March 7 & 8 - The Adventures of my Cape Horn Rock

As I write this, I am still in transit on my way home from Chile. I have been traveling since early morning March 7th and will not get back to Annapolis and my house until around 2pm. In all, it’s been two pretty uneventful travel days, however, I do have one story about my rock. Yes, I said, my rock. It is a special rock that I took from Cape Horn, and it is shaped like a mountain range with a flat bottom so it sits perfectly upright. I would like to have someone (any volunteers??) paint an albatross on it for me. Anyway, the officials in Punta Arenas did not see my rock as the special souvenir I did, and they wanted to confiscate it. I guess they thought I could use it as a weapon or something. After telling the security man that it was shaped like a mountain (he got a kick out of that) and smiling (ahh, the power of a woman’s smile on a Latin man), he told me to wait one minute and left with my rock. A few minutes later, he came back with it in a plastic bag and it was tagged as checked baggage. He handed me the luggage stub and told me I’d get my rock back in Santiago.

Once we were in Santiago, I almost expected the rock to come out on the conveyer belt, but instead I heard my name on the loudspeaker, followed by some Spanish. I had no idea what to do, so I identified myself to someone who pointed me to a desk. The woman at the desk was laughing when she handed me the rock and asked me (in Spanish) where the rock was from. I told her that it was from Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) and she was remotely impressed, but I’m sure still thought I was crazy. After getting it back safe and sound, I decided to rearrange my bag so that I could check the rock. A smarter move considering that American Airlines would probably not be as nice as the man in Punta Arenas. Of course, I had to document this on film, so the photo attached today is of the rock in Punta Arenas all wrapped up and ready to get on the plane.

My layover in Santiago was about 11 hours, but I was able to spend it with most of the expedition staff. We had a long yummy lunch and then hung out outside on the warm grass killing time before checking in and having dinner. I finally boarded my plane around 11 pm and luckily scored a whole row, so I was able to sleep. When I woke up I was in Dallas. For those of you that don’t travel much, it is very strange to be in one place one day and then go to sleep and wake up in a totally different place all together. I definitely have a hard time with the transition, especially with being in a place so different from the USA and then being smacked in the face with the hectic Dallas airport at 6 am. I guess not everyone has this issue, but for me it is all very surreal.