We have been receiving memos from Viking daily. They are enthusiastic, and detailed, and usually come with a change of plan. Today’s memo announces that the Viking Octantis is presently taking a shakedown cruise to the continent. This is great news because in one of the previous missives, we discovered that despite our careful planning, we are not on the second voyage of this brand-new ship. We are the first!  That is both exciting and a little worrisome because we know that despite expert engineering and experienced planning, things happen. Being first means that we will be first to discover the faulty door handles, plumbing problems, and design flaws—but we will also be first to board the zodiacs and submarines… truly a special treat!

The message in today’s memo is that in addition to having the required PCR test before we leave, we will need another at our hotel in Buenos Aires. And sadly, even though we are arriving a day early in BA so that we can tour the town, we are now advised to stay in the hotel for the whole duration, while waiting for another negative test results before boarding the charter to Ushuaia.

Finally, we have been told that our return trip will no longer include Buenos Aires at all. Our charter will take us directly from Ushuaia to Miami where we will just make the connection to LA and home.

There’s a lot going on and a lot of unplanned adventures to look forward to. We’re starting to get into the spirit of the flow. Expeditions are rarely predictable and are often full of the unexpected. Who knows what we’ll experience in the next two weeks— I just hope it includes penguins and whales!