Educational Field Trip... Part Uno

Hello All!

I just had one of the most amazing weeks of my life, all courtesy of Pepperdine! I have decided to write about the trip in several parts as I want to be able to write in detail about all of it. My trip around the end of the world began last Saturday, and included a four day cruise around the end of South America, the closest places you can get to Antarctica without actually going there. After spending a night in Ushuaia, we set off on the Cruceros Australis, an expedition cruise. We spent four days on the boat and visited Capehorn, the Strait of Magellan, glaciers, a giant island of penguins, and eventually ended in Puntas Arenas, Chile where we took a tour and spent the night. We then flew back to Buenos Aires.

Now that you have a basic overview, here is how it all began...

After gathering together last Saturday at Casa Holden, we all set off in giant buses for the Buenos Aires Airport. After the hassle of cheking in 70 people for a flight, we were ready to board and off we flew. The flight was about 3 hours long, and quite pleasant. Once we landed in Ushuaia, we took bueses to our hotel, which was more of a resort. It was a beautiful top-of-the-line facility, and the view was AMAZING. I even got my own bath robe and a chocolate on my pillow. We went swimming and enjoyed the hot tub before dinner in a private room for our group. For the first night, I roomed with Diana and Natalie. It was nice to get out of the humid weather and into something a bit more like Washington! I can't even describe how beautiful it was. We spent the evening hanging out in the hotel and playing cards.

The next day, we woke up pretty early for an offroad excursion!! We all piled into Indiana Jones-like Jeeps and took off for the wilderness at the Southern most city in the world. My Jeep was a very fun bunch and consisted of Amy, Jessica, Alyssa, Becca, Mariah, Zach, Bill, and myself. Our driver was hilarious, and spoke really great English, so we had a lot of good conversations with him. He was the owner of the company, and was 35 with a rat tail. Ha ha. We listened to Beastie Boys the whole day because that was the only cassette tape that he had. While navigating through the hilly forest, we made several stops to check out the picturesque views. We drove through mud, plants, and even the lake! It was so much fun, but a bit scary at times. Finally we got to the "shelter" where we were going to have lunch. It was extremely windy, but definitely worth the drive and coldness. It was a beautiful day otherwise, sunshiny the whole time.

Once we were done wt the lake, we headed back towards to city of Ushuaia to board the cruise ship. We got to spend a bit of time in the downtown area, which was fun because we got to get souvenirs and snacks. Then we prepared to board the boat.

Part Dos will come later...!

Also, here are Amy's pictures from this first day, mine aren't posted yet, so you can look at hers:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047117&l=f268c&id=8505998