Countdown to Antarctica!

I'm counting the hours....making my final "to-do" list, and almost literally hopping from one foot to the other with excitement!

I leave Thursday am for St. Louis via the BART (Bootheel Area Regional Transport), since I refuse to drive any longer in the city. In St. Louis I will board a plane for Miami, and after a two-hour layover transfer to a plane bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina. That's an overnight flight, and I sure hope I can grab some sleep, since we have a full day and evening planned the next day in Buenos Aires.

After I clear customs in Buenos Aires, I will hire a cab to take me the 21 miles into the city to our hotel, the Hotel Colon, where I will meet the lady who will be my cabin mate on the cruise. After lunch we plan to do some sight seeing. At around 8 pm a limo will meet us at the hotel for transport to El Querandi, a restaurant/theater, where we have reservations for a Tango Dinner Show. El Querandi comes highly recommended, so I think we're in for a treat. Since the show doesn't start until 10 pm, it will be late when the transport service returns us to our hotel. I'm hoping there is going to be time in the afternoon for a brief "siesta"!

Our plane leaves the next morning around 8:30 am for Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. Partially because of businesses generated by tourists and researchers headed for Antarctica, Ushuaia has grown from a small village nestled under a mountain to a thriving city of around 50,000. The tour company has activities planned for the afternoon and evening, and the following day we will board our ship, the Orlova.

The cruise will last for 10 days, and our itinerary will depend on the ice and sea conditions near the Antarctic Peninsula. Lots of people have asked me if I will be going to the "South Pole". The answer, of course, is no, since this trip includes only the peninsula at the northwestern tip of the continent, hundreds of miles from the Pole. No problem, as there will be plenty to see and do on the peninsula. If weather and sea conditions permit, we'll stop at Deception Island in the South Shetlands, where, if I'm brave enough, I may take a dip in the bay, portions of which are warmed by volcanic vents. Since only the water is warm, not the air, I anticipate goose bumps the size of hen eggs!!!

Since I'm not sure exactly where the ship will be going, I can't say too much about the rest of the cruise, other than to say that the first leg of the cruise, the 2-day trip through the Drake Passage, is likely to be, uh, shall we say, interesting. The Drake Passage is known as the roughest patch of ocean in the world! It is the area which gave 18th and 19th century sailors on wooden ships sailing "'round the horn" of South America such cause for concern. Even on modern vessels, the rough water has a reputation for making some seasoned sailors seasick to the max. I'm taking ginger capsules, ginger tea, crystalized ginger, dramamine tablets and a wrist band--more than that I can't do. I've never been seasick in the past, so we'll see how it goes.

For the past several years I've taken a major (over a week long) trip somewhere at least every six months or so. My refrigerator also gets a good cleaning out every six months or so. This is not a coincidence. If I didn't travel, no telling how long I would let languish the sticky spills and moldy jars of whatever that have been pushed to the back unnoticed. Since I would be embarrassed for my house sitter to see my refrigerator in its normal state, the fridge gets a good cleaning at least every six months. I did that-not-so-little job this afternoon, and crossed it off my list with a flourish!

In addition to cleaning out the refrigerator, I'm trying to use up as much perishable food as I can. This has resulted in some strange, if still nutritious, meals, such as peanut butter and jelly on pita bread and Harvard-style beets, which I had for lunch one day last week. That was the last of the pita bread and the beets. Now I'm down to four meals remaining. Since I'm taking my Mom out for lunch tomorrow, that leaves two breakfasts and one supper. My cereal and fruit for both breakfasts will use up most of the soy milk on hand. I plan a large salad of mixed greens, cheese, and fruit for tomorrow evening, which will empty out the produce and meat keeper bins. I'll tell the house sitter to help herself to the rest of the clementines and any milk that's left. There will probably be about a half loaf of bread I won't be able to use up, so I'll pop that into the freezer to use for toast when I get back.

This will be my last blog post before I leave, since I think tomorrow will be hectic with last minute chores. I've been asked if I can blog from the ship and post pictures, and I frankly doubt I'll be able to. I'll be lucky to get some email out so my friends and family will know I haven't fallen into the Southern Ocean and/or been eaten by a killer whale! (They aren't really whales and don't eat people, but you get my point.) I'll be back Feb. 14, and after a rest, maybe a day or two, I'll pull the best pictures together and blog away!!! Tune in later!

*Something I omitted from my post about Sir Earnest Shackleton was a recommendation for two TV programs based on his adventures. "Shackleton", a four-part A&E mini series filmed in 2001, is excellent. I saw it a couple of years ago on TV. Kenneth Branagh plays the title roll marvelously well, and he even resembles pictures I've seen of the explorer. The other is a PBS NOVA program, produced in 2002, also entitled, "Shackleton". Neither was available at my local Family Video store, but they are probably both available on Netflix or Blockbuster online