February 2nd - 4th: Life is an Adventure

After breakfast and a PCR test this morning, we had several great lectures to take our mind off the turbulent sea.  It had been a pretty bouncy night and the captain expected it to be rough for a good part of the day.  We had a great talk learning about how the wildlife adapts to survive in the arctic or antarctic.  We also had a great talk about living and working in the Antarctic - Emily spent three summer months at the Palmer Antarctic research station and then went back the following year to oversee the science lab for 7 months during the winter.  What an experience!

All was good on the MS Fran....until our fabulous lunch concluded with John be whisked away to do another PCR test...his early morning test had come back POSITIVE.   I was flabbergasted.  We had PCR tests on 1/18, 1/21, 1/24....Antigen tests on 1/25, 1/28. and 1/31...and now he tests positive on 2/2?  Mind-blowing since we had been in a "Hurtigruten bubble" since 1/24, nine days earlier.  And no other passenger tested positive!  They were still completing the crew testing but the crew had also been tested and had been isolated on the boat for nine days.  John continues to be a medical mystery!  My kids laughed that he had to go ALL the way to Antarctica to get Covid...and of course, he had to be the ONLY one!  And to justify my light-heartedness, John is feeling fine and is completely asymptomatic.  So, the adventure continues.....

We were sent back to our cabin to pack as they had to move us to a special quarantine cabin.  And they didn't just let you walk there with a mask...you had to don a full hazmat suit!

Our new digs were a lot less luxurious than our mini-suite!

Can you imagine spending moving spending 50 hours here when you have been living here:

It has been a true marriage test!  The Hurtigruten staff were WONDERFUL and did everything they could for us.  We were able to go outside to a large outside deck area twice a day for fresh air.  And Daniel, the head waiter, called us morning, noon and night to take our food orders and even included a bottle of wine with each lunch and dinner to get us through.  Don't worry, we couldn't drink at that pace but we were able to leave the boat with enough wine to see us through the rest of our quarantine.

It was interesting being downgraded to disposable everything...luckily I did find 2 glasses in the bathroom for out wine!  

So you can see we were well-fed...and although we missed a few activities on-board, we got the full Antarctica experience.  If one had to get covid on this trip, it came at the best time.  Chile requires a 7-day quarantine and the time on the ship counts towards that.  

We docked back in Punta Arenas around 5am on February 4th

This is the RV Laurence M. Gould, an icebreaker used by researchers from the National Science Foundation.

We stayed on the MS Fram long after our fellow passengers had disembarked.  Hurtigruten made all the arrangements for our quarantine in a hotel in Punta Arenas but our room wasn't quite ready.  But don't worry, Daniel didn't let us starve!

And by mid-afternoon, our transport arrived to take us to Hotel Almasur where we would spend 4 more days.  I was just glad that we didn't have to wear a hazmat suit!

On the bright side, all this time in isolation has given me the time to finish my blog!  And at least here we get TV with one English channel and high-speed internet.  Life is truly an adventure!!