Thursday, December 29
Ushuaia, Argentina

Ushuaia, Argentina - This morning we visit the Tierra del Fuego National Park. In the afternoon we'll board our expedition vessel at the dock in Ushuaia. After checking into our cabins, there will be an Introductory Briefing with our Expedition Leaders and the entire Expedition Staff and Team. Then we'll cast off the lines and set sail down the Beagle Channel towards the Drake Passage! Our journey to Antarctica begins!! This evening, we'll also have a mandatory Emergency Drill. Be sure to get up on deck to look for the Southern Cross in the night sky!

JOURNALS for Thursday (Updated 4:00 pm EST)

It is shortly after 3pm in Ushuaia and the expeditioners are just back from a hike and are exploring Ushuaia and doing some shopping. It is a beautiful sunny day in Ushuaia and the temperature is 20 degrees celius. They will meet at 4:30 and be on the ship by 5:30 to continue their journey.

JOURNALS for Thursday (Updated 11:30 pm EST)

Aryana Jacobs

After four planes and approximately six takeoffs, we finally arrived in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world yesterday afternoon. Today was our opportunity to see the wonders of Ushuaia by getting muddy and wet hiking through one of its lagoons Lago Perdido, the “Lost Lagoon” in English. It is a natural beauty formed over an estimated period of 10,000 years by retreating glaciers. Little did we know our hiking boots weren’t enough protection for what was presented as an innocent hike up the mountain. When tour guides offer rubber boots, it's always best to comply as most of us learned the hard way. Those who were wise enough to take the boots, left relatively dry. As for the rest of us, we sought desperately for hard, dry ground to walk on and failed miserably. Several of us fell into extremely deep mud patches, puddles, everything! Some gave up and just walked in the water bearing it all and grinning. By the end of it, we were ringing out our socks and presoaking muddy pants. After the exhaustingly muddy hike of pulling people out of trenches of deep water and mud, we boarded the bus to have a few free minutes of relaxation touring our host city from the previous night. At 4:20 pm our real purpose for our being in Ushuaia was reintroduced. We boarded our home on the sea, a Russian ship that used to be a research vessel. We set sail at 6:00 pm, and anticipated the rough two day journey ahead of us. This will take us to our final destination, Antarctica, the end of the world but the beginning of everything as the locals of Ushuaia would say.

Wendy De La Rosa

After more than 24 hours flying, we have reached land! We reached Ushuaia, Argentina and settled in at the Los Nires Hotel. Today was a pretty busy day. Our main portion of the day was our three hour long hike in which we went up to Lago Perdido and had our picnic lunch there. In my belief, the journey was better than the destination. Why? Because the hike was muddy, slippery, and wet…in short, it was just the right place for lots of tripping and lots of laughing. Especially when Juanita slipped, one leg slid to the right, and one leg went four feet down straight into the mud. And in the midst of all of this, she managed to bring Meghan and Anand down at the same time. How? Only Juanita knows. But in the mean while, we received an interesting lesson from Fred on the “u” shaped valleys thanks to the glaciers, and how 70% of the world’s glaciers are receding. We also got a sight of the dams that imported beavers from Canada made. But thanks to these dams many trees of the area are dying because they are being “drowned” from the excess water. And since the beavers have no natural predators, they have reached the astonishing number of almost 100,000. Then we loaded back on our magic bus (except its not yellow and it doesn’t shrink) and went back to the city where we got a chance to act like tourists and take lots of pictures and buy lots of memorabilia. We quickly found out that the center of all the action was up in San Martin Street where all the stores are located. It’s like the Time Square of Ushuaia. And Andy always seemed to get the best deals, getting a free map while Andrea paid for hers… And then it was time for take off! At 4:30 we embarked on Akademik Shouleskiy (I totally spelled that wrong, but for our purposes its ok) which used to be a Russian research ship. Some quickly got medicated and drugged in fear of sea-sickness, while some are going hard-core natural. I’ll keep you updated on how the barfing goes as we go on. So far, no barfing, but we just began. I on one hand, WAS going all-natural but then when I was informed that after you get the sickness, there’s no turning back, and medication won’t help, I rapidly left the bold and strong ego, and chugged the pills down. Well readers, that’s all for now. And I leave you off with spaucyba (again spelled wrong) it’s Russian for thank you. PS YOU SHOULD BE HERE. IT’S AWSOME AND BEAUTIFUL AND GREAT.

Sophie Breton

Départ d’Ushuaia, direction ANTARCTIQUE!! Salutations à tous!! Premières impressions… c’est pas normal, il fait chaud!! Je quitte le Québec en pleine tempête, les routes fermées, un stress énorme, je crois que je vais manquer Students on Ice… Heureusement, le train existe, et il n’est en retard que de 3 heures, ce qui me laisse une bonne demie-heure pour me rendre à l’aéroport prendre l’avion!! J’y arrive… YÉ!! Une journée et demie de vol pour parvenir à USHUAIA, nous débarquons, j’enfile un t-shirt et bouffe une crème glacée, en plein mois de décembre, au bout du monde!! Que dire de plus que wow! Autre surprise, je découvre que la réserve nationale Tierra del Fuego (Terre de feu) est remplie de pissenlits, fraises des champs, et castors!!! Paysages familiers au beau milieu de montagnes énormes, de lagons, de condors…. C’est à couper le souffle! Ce soir nous commençons à sentir les vagues, c’est notre entrée dans le passage de Drake. Le groupe est super, des gens de partout tout aussi enthousiastes que moi. Je vous donnerai des nouvelles tout au long de l’expédition, et à ceux qui me connaissent, je pense à vous beaucoup, à tous les autres, c’est un réel plaisir de communiquer avec vous!! Sincèrement, Sophie Breton

Emily Armstrong

Howdy SOI followers! It’s been an awesome trip so far - we spent today in Ushuaia, which is the southern-most city in the world! Even just that one thought seems pretty amazing, and the fact that we’re actually on our way to Antarctica still seems crazy. The weather was perfect, very warm and sunny for most of the day, which apparently is unusual for Ushuaia at this time of year. Today we went on a hike up to the “Lost Lagoon”; we got soaking wet and got pretty close to losing some boots in the mud, but it was a lot of fun. I actually found the landscape to be almost disappointing, (although it was postcard-perfect) because it seemed so similar to scenery that could be found around Jasper National Park. It was weird to be in such a familiar-looking place after traveling so far. Absolutely brutal amount of time spent in airports and on planes, but it was definitely worth it! After the hike we had about an hour in Ushuaia to look around. Ushuaia seemed like a pretty cool city, and the people were awesome too - I’m looking forward to spending some more time there on the way home. Learning Spanish is definitely on my list of things to do now, it would sure make traveling to places like this much easier! We boarded our ship and set off late this afternoon. Luckily the waves haven’t been too rough yet! The evening was spent unpacking, eating supper (awesome food on the boat!), and getting everything sorted out with the help of an orientation-type meeting. I’m finding this pretty strange - it’s easy to forget where I actually am when I’m inside, which is why I’ve spent most of the night out on the deck, taking pictures and talking with all the awesome people on this trip. Definitely some interesting characters and some pretty unique stories coming out. Alright…curfew was about 13 minutes ago so I’d better wrap this up now. It’s been a great start; keep following - there will be much more to come!

Cheryl Horton

Hi!!!! We are on our way!!! We are passing down the Beagle Channel and soon will enter the Drake Passage…which will give us rough seas. This has been an exciting trip thus far. I met up with the group of Students on Ice in Miami, where we boarded our flight to Santiago, Chile. We then got on another plane to Ushuaia, Argentina (pronounced like u-shy-a) - their claim as the southern most city in the world (there is a small town in Chile that is further south - but the operative word here is “city” ). Ushuaia is a city of about 60,000. We spent our first night at a hotel in Ushuaia …and our first full day on a hike lasting over 4 hours - through forests, mossy bogs, and ending our jaunt at a glacier lake for a picnic lunch…need I say that we were still in the Andes Mountains - it was a spectacular hike!!! It was interesting to find that there is very little natural wildlife - foxes are about it. A project in the 50’s introducing beaver to the area for a fur industry did not work out well…as with such mild winters, the beaver do not have quality fur…and with no natural enemies, they have become many in number and a nuisance to the area - damming up areas, killing the trees in the areas, and then moving on. We were told that when a beaver cuts down a tree in Canada, it takes 10 years to grow another tree…whereas here it takes a hundred years. The students, the chaperones, the educational staff, and our expedition leader are an awesome group. Tomorrow will be a full day at sea while crossing the Drake Passage. The excitement among the travelers is high…with anticipation of experiencing Antarctica…so we are on our way at last. Talk to you soon.

Alison (Chaperone)

What a day! Our first day that feels like we're really here! We went on an amazingly beautiful walk in Tierra del Fuego east of Ushuaia. It took us through peat bog, beech forest and up to a glacial lake. I managed to make it through the bog relatively dry and clean, although some students and one of our chaperones weren't so lucky. I keep having overwhelming feeling of great fortune to be here. I am thrilled with the group of students: so interested, so mature, and so aware of what is around them. We have had a couple of days of challenging travel including lost suitcases, new rules to learn and buy into, and roommates to get to know and get along with. All of this has been handled by the students with grace and respect. What a treat to have met all of these wonderful young people. I am looking forward to learning so much from them and to getting to know all of them better. I feel blessed that I am here again, the ship beginning to rock gently as we enter the Drake Passage, picking up more roll as we truly head toward Antarctica. This is a dream come true - twice for me, as this is a repeat of a similar journey taken four years ago. I have found myself overcome with emotion on a number of occasions today: while on out hike; when first boarding our vessel; and when standing on deck watching the Beagle Channel slip slowly by but mostly when I see the young people on board light up with delight when the speak of their experiences and their reaction to what is around them. Expressing how wonderful this is almost beyond words.