I am writing this aboard the plane, at 26,000' above the Drake Passage. People who travel by ship to visit the Antarctic Peninsula often spend a very queasy 48 hours heaving their way across in 50' seas, both ways. No complaints about missing out on that! Just four and a half hours after leaving Punta Arenas, we will land at Union Glacier, near Mt. Vinson. The wind at the airport was blowing about forty knots - evidently not a problem for the plane to takeoff, but pretty cold on the Tarmac given that I only had on a tee-shirt in anticipation that the IL-76 would be over-heated inside. (It is.)
Once all of the day packs with our cold weather gear was piled up behind our seats (everyone sits in the cavernous cargo hold) there was the inevitable safety briefing. Yes, even on a flight to Antarctica they demonstrate how to work the buckle on a seatbelt and how to inflate a life vest. We also had to go through security at the airport - they told us to leave any knives or other sharp objects on the bus, which was waiting for us on the other side of the security check. Go figure... There is no in-flight movie, but we do have a large TV screen that shows both a GPS map of our position and views from the plane's nose camera. There is also even a snack service - provided by the dour appearing Russian Loadmaster.
When we get about 15 minutes out, they will turn off the heat in the cabin, so that we can all get into our gear. We may need to wait a while on the ice before it is our turn to ride into camp, about 5 kilometers from the airstrip. I will try to send this post via sat phone once we land.
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