Boat Time

A quick update on the past couple of days before I board a ship headed to Antarctica later this afternoon. I will be gone for about 3 weeks and probably won't do any updates during that time. If you want to see pictures from the boat you can follow along at http://instagram.com/g_msexpedition or http://twitter.com/g_msexpedition they post updates and photos there.

It was a welcome relief to have my luggage show up 2 days ago. Who knew putting on a set of clean clothes could be such an exciting experience.

I spent an afternoon checking out one of the stranger museums I have ever been to. Ushuaia was originally founded as a penal colony with 11 men who had reoffended and 9 women "volunteers" as the literature emphasized. They eventually built a prison which is where the museum is now located. The building has a central hall and 5 wings of cells on 2 levels. Inside of the cells are museum exhibits. There were exhibits on everything from scale ship models and Martine history from the 1500s onwards, to stuffed penguins, to a history of the prison, to an art gallery display. One of the wings was left unrestored and was complete with creaking wood floors and a creepy vibe.

Yesterday I summited my first Patagonian peak. There is a national park just outside the city with a couple of different trails. The hike was pretty steep and good for working off all of the holiday rum and cokes. The park guide warned me that the trail was muddy, but I wasn't expecting to have to navigate through full on bog reminiscent of the West Coast Trail. I made it through the mud and fortunately the sky cleared up for the first time in days as I climbed through the last scree section so I got some fantastic views of the surrounding lakes, ocean and small islands.

After a solid day of hiking I splurged on king crab which is a bargain at about $20. About the same as any other restaurant meal, but expensive considering I think I spent about $20 total on food for the three days before that.

I apologize for not being able to post photos, but tech support for the web service I use is still trying to figure out why the app I am using doesn't upload photos properly. I will post as soon as I can! Talk to everyone in 3 weeks!