Journey's End (updated with pix and video)

From Mindy, dated 19 January:

Argentina coastline (click to enlarge)

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning, and got to watch the rugged mountains along the coastline pass by as we slowly made our way back to civilization in Ushuaia, Argentina.  At about 6:30 am, we heard our last wake up call from Ted Cheeseman ("Goooood morning, shipmates...").  The ship was making about 7 knots speed, Mount Olivia was dead ahead of the ship, and a few miles to go before we docked.  The air temperature was 11 degrees C, water 9.5 C, with a light breeze and the barometer at 1008.

Ushuaia (click to enlarge)

Ushuaia (click to enlarge)

The port at Ushuaia is a very quaint little harbor, picturesque against the southern tip of the Andes Mountains.  The tree line on the mountains was unmistakable, and the summer weather made the town look so inviting.  A handful of people on our trip had decided to spend an extra day or two in this part of Argentina just exploring (I wish I had more time to do the same...) (Ahem - Ed).

It was a morning of goodbyes, to the crew and to our fellow passengers.  We each had a truly amazing adventure and ended the trip with about one hundred new friends.  While the Group was heavy on U.S. travelers, we also had folks coming from Canada, Scotland, England, Sweden, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, France, South Africa, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia!  Our most energetic passenger was Abdulaziz from Saudi Arabia, who almost didn't make it on the trip (because it was sold out) but held out hope and got all of his visas in order just in case.  It was lucky he did because there was a cancellation about 3 or 4 days before the trip and Abdul joyfully claimed his spot.  What a pleasure he was to have on the trip, too... so much zest for life, and he constantly reminded us of sticking to your goals and having faith that things will always work out in the end.

The group flight back to the U.S. (there were 62 of us going back to LAX) was long, but most of us were still in a daze from our adventures.  3 hour flight to Buenos Aires, 2 hour fiasco of a transfer to the international airport in Buenos Aires (but I was humming the Buenos Aires song from the musical Evita the whole time), dinner in the airport (great bruschetta and even better company), 5 hour flight to Lima, 9 hour flight to Los Angeles, 2 hours at customs, then for me a 1 hour flight to Phoenix.  My parents and my sweet son picked me up at the airport (I was slacking elsewhere - Ed.).

A few things that I already miss (as I type up my notes a few days after returning) are:

- Knowing that no matter what time of day or what location we were at we could always look outside and take in beautiful scenery worthy of taking our breath away.

- Hearing Ted Cheeseman's voice as an alarm clock each morning (towards the end of the trip several of us joked that we need to get Ted to record a "back to reality" wake up call telling us it wasn't a dream, but that we do have to get out of bed and go back to work).

- Letting somebody else plan our entire day, and knowing for sure that no matter what eventually happened would be once-in-a-lifetime amazing and awesome (It's sort of like living with Mr. Belvedere - Ed.)!

- Spending time with new friends that quickly melded into folks you felt like you had known for a decade or more.

New friends (click to enlarge)

- Seeing penguins, hearing penguins, and a tad bit even smelling penguins.  Just when I thought I was sick of taking pictures of another penguin, I would see another penguin and immediately giggle and melt, saying "aww, it's so cute!"

- Being around geologists... I almost forgot how much I love geology (almost...), and it warms my heart to hear beautiful geo words woven into conversation like strata, hinge, turbidite, greenschist, serpentinite, batholith, Scotia Arc, chevron folding, ophiolite, Sandebugten, cirque, tabular, and yes even dike... (Welcome to my dinner table. - Ed.)


To all those who read this blog, thanks for sharing the adventure with me.  Thanks to my wonderful husband for being my "webmaster" and providing comical editorial comments (Thank you very much! Tip your waitresses! Try the veal! - Ed.).  And if any of you are planning on taking any "trips of a lifetime" in the near future, I wholeheartedly recommend trying to do it with Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris (www.cheesmans.com )... You'll feel like your favorite relative is bringing you along on an amazing adventure that is one for the history books!

As our ship's bartender, Joaol, would say at happy hour each day... Tooloo!

The whole group (click to enlarge)