My travels to meet the Oden began at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Saturday, December 4. My afternoon flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth was uneventful and when I arrived I had a leisurely dinner before heading to the gate for my 9:10 pm flight to Santiago, Chile. We were due to arrive in Santiago at 9:55 am the next morning, then after a 6 hour layover, catch the connecting flight to Punta Arenas, Chile to arrive at 7:00 pm Sunday night. A long line at the ticket counter indicated problems - our flight was canceled and rescheduled for 7:00 am the next morning. Luckily, I met up with Science Field Team Leader Blake Weissling and Graduate Student David Prado, my research team mates for the expedition. We were re-booked to Santiago on the morning flight, then planned to stay over night in Santiago on Sunday night and fly to Punta Arenas on Monday morning.These arrangements took hours to complete, and it was past midnight when we finally checked in to our rooms. I had Pascy, our class mascot, with me for the trip. Take a look at his pictures!
Pascy the penguin enjoys the pillows on the hotel bed during our unexpected overnight stay in Dallas, Texas.
Pascy in the luxurious bathroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dallas/Ft. Worth.
I stayed up late using the internet in the hotel because I knew that in Chile the internet may be hard to access, and on the Oden, there would be no internet access at all, only email. My excitement level was high and I hardly slept after I turned out the lights at 2:30 am! The alarm was a rude awakening at 5:15 am and we met at our gate at 6:00 am to board the plane at 6:20 to resume our travels south. Joining Blake, David, and myself was Brent Stewart, from Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in San Diego, the fourth member of our sea ice team. The flight to Santiago was almost 10 hours long, but 2 hot meals, books to read, and frequent walks up and down the aisles made the time pass be relatively quickly. I was surprised to see how dry and arid the coastal areas of Ecuador, Peru, and Chile appeared to be. David ,who was on the opposite side of the plane from me, got a good view of the Ecuadoran volcano that is currently erupting.
Pascy gets settled in his seat for the 10 hour flight to Santiago, Chile.
For much of the flight, we could see the South American coastline clearly.
Upon landing in Chile, we met the ship's agent, who was in charge of getting us all to the ship. He informed us that because of a number of factors, we would not be staying the night in Santiago as we planned, but instead would be taking an 11:30 pm flight to Punta Arenas, arriving there at 3:00 am! After waiting in a **long" line to pay our "entrance tax" of $140 dollars and clearing customs, it was time for dinner in the Santiago Airport. We needed Chilean pesos, so we used an ATM machine which dispensed our withdrawals in pesos. However, in our sleep deprived state, what we thought was a $40 withdrawal was really a $40,000 peso withdrawal. Luckily, that amounted to about $90 in U.S. dollars - it could have been a much more costly mistake. We spent our pesos having dinner in the airport, mostly sandwiches and wraps (not very traditional Chilean food) and boarded the plane for Punta Arenas. During the flight, LAN Airlines (a regional South American airlines) served us a beautiful little box of delicious chocolates! Yum! When we finally landed, another agent met us and took us to to the Cabo de Hornos Hotel, a lovely hotel right on the main town square.It was 5:00 am and the sun was already up when I finally settled in to bed. Our research team is meeting at 9:00 am to make a plan for the day.What will tomorrow's adventures bring?
Lesson Learned: Flexibility is essential when traveling so far! And, people can function pretty well on limited sleep when it is necessary!