The Adventure Begins

Wow! I finally made it to Palmer Station, Antarctica. After a long drive from Denver to Buffalo to see the folks (Hi Mom and Dad) and store the car I flew back to Denver for a short day of orientation. I also got to spend a couple more days with my guy Scott who had only returned from Palmer 4 days prior to my departure. Finally I was off to Dallas/Fort Worth on the first leg of my journey. After a few hours there I was on a 9 hour flight to Santiago, Chile. upon arrival there I was whisked through customs by Jimmy who heads up the AGUNSA operations there. Despite all the speediness I was still looking at a 12 hour layover so I got to know the inside of Jimmy's cozy but rather chilly office until finally departing for Punta Arenas via Peurto Montt. So this is where it got interesting. Upon landing in Puerto Montt we sat on the ground for a while before I caught the words disembarque and manana( get off and tomorrow in spanish), the visibility was not good enough to land in Punta Arenas. So me and 100 or so of my new Chilean friends got off and picked up our luggage and were bussed off to beautiful downtown Puerto Montt where we were put up in the fabulous Diego de Almagro. It was actually quite nice but it was also 3am and we would be catching the buses back at 7am. So I watched "The Family Guy" and some "Simpsons" before heading back downstairs to have some breakfast and get on the bus. That all went off without a hitch and I touched down in Punta Arenas around 11:30am. I quickly spotted the AGUNSA person we grabbed my luggage and the extra crate I was carrying for a science group and off we raced to the port. The ship was supposed to leave at 8am but they had to wait for me, or maybe it was that science equipment I was toting . Anyways after quickly getting my issued clothing it was into the van and right out to the boat. We left within and hour of my setting foot on the boat. Phew. OK now that I'm here I need to decompress a bit and will try to log in again tomorrow. Palmer Station has all the whistles and bells, wireless internet, projection TV, a sweet little self serve bar, a hot tub, and a sauna. Ahhhh, life could be worse on this icy continent. Cheers