First Day in Ushuaia

Quick thoughts, as it is 2:30am and I need to get my body synched up to Ushuaia time and go to bed...

Finally caught up on all of the sleep that I had been missing for so long. After eventually arriving in town at 4am (talk about delayed flights), Joanne and I promptly crashed and did not reappear until the early afternoon.

As we were making our way to the hotel restaurant to grab a quick lunch, we ran into the smiling faces of some of our 2041 crew. Big hugs and greetings all around, and Robert Swan even took us aside and showed us a map of the region and pointed out the route we would be taking in a few days' time.

Heeding the advice of the well-seasoned 2041 crew, we decided to have lunch downtown, and were given a ride by Jumper (an amazing man who has been working with Robert for years - more on him later - essentially he does everything and is an amazing sailor and the person who will bail you out of a sticky situation on the high seas should you need it).

Joanne and I spent the afternoon taking it all in: the new time zone, the new town, the imminent adventure, the fact that we had each only packed one pair of trousers (besides the cold weather gear we needed for Antarctica). We indulged in the most delicious hot chocolate and fudge at a local sweets shop, found me a cheap pair of cords and Joanne a pair of travel pants to keep us going, and saw more stuffed penguins than we ever knew existed.

Upon our return, again we were making our way down to the hotel restaurant for a quick dinner and we ran into more of the 2041 crew. They were on their way out and asked if we cared to join in. We piled into a taxi and enjoyed some food and conversation with the team, including Lynne, John, Pete, Hugh and Kyle. The latter is a South-African filmmaker and has been documenting these expeditions over the past few years, and I look forward to learning more about his on-site film-making techniques as the trip gets underway.

Overall, a great day. I will be bonding with my gear tomorrow and will try to take less "snapshots" and more photographs soon. Meanwhile, thanks to Joanne for always having her pocket digital camera on hand and being a great travel mate.