Capturing the Moment

 Heading to Antarctica: Chapter 1  I've made it to the beautiful Silver Cloud, my home for the next five and a half weeks. The first voyage is a big one traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Falkland Islands, on to Antarctica, and finishing in Ushuaia, Argentina. We will cross the Drake Passage twice, sail the waters of Cape Horn, visit the bottom of the world, and hopefully see lots of penguins, but let's start from the beginning.    Day 1: First line of action is getting all the paperwork cleared and then moved into the cabin. My roommate for this voyage is Patrick, the Assistant Expedition Leader, who lives in Finland but is originally from Germany. Turns out he is also one of the best fooseball players onboard. We are pretty involved in the guest checkin procedure, but end up sailing off the pier around 6:30pm. Proud Gentoo mother King Penguins!  Day 2: We spend this day at sea, cruising from Buenus Aires to Puerto Madryn, Argentina...

        After being stuck in the middle seat of the middle row of an 8hr red eye flight from Miami to Buenos Aires I checked into the company provided hotel right in the mix of the old part of the city. I was able to do a lot of walking, checked out a famous memorial graveyard filled with massive tombs, crypts, and statues, and visited a local arts fair selling things from leather made goods to local foods, to jewelry made out of horseshoe nails. I met a few of the other expedition team but it wasn’t until the next morning when the vans pulled up that I realized about 20 of us were all embarking at the same time. I knew the incoming Expedition Leader, Brad, from my time of the Silver Muse in Alaska. And my good friend Ceili, who has also worked at UnCruise and Tole Mour, would be on, but otherwise it was a lot of new faces and names for me to learn. Not to mention the fact that I was going from an expedition team of 2, to a team of 28! Pretty soon I woul...