Departure day with a little hike to stretch the legs

When I got up this morning, Michelle (my roommate from Australia), said to me, "It's steep. It's really steep". I was planning on heading up to the Glacier Martial with Susanne (from San Francisco). Michelle had done the hike the day before and, although acknowledging that it was not a long hike, she kept telling me, it's steep. Well, she wasn't lying. 

We took a cab up to the base of the hike. You had an option here, chairlift part way up or hike. Seeing as we were on a bit of a timeline (had to be back to catch the boat), we opted for the chairlift. Turns out the chairlift isn't a whole lot faster than hiking as there was a couple who arrived at the base at the same time as us, but made a quick decision to hike. Once we had decided to take the chairlift and actually taken it, we arrived at the top within minutes of each other. Ah well. Save the legs for the steepness. We had a beautiful view of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel from the top of the chairlift and it got me pretty excited about getting on the boat!

Susanne and I had a great hike. I may not have had the appropriate footwear for hiking through the snow (a little slippy on the downhill), but it was really great. It was definitely steep. In Canada, there would have been a few more switch backs, or 50. Susanne and I had a great time and turns out it was good that we got to know each other a bit (more on that later).

Deiter and Johanne came along for the hike. They liked the little scrubby trees, so I took a picture of them in one of the trees. It was a quick trip back down to town to do some last minute things (I was doing my souvenir shopping at the beginning of the trip knowing that as soon as I was off the boat at the end of the trip, it would be straight to the airport). So, some shopping and some food and then it was back to the hotel to join the group and head to the boat!

This is the MS Expedition - my home for the next week and a bit. As you may notice, it is registered in Monrovia, yep, Liberia. Interesting place to be registered for an ice-breaker. The boat holds 130 passengers, plus a crew and staff of around 80. When we got on the boat, they collected us all in the discovery lounge and then called us up by groups to tell us which cabin we would be in. When I arrived at my cabin (luggage waiting for me), I thought, hmm, I think I recognize that backpack. Well, my roommate ended up being Susanne who I had spent the morning hiking with. Nice. We also had the bonus that we had both been upgraded from a quad to a twin room. Fantastic.

After getting our rooms, it was time for some safety. Very important. So we all got our life jackets and joined the crew for our safety briefing and drill.

Susanne (USA), Marianna (Australia), Brooke (Australia) and Clare (USA)

After the safety briefing, we were on our way. So long Argentina! We were all ready to start the journey down the Beagle Channel and into the Drake's Passage.

Cat, Michelle, Allan and Jean (all from Australia - the boat was full of them)

We will get to the Drake's Passage sometime tonight. A little nervous about that as it is notorious for rough seas and therefore many passengers down with sea sickness. As I haven't spent much (if any) time on the ocean, I am a little concerned. But I am armed with tablets and wrist bands. So we are off. Off to Antarctica!