Turns out we didn’t write any trip reports from Antarctica because we were just too exhausted! Also, email from the ship was about $3 per kilobyte. However, my intention is to write retroactive diary entries based on our pictures and notes. So keep an eye on early January…
Update, 4 Mar 2007: OK, so we’re not making lots of progress on this. 
After a miserable 10-hour economy-class flight from Dallas, we arrived
in Santiago this morning at 10:30AM. Blearily we pushed our cart
through customs and were greeted by Ervands, one of our ever-cheerful
hosts from the local tour company. Several more heavily-laden
Endeavour passengers emerged into the arrivals hall, and soon Ervands
was herding us into our bus.
The Santiago Grand Hyatt is a fine international four-star hotel in
“uptown” Santiago. However, we won’t say much about it because mainly
we’re using it to get some sleep. Perhaps on the way back we’ll try
the afternoon tea.
We took the optional 3-hour tour of some Santiago sights. The
Pre-Colombian museum had a nice collection of well-preserved artifacts
from all over Central and South America. The Presidential Palace
(note: no longer the residence of the President) was properly
presidential. They did a nice job replanting the 19th-century trees in
the plaza where the new subway station went. Well, we aren’t really
here to see Santiago, let’s be honest.
Now to bed early so we can get up for our 6:30 bus to the airport.
Tomorrow, we fly to Ushuaia, and at 5PM we embark on the Endeavour.
Good night!
We are off to Antarctica! If all goes well we will be posting via email from
the M.S. Endeavour. It will take a few days to get there, though… Here’s
hoping this works and you hear from me again in a few days.
