Antarctic Team Arrives in Chile

Dan by our 6 check bags in Orlando

 We have arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile and we are happy to report that our travels went relatively smoothly! Our first flight took us from Orlando to Miami (1 hour), then we took an overnight flight from Miami to Santiago. We all managed to find enough tolerable positions to catch a few winks of sleep, but after 8 hours we were relieved to stretch our legs. The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) took great care of us and had an agent waiting to take us through customs. Our trek from Santiago to Punta Arenas was took another 4 and a half hours but the view was breathtaking as we soared other the magnificence of the Andes. Since we had a fairly short layover in Santiago, our bags didn’t quite make our flight. Thankfully, another USAP agent was in waiting for us at the airport and she arranged for us to go to our hotel for a few hours, and return to get our bags after they arrived on the next flight. We are all pretty tired but we are here safe and sound and tomorrow we will begin checking our equipment!
-Steph, Dan and Katie

At Hotel Diego de Almagro with our bags

View of the Andes from my window seat