while luggage was offloading and people were getting ready. The airport bus left at 8:00, the luggage storage at 8:15, and our transfer was going to (hopefully) show up sometime after that. We hadn’t talked to the company and it was unclear if they knew when we were getting in… but we had to leave the boat at the latest by 9:00. We shouldn’t have worried, though, Trevor at “Travel the World” always has everything planned and before we knew it they were announcing our private transfer had arrived outside. We had just said goodbye to Kathy (I got a hug) and then it was our turn, and we followed airport-bound passengers down the ramp.

 

I haven’t mentioned the crew yet in detail, we’d really gotten to know a few of them (Ma, Christian, Heidi), and would miss them. Ma is an interesting character, and someone who would easily fit into my circle of friends in life. He has an interest in nearly everything, and both he and Heidi had a way of making you interested in something too… even if you weren’t to begin with… because they have so much enthusiasm to share. For Ma, this runs the gamut from birds, to ecology, to the stars in the sky and everything in-between. I love meeting people in life who are full of passion, and Ma is one of these people. I hope we get to keep in touch.

 

 

We said our goodbyes, and then the leader of the voyage (whose name I have previously misspelled and will have to correct) Anja, told us both goodbye. Anja was also leaving the Sea Spirit for the season, and heading home to see family. I don’t know why, but I felt almost immediately like this wouldn’t be the last time in my life our paths would cross. This turned out to be true in the days to come, but I mean it in a much longer sense… we may never see her again… but I feel somehow like we will. In the immediate sense, however, we were tied together for a least a few more hours because in the transfer van we met our driver who asked us to confirm our suitcase and backpack. Yep… we were missing one backpack, and one suitcase. We searched the luggage headed to storage, we searched the luggage still left on our ship, but Jen’s backpack and my suitcase had gone missing.

 

This had never happened before, every passenger had to visually confirm their luggage and where it was headed… but somewhere there must have been a communication. My backpack was on top of my luggage, so it’s not like things were misplaced, they had purposefully be separated somehow. Anja and few from the voyage sprang into action and tracked down an answer. There was extra luggage on a bus, and they would leave it at a hotel where they dropped off some passengers. Our driver, Gerardo, told us he had the contact numbers and we could go track down the luggage as it showed up. Having no real other option, and knowing nobody really wanted my clothes and cold-weather gear (though fearing for Jen’s tablet and camera), we agreed.

 

 

 

During the time we were waiting, we talked to Anja and she invited us to join her for dinner that evening in Ushuaia. The boat was heading back out, but she was in town for a few days, and we were very glad to accept the offer. It would be great to get to know her and Guadalupe (a local member of Poseidon’s team) that evening, and have dinner at a nice restaurant! We set a time to catch up together after siesta at 8:30 PM that night, and headed off in search of luggage. Our driver took us to the drop point, and we located Jen’s backpack, but still my luggage was missing. I was thinking more about it and realizing I really didn’t have anything I really would miss inside my bag except my suit (captain’s dinner, so I brought it). I could always replace the clothing at some point, so when our driver told us they were looking at some of the other buses that had left but they may be on all-day tours and we wouldn’t know until that evening we agreed to just head to our hotel, Las Lengas.

 

Even with all the running around, we were pretty early to Las Lengas, and couldn’t check in until 1:00 PM (we arrive shortly after 9:00 AM). They did have a bar are with internet connectivity, however, and this became our refuge as we began contacting the world again. We uploaded photos to Facebook, starting posting updates to this blog, and in general made contact. Hello world, after 10 days away… we’re back!

 

 

A few hours later, Las Lengas had a room for us and we ordered lunch around the same time. We decided to order a calzone from Bar D Pizzas, the hotel bar, and I’m very glad we did. It was some of the best food I’ve had in Argentina. A simple calzone, with onions, peppers, cheese, and a few meat sausages… it really hit the spot. The bread was perfect and while it was way too much food for two people we still did our best to eat as much as possible. The food on board the ship had been great with a few options every day, but this was our first chance to really pick something on our own in a while. The room was pretty basic, however it felt very much like an apartment and we had two completely separate room with beds (typically the beds are all in the same room) and this was something that we both thought was good! Jen could get away from my snoring (not that I snore, but that she *claims* I snore), and we wouldn’t end up throwing things at each other for fun! We unpacked a bit, and posted some more here. It was time to relax a bit! I left the room around 4:30, and having heard nothing went down to the front desk to find out about my luggage. I saw my suitcase sitting behind the desk, wohoo! I grabbed my bag, thanked the desk, and lugged it up the stairs to our second-story room. It had remained locked all day, and nothing was missing, it had just been misplaced. At this point it was time for a nap so I’d be up for our late dinner.

 

 

 

In the lobby a few minutes early, we saw Anja and Guadalupe pull in, and we headed out for dinner. Anja and Guadalupe greeted us like friends, and we all jumped in the car for a quick car trip to Maria Lola, known for their pasta and atmosphere. We enjoyed both, and ate amazing pasta (homemade, with some fantastic seafood), good wine, and desserts rich with dulce de leche. We got to know a bit more about both Guadalupe and Anja, found out that Anja was also touring the national park the next day, and talked of family, travel, and moving through life and seeing so many things. Anja is at a point in her life where she has seen so much, and traveled so much, that she’s enjoying down time when offered, and spending time with her nephews. It sounds like Christmas is what is taking her home this time, and she’s picking how to best-balance her home life with these expeditions so far from home. Guadalupe is doing the same, but loves travel and Italy specifically, and visits there frequently on her trips north and south as the seasons change and Poseidon moves vessels from pole to pole. It was great to get to know them both a bit more, and fun to seem them both outside of the ship and their responsibilities. They’re amazing people! I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to meet more of the people from the trip, especially the ones with such an integral part in what we did, and learn about them more as people. I wish I had a picture of the four of us… at the time it didn’t occur to me to take one.

 

 

We were dropped off at our hotel around eleven, and headed straight to bed. We had to be up the next morning to tour the national park by eight the next morning!