January 25th - We're Off!!!

Yesterday was a VERY long day with breakfast at 5:45am so that we could leave the hotel before 7am for out charter flight to Punta Arenas.  Although there were supposed to be 140 passengers on our ship, it was reduced to 115 with people denied entry Chile for not having the right paperwork, proper tests, etc.  Hurtigruten/Gate1 did an amazing job of reducing the chance of Covid, utilizing 6 buses to transport us.  Our flight provided some spectacular views the lakes in Patagonia and of the Patagonia Ice Field, the 3rd largest ice field in the world (after Antarctica and Greenland).

But the most important part of the day was when I got this:

And we could proceed to the boat!

The MS Fram, on the left, takes its name from the wooden ship sailed by several Norwegian explorers between 1893 and 1912, including Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen.  Fortunately the similarity ends with the name as this Fram is a 5-star expedition trip that was refurbished last year.  In a few short hours, we will set sail from Punta Arenas, the southernmost city of the Americas since all cities further south are on islands.