January 3, 2022
Because of the increase in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, and the fact that we had several cases onboard the ship, we fell into the classification considered an outbreak. Argentina instituted new procedures effective January 1, 2022. Positive thoughts that we were going to simply walk off this ship and catch our flights, quickly sunk into disappointment.
Even though we had two doctors on board the ship and had the PCR testing equipment onsite, the Argentinian government would not accept our test results for customs entry into their country. We arrived in the early morning of January 3rd, but had to wait until officials arrived onboard to perform their own testing.
We originally booked a morning flight out of Ushiaua but had to rebook. At first we thought we could catch a later flight that same day. But the results of our tests were not confirmed until 5pm. Even so, not all passengers with negative test results were able to disembark due to additional paperwork required to clear us. There were about four ships total, docked with passengers waiting to disembark that morning. So processing took some time.
Word got out that three more people tested positive after this morning’s test. One of them was a ship doctor and another was a crew member. We mostly waited in our cabins until we were allowed to leave. Occasionally, we walked the outside deck for exercise. We secured hotels for the evening in Ushiaua and booked new flights for January 4th. However, around 10pm, we were all informed over the ship’s intercom that we would not be released this evening. We stayed another night on the ship, with our bags packed.
Oceanwide canceled the expedition that was scheduled to embark on this ship the next day.
In the morning, we were cautiously optimistic that we would be cleared to enter Argentina around noon, which fortunately was the case. In summary, it took over 30hours to get off the ship once we docked. Whew!
We arrived at the Ushiaua airport in time to make our evening flight to Buenos Aires, where we buffered in a couple days of relaxation before heading home.