Prologue
Welcome to the latest “Adventures of Monkeyhouse” travel
blog. I’ve been chronicling our major
trips with these blogs for almost a decade – they started as a way for us to
remember those fun stories and little details we often forget from our trips, they
then morphed into stories we could easily share with our families about our
whereabouts, but now it seems we have a small cult following and so long as
people enjoy the posts, I will continue to write them…
This current adventure is the biggest and longest trip we’ve
ever taken - 21 days (purely by accident) – through Brazil, Argentina, and then
(god help us, but mostly me) to Antarctica.
The idea to go to Antarctica started several years ago and then took
shape about a year and a half ago when, while in South Africa, we made friends
who live in Ushuaia, Argentina. Ushuaia
is the launch point for Antarctica and somehow, (unbeknownst to them), having
friends in Ushuaia made going to Antarctica seem like a much better idea! So, they hooked us up with a great travel
agent and the planning started.
We booked the trip last February with Quark Expeditions on a
brand-new luxury ship – floor to ceiling windows, spacious rooms, every room
with a balcony, nothing but views from everywhere in the ship, amazing
excursions – we would have been the second crossing on the ship (yes, we’ve
heard EVERY Titanic reference). Sadly,
we were told in late September that the ship would not be ready in time and the
entire season was canceled; ironically, this call came the day after I broke my
foot and we debated canceling until next year; but our amazing travel
coordinator (props to Sarah Scott with Freestyle Adventure Travel) immediately
booked us on the next ship departing 5 days later. With the “sorry we f’d up” credit Quark gave
us, it was a deal too good to pass up; we kept our original flights, rebooked
the return, added 5 days of vacation, and here we are.
Day 1
Today was a travel day – one of those long days where you just
sit in airports and on planes all day. But
that doesn’t mean I can’t to find something to write about! We started with a 4:30am wake up call and continued
to try to figure out why we have 800 lbs worth of luggage given the amazing
packing job we did for Africa. To say we
failed miserably this time would be an understatement – 1 large suitcase, 1
large duffel, 2 large backpacks and a carry-on duffel. It is truly embarrassing. In our defense, we are gone for 21 days and
will be in 4 different weather climates from 100+ degrees in the Brazilian
jungle in mid-summer to the Antarctic peninsula which should be 30’s, but could
be 60’s or 0’s. Plus, and not to ruin
any upcoming surprises, we brought a few treats for our friends in Ushuaia! We kissed our pissed off pooch goodbye and
off we went.
First flight was to Panama – about 5 hours - on an airline
called Copa Air. We were lucky enough to
have business class (thank you Thomson Reuters and my United travel miles)
because business class was kind of crappy so I can’t imagine what coach was
like. That probably comes off as snobby,
but I basically live at O’Hare all year so we can do things like this in style. The flight attendants ignored us for most of
the trip – no water, no alcohol, little breakfast. And horror of horrors, the entertainment was
on one of those 1980’s screens that drop from the ceiling and you have to watch
at the same time as everyone else; and there was only one movie the whole
trip. And then the headphone jacks would
just start ear piercing static about every 8 minutes. Luckily, it was a high school movie about a
girl with some illness where she couldn’t go out in the sun (she did) or she
would die (she did); but luckily she found a boyfriend (hot popular guy) whom
she had loved (anonymously) from her window for 18 years - so I was very happily
entertained for an hour and a half. Anyone
who knows me knows I’m a sucker for these types of movies.
Our layover in Panama was quick. Too quick.
Our friends had been through Panama a few months back and left clues for
us in the airport to find. We did this
once before during a layover in Japan and we found almost all the clues! Sadly, the Panama airport must clean more
frequently and all clues were gone.
Plus, we only had about 20 minutes to eat, go to the bathroom, and
search. Sorry Danae – thanks for
trying!
I was not too excited about the
next 7 hours on another Copa flight to Buenos Aires until we boarded and realized
we were on a wonderful new plane, with big comfy seats (not lay flat, but they
were still nice), and private entertainment!
Woo Hoo! Other than being a
little bumpy for my taste, we made it to Buenos Aires on time at about 1am
local, picked up our luggage and had a taxi by 1:30am. Immigration/Customs consisted of a 30 second
conversation with the immigration agent – no customs, no forms, no lines. Sweet!
The hotel was awesome right up until a massive storm rolled in and
killed the power. Don’t they know that
between watches, phones, iPads, kindles, computers, and cameras we have like 14
devices that need to be charged daily???
Now that I think about it, that may explain about 50lbs of luggage and
definitely explains the power outage…
So excited for our first official day of vacation tomorrow where we head to Brazil!
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