December 28th, 2010
I finally got some sleep after being awake for 20 hours and getting 3 hours of sleep the night before. As fun as sleep is on a plane with a bag between your legs and multiple kinks in my neck/body, it was good to get a little sleep. I woke up as breakfast was being served and enjoyed some wonderful airplane food.
We arrived at 11:00 Chilean time, which is 5 hours ahead of the Pacific time zone and 3 hours ahead of the East Coast. Groggy and happy to stretch my muscles out, we got off the plane and were greeted by a representative of the travel company that assists all travelers going to Antarctica.
His job was to help us get through customs and make sure we got our tickets through LAN, Chile, the local airline of the country, after we passed through customs. To pass through customs you have to get your bags from the luggage carousel and talk to the customs agent to see what you are bringing into the country and why. There is also a $130.00 fee to enter the country.
We also had to go through agricultural inspection to make sure we were not bringing any food or pest items that may harm the country. After getting our tickets to Punta Arenas, Chile, we went to get some food. At this point the people you talk to may or may not speak English, so we had to practice what little Spanish we know. This will be normal for the rest of our stay in Chile.
We boarded our flight at 16:00 and settled in for another 4 hour flight. Luckily I got a window seat for the beautiful flight. I was on the right side of the plane, which had views of the inner passage ways and islands along the west coast of Chile. I saw lots of snow and a few large glaciers, along with a couple of volcanic smokers that were puffing black and white smoke. On the left side of the plane was a magnificent view of the Chilean Andes, along with lots of snow and glaciers.
We landed in Punta Arenas in very windy conditions that made for a bumpy uneventful landing. We had arrived at our departure location after 36 hours of travel and were greeted by another travel representative who drove us to our hotel. At this point our group had grown to about 20 people from various universities around the world.
I took one of the best showers of my life and we went to get some dinner and a drink before sleeping in a very comfortable bed.
