7:00 a.m. – Rise & Shine! Time to finalize packing and suite clean up.
8:00 a.m. – Oded and I officially leave the cabin for the last time. We have all of our gear – I have a backpack, parka and my sleep-apnea machine. We go up to the Panoramic Lounge and claim a couple of chairs in the corner, along with Brian & his dad. We drop our belongings off and head to the Grill for breakfast with them. One last omelet before we leave.
8:30 a.m. – We all head back up to the Panoramic Lounge and just chill. Lots of reading, chatting and I work on my notes a bit. We are stationary so the scenery isn’t even changing so not much is happening.
One last picture with my roommate and buddy, Oded.
10:00 a.m. – One of the expedition leaders, Denis, is a photographer so he leads a quick seminar on photo editing for your smartphone. We join Marge and Ron for this and learn a couple quick tips.
12:30 p.m. – We venture down to The Grill one last time and overeat for one last time. I order a cheeseburger and while it is cooking, I grab some chicken marsala as well as baked pasta.
1:15 p.m. – Back up to our corner of the Panoramic Lounge to chill some more. We are watching the incoming planes on radar and I grab some photos of the planes flying directly over the ship.
3:30 p.m. – We walk through the ship and say goodbye to our favorite crew members as we make our way to the mudroom. We exit the ship and get into the zodiac one last time. We wave goodbye to the gorgeous Silversea Silver Endeavour as we make our way to shore. What a wonderful host she has been these last 6 nights!
We arrive on land and remove our lifejacket before climbing in a van that takes us to “base camp”. We will wait inside the shipping containers converted to a hangar for about 90 minutes until the other planes unload and get cleaned for us to fly back.
At the base camp, Silver Endeavour in the bay.
5:00 p.m. – We board our plane for the ride home. We do a dance in the aisle to get out of our waterproof pants and knee high boots. We have to put the boots in the blue bag that they came in and leave them under our seats when we leave. I try to get some rest on the flight but I don’t sleep much and it was kinda bumpy. But even though it’s bumpy, it sure beats sailing the Drake Passage for 2 days on rough seas.
Boarding the plane to leave Antarctica
7:00 p.m. – We arrive back in Punta Arenas and are shuttled to our hotel. If you remember, on our previous stay in Punta Arenas the group was split in to 2 different hotels. This time, Oded and I get to enjoy the opposite hotel, The Dreams Hotel.
Dreams Hotel, Punta Arenas Chile
This one is right on the waterfront and has some outstanding views of the Straight of Magellan.
View from our room.
8:00 p.m. – We are all checked in and gear dropped off in the room. The elevators are slow and everyone is waiting for them. We opt to take the stairs down several floors to go to the included dinner in the banquet room. A buffet of things that I don’t know or recognize. LOL. Tasty food but not sure what I was eating.
8:45 p.m. – I am pretty whopped but also know that we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow with a flight to Santiago and then an overnight flight back to the US. I head back up to the room to shower and sleep.
Leave a Reply