At the End of The World

... funny, I thought it´d be colder.

So I´ve made it to Ushuaia in one piece and... I´ve booked a boat this afternoon to get me to Antarctica. SWEET!!! I´m just a little excited. :)

I discovered that a tall ship makes the trip to the Antarctic peninsula. Y´know, big square rigged sails, deck hands a a captain with a jaunty accent. Just like Captain Hook - only less evil. How cool is that? Unfortunately, the trip goes for 22 days which is a little more than I have budgeted.

My boat is called the Polar Star - that´s about all I know about it for the moment. We´ll be 10 days out to the peninsula and back. I´m looking forward to a rousing game of Catch the Penguin :)

Since I last posted I´ve hung out in Richmond, Houston and Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time sleeping. It seems I really did need a vacation :-/ However I have seen some cool things so far:
- a vending machine that dispenses i-Pods
- vending machines that accept credit cards
- a tall ship
- a submarine docked in the harbour
- a sweet gear shop at the end of the world

I do want to get back to Buenos Aires. It looks and sounds like and awesome place to spend a week or 2 exploring. I sat next to an Argentinian couple on the plane ride from Houston and they gave me the low down. Apparently, its the place to get a steak and a leather jacket - I wonder if they´re connected somehow? Unfortunately, all I did was pass out in the hotel for about 14 hours. So I´ll just have to plan to go back :)

As I said, I´m currently in Ushuaia. Its a cool little town if a little touristy. If you ignore all the Spanish you could actually be anywhere on the West Coast of Canada - kind of a cross between Banff and Squamish.

The weather isn´t too oppresive and the people are really cool. I am having a heck of a time adjusting to the Spanish accent here. Holy crap they talk fast and, they use a pronoun that pretty much no one else uses - besides the Spanish in Spain. I haven´t embarrased myself yet but its only a matter of time.

In any case I have some running around to do before tomorrow. My camera appears to have died so I have to look into that. As well, I need to track down a pair of rubber boots, something I don´t normally pack.

I leave tomorrow afternoon for the Antarctic so I´ll be out of touch for the next 10 days or so. However, I should have some photos to post when I get back. And hopefuly by then I´ll have figured out what my next life goal is going to be...



Hasta Luego!

Ryan

P.S. I think this is the company I´m going with: http://www.antarctic.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=28&Itemid=40

The Adventure Begins

Hokay... so...

Randomness happened, planets aligned and I managed to swing a sweet vacation.  

Awesome!

...so how fast can one book a trip to Antarctica?

For a heck of a long time its been a life goal of mine to visit all 7 continents.  I annoy people at parties with that statement all the time.  As of 10 days ago it looks like it might actually happen.

10 days to:

 - find passport

 - book tour to Antarctica

 - update vaccinations

 - book plane tickets

 - lose passport

 - purchase insurance

 - pack

 - find passport

 - find out boat doesn't leave to till next year

...

 

So now the plan is show up in Ushuaia - some 14,120km or so from Whitehorse - and talk my way onto a boat.  Sweet.  No problem.  

A trip to Antarctica generally takes at least 10 days.  This leaves me with almost 4 more weeks worth of time to waste.   I've always wanted to wander about Chile. It has mountains, deserts, wine and ocean.  What's not to love.  I have a plane ticket to Santiago and absolutely no plan.  Its awesome. 

So, I will be posting about my trip here on a semi regular basis so stay tuned.

Hasta Pronto

Ryan