More February 1 catching up

I managed to post a brief blog entry using my cell service just so everyone knows I’m still here.  As I said in that when internet comes back (if ever) I’ll upload what’s been going on here on the Quest.  My dinner last night turned out to be with Robert Egelstaff, who is in charge of the kayaking expeditions.  I won’t be seeing him for those; my kayaking days, especially in frigid water, ended long ago. This man is fascinating! He has been doing adventure things for a long time.  I’m hard pressed to guess his age but I’d say 60-ish.  Anyway, he was the first person to cross the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia in a sea kayak just before the fall of the USSR.  In 1992-93 he and five others recreated Shackleton’s journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia in an exact replica of the lifeboat Shackleton used. Listening to him talk was absolutely fascinating.  He almost, but not quite, made me think perhaps I should try kayaking.  Nah, I don’t think so. I must confess I think he may be a little nuts because I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to kayak across the Bering Strait.

After dinner I went to the show, another by the Soul Sisters, and then I went to the club and danced until the band stopped for the night.  There are a couple of solo ladies who get up and dance and a few married women who do too while their husbands sit like bumps on logs.  There were a lot of staff people there too. In Punta Arenas several guest speakers and entertainers are leaving us and they were in the club having a last hurrah.  I was sitting at a table with my new friend who's also a widow. Two of the guest speakers , lovely young women from Belgium and Ireland, sat with us and got up and danced too.  They work for a company that helps to shepherd new aspiring authors through the writing, editing, and publishing stages.

At midnight I turned back into a pumpkin and went nite-nite.