Vinson Expedition Dispatch

December 13, 2010 – It's Not "Groundhog Day" After All!

Well, maybe this isn't Groundhog Day after all. It's still December 13th, but now it's about 4:45pm and we just received the exciting news that something different is happening today. The Ilyushin has taken off from Punta Arenas and it began the 4-4.5 hour flight to pick us up at Union Glacier. So, we'll be watching carefully, hoping that the conditions stay good and the plane doesn't have to turn around without landing. But everything looks good now, and we heard the winds back in Punta Arenas are down as well. So it sounds like during the night tonight, we'll be on our way back to Chile.

It'll be very strange as we get closer to Chile.  Something will happen that has not happened to us since we came down here: it will get dark!  It's never dark or even twilight at this time of year in Antarctica, it's always completely light.  But when we get back to Chile at about three in the morning, it will be dark and of course we'll be glad to be back on mainland South America and on our way home after a great trip to Antarctica.