For as long as I can remember I had been pulled and determined to travel to Antarctica one day. I can still remember the excitement when we booked our travel package through Webjet. You know how you felt as a little kid before Christmas? Eagerly waiting to see what surprises were under the tree and of course the experience the magic. That was me when we booked.
We first had to travel from Perth to Sydney to catch our flight with Latam through New Zealand to South America. In Sydney it came as a shock to us when the lady at the counter told us that we had not been booked on this flight and that she would have to contact customer service in South America to get our booking fixed. At that stage my heart of course started raising what if we would not be able to get on this flight? Would we still be able to make it in time to Buenes Aires? After an hour of waiting and listening to our friendly lady at the counter trying to communicate with someone in South America that spoke little English we finally managed to get seats on the plane. What a relief.
Flying as a vegan with Latam was an experience. Let’s just say in South America they believe that eggs and fish are vegan. I was not impressed with the food at all as it didn’t meet my dietary requirements or was burned even though we had put in a request at the time of booking the trip. So often I would end up with a small bowl of fruit.
On our flights to South America we met a lot of fellow travellers that were just as excited to be experiencing Antarctica very soon. Once we arrived in Buenes Aires we were tired but happy knowing that we would be able to have a night’s rest before catching a small charter flight to Ushuaia the next morning. We were meant to be picked up by a coach which to our surprise never showed up. We ended up teaming up with another couple to take a taxi to our hotel. The journey to our hotel should have taken 45 minutes but took over 3 hours. A Mardi Gras and two sporting events were taking place that made it near impossible for our driver to get to the hotel. You know the saying you never know what you have got until it’s gone. Let me assure you we did regret it that we did not take advantage of the toilets at Buenes Aires Airport.
We only had about 4 hours of sleep when we got to the hotel before we had to get up in order to grab breakfast on the way to catch up charter flight to Ushuaia. There was tea, juice and fruit that I could have. After our short charter flight we decided to take the optional tour to explore and see Tierra del Fuego National Park. I can only recommend it. The landscape is stunningly beautiful.
While there we also were able to get stamps in our passport at the post office “at the end of the world” (Argentina).
Watch out for my next post where I continue from when we board the Ms Midnatsol…
Nicole Reichert 