The stuff I hate to write

With social media it's easy to show people the good stuff - just the stuff you want them to see.  Hence why I wrote a blog entirely covering 3 days of nothing.

When people ask us about this trip it's a complicated answer.  In short, this trip has been... no bueno. We will have been gone for 12 days and 8 of those days have been pretty much been just travel. We were forced to stay in Buenos Aires (on the way out) and Santiago (on the way back)- two cities we didn't want to go to, but we tried/are trying to make the most of it and do something while we're there. 

Buenos Aires, as stated before, isn't a city that excites Mike or myself. We are adventure and nature/scenic travelers. We want to see mountains, lakes, iconic landmarks, do hikes, bungy jumping, white water rafting... We are not big museum or art people. One of the top things to do in Buenos Aires is visit a cemetery... we heard good things about it from people on our ship, but we still have no interest in it.

Santiago is where we are headed today on the way back home. We were there a couple years ago for our honeymoon and did not have a good visit. (due in part to me being sick, us being super tired, it being a cloudy day, and the city not being of interest) Since we are stuck for almost a day there we decided to do a star gazing tour (tonight) and Andes mountain hike (tomorrow). We are HOPING there is some redeeming quality of this stop.

Since this trip is a HUGE trip - Antarctica -I enlisted the help of a travel agent. I don't know if I could have done things differently had I done it myself (I think I probably could have) ... but I know at one point I did ask the agent if we could stop somewhere else - other than Buenos Aires and Santiago and the answer was no.  I know there are certain flights and certain times for those flights which probably has something to do with it, but I would have gladly traded Buenos Aires for a day at the end of the world instead.

Antarctica, for us, was literally only a few hours on land. THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS TRIP!!! It was so beautiful and we both really enjoyed our few hours there, but was it worth 12 days and the expense? I'm sure Mike would answer with a very quick NO!! I semi agree, but at the same time I also don't regret it. Yes, there are so many things I wish we could have done differently, but I'm a travel nerd and I had to do it. I had to see my 7th continent and Antarctica is absolutely beautiful!

The tricky part about this, too, is expense. I know there are other options for Antarctica that involve doing some adventure activities - like kayaking out on the water, snow shoeing, glacier hike, etc. It sounds like the tour after ours was actually 5 days of just sailing around Antarctica. (flying in/flying out, but actually sailing Antarctica.) Now THAT would be an ideal situation, but I can guarantee it is way more $$$$.

In short: we both LOVED Antarctica, but we disliked the route we took getting there.  There is a better, easier way, that would have made this so much more enjoyable, but again..... $$$$$$

I think it would have been absolutely amazing to do a trip of Torres Del Paine (where we were on our honeymoon) and more Patagonia and then fly in and out of Antarctica with more time on the continent and more adventure activities. #idealsituation

It is what it is though and there's nothing we can do about it now.  I think part of the planning was wrong thinking on our part... I was thinking Antarctica was going to be so cold -20 something and so I only want to spent a couple days there. In reality, the place we went was 32 degrees (basically the same as back home) and with all the layers on we weren't cold at all.

If you are contemplating going to Antarctica ... good luck! (I really do mean that) There are so many factors that go into this trip.  I would recommend flying in and out of the continent (although I know that's expensive) and spending more time on land.

SUPER 7 HERE WE ARE!

Something I did really enjoy though was the people we met on our ship. Many of them had the same goal of reaching #7!  There is something about being surrounded by fellow travel nerds... “How many continents are you at?” “How many countries have you been to?” “Where is your next trip?” I love being around people who are so excited about exploring the world.

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