Chile, Antarctica & Brazil 2017: Day 12 - Into the Unknowns of the Southern Atlantic

Previous Post: Up Pacific Coast to Curico

Gallery : Photo Album - A Quick Tour of Stanley & Photo Album - Along the Andes in the air

Today is the day...After over a year's of planning, we were finally at the gates..of our final leg to reach the Polar Pioneer, docked at Port Stanley, Falklands, waiting to take us into the Southern Atlantic and beyond.

We left our Airbnb in Santiago, very early in the morning, a good four hours before our flight departure, for a 20 minutes ride to the Santiago's Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport nearby. We inched out of our hosts apartment in darkness, left the keys on the table....well that's it, won't be able to come back if we left anything there, because Jessica has gone away for her weekend break in the mountains.

No way I wanted to risk missing the flight at this final juncture, so all stops were pulled to ensure nothing will go awry. We double checked everything and left.

A booking on Uber was done early in the night, but I thought it could be a bit dodgy at this early hours. Sure enough, no car seemed to have responded, but I was prepared, prepared to just hail a taxi, even it meant walking a few hundred meters away to the main road where traffic should be more. As soon as we got to the front gate of the apartment complex, a car just pulled up, seemingly delivering a passenger from the airport, that's early !....."Aeropuerto ?"..."Si", and we jumped right in. Impeccable timing.

So we sat at the airport for three more hours, watching travelers rushing by, before our epic journey began.

And the clear weather gave us a spectacular view of the snow capped Andes that runs the length of southern Chile....

We are now on top of Patagonia (which we visited in our 2013 Argentina / Chile self drive adventure) again, probably somewhere in the general region of Torres Del Paine National Park.

Then it was a stop-over at Puenta Arenas, where most if not ALL of our 2017 Antarcticans ( code ASG68 ) were congregating. A casual stamp of the passport as we filed out of our aircraft at Puenta Arenas, checked us out of Chile.

Running into one of the Australian crews at the lounge, gave us the ultimate confirmation that the boat is waiting for us at the other end...Gosh....only if I screwed up!

Then an announcement came through, asking us to reCheck our passport if we all had the exit stamp. Apparently, they could not tally the number of passengers with the number passed through the border control desk. And finally, it was necessary to get everyone to file pass the border desk again with our passports....it took nearly an hour to locate the person whom the border control forgot to stamp.

Finally, boarding call was made after an hour's delay. Things had been going according to plan, so far, though a little delayed, not bad...this flight is only a weekly one, and our Antarctica trip cost a small fortune, and this particularly expedition is infrequent which berths were filled up nearly a year ago, so the concerns.

Amazing enough, seating next to us, were a few passengers, heading just to the Falkland for a two week holiday, flying out to even more far flung islands of the archipelago. One thing I learned, despite its remoteness, the Falklands can be an interesting travel destination.

As we filed out of Mt Pleasant airport, and boarded the bus for Stanley town, it was interesting to see the militarization of the airport, showing the strong commitment of Britain to maintain the security of this very far flung piece of the old Empire. For obvious reasons, no photos were allowed at the airport.

Interestingly, on our flight, there were also a large group of Chilean workers, arriving for a few weeks of work at the local abattoir. Apparently, one of the major exports from Falkland is lambs meat, the Halal kind. Now is the slaughtering season.

It was a 55 Km ride on our tour bus to Port Stanley, over a fairly barren landscape and the occasional rocky outcrops, not surprisingly, being in this wind swept part of deep South Atlantic Ocean.

We were informed that the land is not very productive, there are 7 acres to a sheep, which makes about a sheep population of approx. 500,000. It is still a healthy industry, considering that workers were flown in from Chile for the seasonal abattoir works.

This particular one, looks like a lying lion.

The bus driver alerted us to our first sighting of a Penguin...a lone, probably lost, King Penguin standing by a log, probably not its usual home.

Our first stop was at the local Tourism Information Bureau, offering the usual tourism information services, souvenirs, a small café etc.

Perhaps this would come in handy for a future trip into the archipelago.

On such an important trip, the worst that can happen to anyone, would be to have their camera equipment misplaced or lost. One of our fellow Antarcticans did just that, Steve and Tina, who were seating next to us, was frantically searching for their camera as we were getting ready to leave our bus after arriving at the Tourism Information Bureau. Calls were made to the airport to check etc., all to no avail....what a bummer for them. Fortunately, they had a brand new unopened camera, so it was time for them to start learning to use it, but of course, there was this minor detail, of having to charge the new battery first.

Our first stop on our way to board our boat was an open air museum setup by an enthusiastic local, showing us the once thriving whaling industry in this part of the World, in fact, as we learned later in the expedition, they had been ALL over the Southern Oceans and more.

And of course, the unforgettable recent history. Small monuments were erected to remember the bitter war to liberate the islands from the Argentinians in 1982. These are reminders of a failed attempt by a dictator to divert attention from domestic troubles, invaded and occupied briefly.

Soldiers walking by leisurely, a reminder of the still unsettled territorial dispute with Argentina. In our 2013 trip through Argentina, there were frequent posters, and small monuments etc., serving as not so subtle cries about the occupied land of Malvinas ( Falklands ).

And of course, no town's history would be complete without its cemetery. Often a source of interesting historical information if one has the time to spend some time going through, unfortunately, not this time.

The tour finished at the dock, we can finally see the real thing after so many months of seeing and reading about it, only from the brochures.

So here we are, the Polar Pioneer, a Russian expedition vessel which was going to be our home, for the next 3 weeks.

It is only a small boat, with a 56 pax capacity, with about 35 crews ( including the Australian tour specialist crews ). There are numerous reasons for selecting this particular boat and expedition, which are briefly discussed in the Forewords and Planning posts.

As we were boarding the boat, the news came, that Steve and Tina's missing camera was located inside the bus by the driver, a perfect end for the day.

One by one, we were stamped out of the Falklands by a makeshift custom booth, and climbed onto the gangplank. A photo was taken by the crew of every passenger, which was pinned up on the notice board, that served to help the crew to recognize all of us individually, as well as between us. After all, we were going to be together for the next 3 weeks, into uncertainties.

As we were a little late due to the delay of the fight, the departure preparation were a little rushed, understandably. Just barely settled in, we were summoned to the bar, to meet our expedition crews and the Leader, Christen did the introduction and gave us a quick general briefing of the layout of the boat etc.

And of course, the main focus was really on safety, the very top priority.

Soon after we filed back to our rooms, the First Mate's voice came through the speakers, "abandon ship"....we then quickly located our life jackets, put on, and found our way to the mustering station. Boarded the life boats, a vessel carrying about 20 people, with its own small engine.