7:00 am – Wake up and pack up our carry-on luggage. Our breakfast is included at the hotel this morning, a nice buffet of meats, cheeses, breads and other goodies.
9:40 am – The entire 200+ passengers that will be sailing on the vessel are now traveling together. We transfer to the Santiago Airport and Silversea is very organized as they have staff every few yards to help guide us in the right direction. They are with us right up to security and then we are on our own after that.
Funny story time….our boarding passes did not have a gate number listed. I went to the monitor, tried to read Spanish, and decided it was gate 16, so I announced it to the group. Someone started down the escalator so the entire group followed. About ¾ of the way down the escalator, I started to realize that something was wrong, we were going down to baggage claim. I yelled to the group to wait but a few of them sped off ahead. Thankfully our group leader from Signature can speak Spanish so he convince a worker to let us go back upstairs. We found our proper gate but those few who got separated had to go outside, then back through security and then upstairs to gate 16. One of them barely made it as we were boarding….
We were on a flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile. We would spend another night here before we fly on to Antarctica. The flight was cramped, I was sitting straight up and my knees were buried in the back of the seat in front of me. Add the fact that I was in the middle seat for the 3 hour flight. Oy!
We arrive in Punta Arenas, a pretty small airport, and Silversea has a desk where we pick up our hotel room keys and a letter with information about trying on our cold weather gear that is waiting for us in our rooms. We are escorted to our shuttle buses. The group is split up a little as we have 2 different hotels, Dreams Hotel and Hotel Cabo de Hornes, which is my hotel. (On the return trip home, we will flip-flop hotels so I will be at the Dreams then).
Hotel Hornos del Cabo, Punta Arenas, Chile
4 p.m. – We arrive at the hotel and our rooms are all ready for us. There is a happy hour reception waiting for us too but I don’t want to sit around with my luggage. We decided to head up to our room to drop off the luggage. Only 2 elevators and they are really SLOW and lots of people are waiting, so Oded and I trudged up the stairs, all 7 flights….
For this cruise, we had to pre-order some cold and wet weather gear. Silversea provides complimentary gear including a parka, waterproof pants, a backpack and a nylon bag, plus we get free rental of knee high rubber boots. We ordered online so now is our first chance to try on our gear and if we need to exchange it, Silversea reps are in a conference room downstairs with extras in various sizes. I need to exchange my boots for a smaller size but the exchange doesn’t open until 5 p.m.
Cold weather gear provided by Silversea
Oded and I decided to go for a walk to see the city. There’s a nice park across the street and we eventually wander on the main street towards the waterfront. The wind is crazy here and it’s hard to walk along the sidewalk without getting blown around. We end up finding the Dreams Hotel and peek inside before heading back to our hotel.
5 p.m. – Back at the hotel to grab my boots and head downstairs. The line is fairly long but seems to be moving along. We do get the chance to chat up people and make some friends. After about 30 minutes I am able to exchange my boots and get a pair that fits much better.
In the same room is someone cleaning our own personal gear that has previously been used such as hats, gloves, camera bags, etc. that might have the chance to introduce foreign substances or species to Antarctica. They essentially swept it with some kind of super sweeper thingy.
6 p.m. – Time to relax a bit before dinner so we go up to the room to repack our stuff into our new Silversea Expeditions backpack. This pack is awesome with lots of pockets and can hold lots of stuff.
7:30 p.m. – There is a welcome dinner in the hotel restaurant, which is also in the hotel lobby. This ends up being my chief complaint about the entire trip as there is no organization to this dinner. It’s a buffet with no clear starting point so everyone is just waltzing around the long rectangular table. People allow others to join the line at any point and the line ends up going the wrong way. We get warm food before cold food, we get to the salad toppings and dressings before we reach the actual lettuce. By the time we get through the long, slow line, our warm food is barely lukewarm now. A little direction from Silversea or hotel staff and this would have been much nicer. The food was really good though so we did get to enjoy a nice meal, even if it wasn’t really warm.
Buffet dinner at hotel
9:30 p.m. – Our boarding passes are ready for our next flight so I picked them up. We also learned that our flight has been moved up from 12 noon to 5 a.m. (more on that later). We head up to our room to repack our main suitcase with things that we don’t want to carry with us when we arrive in Antarctica. (Again, more on that later).
10:30 p.m. – Suitcases outside our room for the staff to collect to take to the airport. Time for lights out as our alarm is set for 2:30 a.m.! Yikes!!
Leave a Reply