top of page

Our Journey to Antarctica (Part 1)

Writer's picture: sunflowerstopssunflowerstops

Updated: Jan 26


Dave and I have been planning our trip to Antarctica for the past year and on January 7, 2025, it was finally time to travel! We left Miami on an 8:45pm LATAM nonstop flight to Santiago, Chile landing in the early morning hours on Wednesday. After an easy 2.5 hour layover where we breezed through customs, we then walked over to Terminal 1 in the Domestics building to catch our second flight further south. This next flight took was 3 hours to Puerto Natales, Chile where we were to meet up with the rest of the National Geographic/Linblad Expeditions travelers.

The Puerto Natales airport was super small with only one luggage belt. Linblad staff greeted us as we exited the building and ushered us to a comfortable coach bus where we took a short 10 minute drive to town. Our hotel, Hotel Costaustralis was a very inviting and conveniently located hotel sitting directly across from the Senoret Channel. Our room had a beautiful view of the water and Andes mountain range.

Upon checking in, we also had to check in with Linblad and pick up our complementary parkas and insulated rain boots that we rented. The travel group consisted of approximately 120 people with another 20 at a different hotel in town. We would all be traveling together for the next week to Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Explorer ship. We learned that the group was split up into two, Red and Blue,. We were assigned to the Red group as well as Groupe E for zodiac tours and transfers.

We watched the required 10 minute video about how to get on/off the zodiacs and the rules for when we are actually in Antarctica. Finally, we had to put our clothes through biosecurity and get sanitized. That all took some time and we were getting hungry from all of the traveling so we decided to walk into town and get a lite bite to eat since we had a few hours before dinner.

Since January is summertime in Chile and Antarctica it was prime time to visit. Although, it was still pretty chilly for us South Floridians as the temperatures were only in the mid 40's. But, we braved it and found La Tapera Parrilla ,the perfect place to share some tapas. By the way, tapera doesn't mean tapas like we first thought. Our waiter informed us that a tapera is sort of like a broken down shack. We toasted to our trip with delicious drinks and shared an order of mini empanadas and 3 different types of bruschetta. Our bill totaled $33,000 pesos or $33 USD. Later in the evening we walked to the square for some local beer at Bagaules Brewery.

Flights leaving to and from Antarctica are weather dependent with no set schedule. Before going to sleep we learned that our flight for the next day was postponed to 7pm. Luckily, they offered two different tours to attend in the morning. We signed up for the 8am tour to Milodon Cave (Cueva del Milodon Natural Monument) located only 25 mins away.

A milodon is a giant sloth-type animal that roamed that area 14,000 years ago. The great cave was discovered in 1895 by German pioneer Herman Eberhard. Our tour guide, Walter (pronounced V-alter), told us that the Eberhard family still resides in the houses along the water across from the cave, which he pointed out. He said that by now they consider themselves Chilean but they still look like Germans, "big with blond hair". Inside the cave there is a true to size replica of the milodon which Dave and I took our picture next to.

We were back to the hotel by 11:30am leaving us about 1.5 hours to pack up and checkout of our room. We were to dress in full Antarctica "landing" gear which included parka, snow/waterproof pants, knee high rain boots, etc. We left our checked bags outside the room door and headed down to the restaurant for lunch with the Red group. By 2pm we finished our lunch but still had about 4 hours until we leave for our flight. We were told that we needed to stay inside the hotel during that time in case the flight schedule abruptly changes. But, Dave and I figured we would wait outside and take in the beautiful scenery. Well, that lasted about 5 minutes before the tour operator politely escorted us back inside. So, at the bar we sat where I passed the time starting on this blog.

The time for departure changed multiple times until finally we had the go-ahead to get on the bus and head to the airport. Our plane (the Red Plane) departed Puerto Natales shortly after 8pm for a 2 hour flight to King George Island, Antarctica. Forty-five minutes into the flight our pilot reported engine troubles, re-routing us to Punta Arenas, Chile. We circled the area many times dumping fuel before finally landing. Our plane was welcomed by multiple fire trucks awaiting our arrival. Luckily everything was ok. The mechanic quickly fixed the problem, we refueled and were back in the air in route to King George Island after about an hour.

This new route was going to take 2 hours to get to King George. About an hour and 20 minutes into this new flight the captain came back over the intercom and announced that there was low visibility in King George making it impossible to land. The phrase, "the ceiling is too low", entered our vocabulary for the first of many times during this trip. Back to Punta Arenas we went.

The airline saved a "special place" for us to sleep for about 4 hours until it was safe enough to try again. We arrived back to the airport at 2:10am and in this special place we had snacks, sandwiches, champagne, beer and wine. They also provided pillows and blankets. People were sleeping all over the floor and chairs. It sounded like a symphony of snores in that room. Around 6:30am we were finally off, again, to King George Island. This time it was a success!

Our plane landed around 9am to a big relief and applause from the passengers on the Red Plane. Apparently the Blue Plane took off from Puerto Natales 30 minutes after we did and were able to go straight to King George Island. Since no other planes could take off after they landed, the 70 Blue Plane passengers shared the boat for the night with the 140 other passengers ending their vacation and waiting to leave the island.

Upon arrival, we were met by Taylor, one of the deep sea divers and guide on the Explorer. Everyone was so happy to finally see us. We waved at the group of people waiting for our plane as we were taken to the beach to board our zodiacs.


It was finally time to begin our Antarctic adventure!


Recent Posts

See All

4 Comments

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet

Add a rating
Guest
Jan 27
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Always incredible and often mind blowing these adventures you take!!! Love that you share with the awesome photos and narrative!

Like

Aunt Monica
Jan 27
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

As always your explanation is so interesting. The beginning of your trip was an adventure in itself. Looking forward to the reading about the rest of your trip. Hope it was smooth sailing.

Like

Jackie
Jan 27
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

All the best vacations start off with a rocky start! At least you guys had a special place to rest up at the airport! Can’t wait to read the rest!

Like

Raul
Jan 27
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazing adventure. We are so glad you guys had a good time.

Like

© 2023 by Name of Site. Proudly created with Wix.com

Join my mailing list to receive alerts whenever a new blog comes out! 


Just fill out your name and email in the yellow boxes. 

Thank You for joining Sunflower Stops!

bottom of page