Today is a virtual blur for me. LOL. I didn’t note the exact timing of things but let’s be honest, you don’t really care about my flights back home.
We have a 3 hour flight to Santiago Chile and then I have an 11 hour connection for my flight to Dallas. We cannot even check-in for our Dallas flight until 4 hours prior to the flight. So, my flight is to depart about 11:50 p.m. so I cannot even check in until almost 8 p.m. Luckily there is a restaurant in the lobby of the airport where a lot of our group sits, eats and waits.
I decided to try to check-in early and they allow me to do so. Since I am flying Premium Economy, I get to wait in a VIP lane. I make it through check-in and then get in line for immigrations. It takes about 45 minutes to get through the line. When I get up there, the worker is talking Spanish and I have no idea what he is talking about. After several attempts to understand him or ask him to guide me in English, I decided to just go to whatever booth number I wanted, until a fellow passenger translates for me. I guess I really need to learn another language!
Anyways, immigrations and security are a relative breeze and then I can go to my gate. It’s a pretty large airport and I have a country mile long walk to my gate. My mistake was that I chose not eat anything until I get to my gate nor did I check an airport map. But it’s in a virtually deserted area of the terminal with only a McDonald’s and a small shop with pre-packaged items. At this point I am too tired to walk all the way back to the main area. I grab a club sandwich that may have been several days old and try to enjoy that. Any airport food is going to be hard to choke down after eating the superb meals on Silversea!
My flight finally allows boarding and I settle in for the long 10 hour flight. Again, Premium Economy sure made this flight a little more enjoyable. An overnight flight is in store again so I relax with some movies.
It’s now Tuesday the 4th; I arrive in Dallas early in the morning and clear immigration as well as customs, after grabbing my luggage. I rechecked my bag for my connecting flight and made my way to my gate. I only had just under 2 hours in Dallas and made it to my gate with about 20 minutes to spare. I didn’t bother grabbing any food as I didn’t want to waste that time and miss the flight.
It’s about a 3+ hour flight back to Cleveland. I try to sleep a bit on the plane but I only manage to doze off here and there. I am so excited to be back in Ohio and cannot wait to see my family again! They were troopers without me and allowed me to experience this amazing destination!
I will always remember my trip to the White Continent for the rest of my life. What an incredible experience! You really must visit this great land at least once in your life!
My favorite activity!
I would like to express my gratitude to those who made this trip possible. Eric Maryanov from All-Travel; thank you for extending this opportunity and making it happen. To our cruise hosts for the week; from Silversea Expeditions – Tim Amm, and from Signature Travel Network – Karl Kannstadter; what an amazing time you two showed everyone in the group. Thank you for the efforts to put this together!
Karl Kannstadter and Tim Amm
I also want to thank those who made this an even more special journey. My roommate, Oded, and travel buddies Marge and Ron Yoder. Plus, all of those that I spent time with that are not named or pictured; you made this an awesome adventure and it wouldn’t have been the same without you.
Oded (2nd from left) and Marge (middle).
Thanks for hanging with me on this journey. I hope that you have learned a little something about Antarctica and plan to visit soon. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Enjoy!
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