As I type this, Big Eagle and I are on the Scenic Eclipse sailing across the Drake Passage!  I’m taking advantage of a little break in activities to share about our first few days of travel.

Tuesday

I had to test negative on a PCR test to enter Argentina, so the morning before our departure, I got the test.  Yet when it was time to go to the airport on Tuesday, I still had no results.  That meant I had to get another test at the airport.  💲💲💲 They’re not cheap at the airport, but at least I got my negative result, and we could go through security.  Of course, as fate would have it, I got the results from my Monday morning test just as we were going through security.  Oh, well!

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 9:04 p.m.  There was a delay announced, and then around 11:30, AA announced that our flight would not leave until 10 the next morning.  So they put us up in a hotel.  We got about 5 hours sleep before returning to the airport.

Wednesday:

Thankfully we DID leave at 10 the next morning, and it was a smooth flight to Buenos Aires!  I enjoyed chatting with my seatmate Nina, who was traveling from Austin, TX with her husband to vacation with friends in Buenos Aires.

We got into Buenos Aires around 11 that night and were met by Scenic Eclipse representatives.  They had us board a bus to our hotel about 40 minutes away…the Sofatel in the Recoleta area of the city.

 

 

Thursday:

The next day, everyone at the hotel who was going to Ushuaia to board the Scenic Eclipse was required to test negative on a RAT test.  We all were tested, and were all negative!  Yay!

We were left with a little bit of time to take a walk around that part of the city.

I noticed some of these flowering trees when we were coming in on the bus the night before.  On our walk, I was able to get a close-up look at them when we went walking.  So pretty!

We boarded another bus at noon that took us to the airport.  There we boarded our flight to Ushuaia.  Next to me on the plane was Kylie from Australia, whom I had messaged with on Facebook leading up to our trip.  It was nice to meet her face-to-face.  We shared good conversation on our way to Ushuaia.

When we arrived in Ushuaia, we retrieved our luggage from the carousel and were met by Scenic representatives who ushered us onto the bus that would take us to the ship!

As we got to the top of the steps to embark onto the ship, it was so great to see Danny waiting to welcome us!

 

Once on the ship, we were given a champagne welcome.  Then we were escorted to our cabin.  There was one stop along the way to our cabin where we received a short safety talk and instructions.

By now it was around 8:00 in the evening.  Danny met us in our cabin, and gave us the exciting news that we had been upgraded to a spa suite.  So while he, Big Eagle, and I went to eat dinner, our belongings were moved to our newly assigned cabin.

We had dinner at the Asian infusion restaurant on board called Koko’s.

We shared 3 appetizers:  vegetable satay, meat satay, and beef salad.  All of it was delicious!

 

Big Eagle and Danny had beef & broccoli for their main course, and I had prawns.  Afterward, I had no room for dessert, but the guys each had a sorbet.

I think Danny is wanting me to hurry up and get the picture, so he can dig in!  I did take a taste of Big Eagle’s, and it was so good!  I was just too full for any more.  This was really a fun and delicious dinner!

After dinner, we went to our newly assigned spa suite, where we found all of our belongings had already been moved in ahead of us.  We met our butler Nenud (sp?), and he showed us all the particulars of our cabin.

Our cabin in pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had been a L-O-N-G couple of days getting here, so we were ready to fall into bed!  Because there was a strong storm passing through, the captain announced that we would remain docked over night to let it pass before starting down the Beagle Channel in the morning.

That’s it for the first few days of our trip!  Hopefully, I’ll have time to get on at some point tomorrow to post a Part 2.  Right now, bed time!