Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Ynez Valley
Our Backyard

Friday, November 8, 2013

Antarctic Adventure - Days 1 & 2

We are off on a trip-of-a-lifetime.  Sorry, no images with this post.  This trip with Lindblad/National Geographic will take us by ship from Ushuaia, Argentina to visit the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Penninsula before returning to Ushuaia.  At the end we are also visiting Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil.  As we head south, access to Internet service may become limited, so that uploading images and creating posts may become delayed.

Day 1 began with us driving to the airport in Santa Barbara where we were dropped off by one of our house sitters.  This was the first time that we had flown out of Santa Barbara since the terminal was completely redone.  We miss the charm of the old terminal, but it wasn't really up to the current travel needs.  After a connection in Los Angeles, we headed on to Houston, Texas.  In Houston we caught yet another flight leaving at 9:00 pm for a red-eye flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After a 10-1/2 hour flight and a mostly sleepless night, we finally made it to the international airport near Buenos Aires for day 2.  After getting through immigration and customs, we finally hooked up with part of our group.  After a 21 mile bus trip that took over an hour due to local traffic, we made it to our hotel for the night.  Tomorrow we take a domestic charter south to catch our exploration ship, the National Geographic Explorer.