Quarantine life

We have been in Punta Arenas for a few days. We are in quarantine until we go to Antarctica. Everyone is being very careful to make sure COVID does not come to the research station, so all of us traveling on this flight are in a quarantine hotel for 7 days. We checked in on February 1, and we will not be able to leave our hotel rooms until it's time to go to the airport to board the flight to Antarctica on February 8.

If we leave our rooms, we might be exposed to COVID without knowing it. Nobody from outside the hotel can come in to see us because they might expose us to COVID. Hotel employees can come to our door, but not into our rooms. They bring us food and other items that have been sterilized, but we cannot receive any deliveries from outside the hotel.

The hotel staff are taking very good care of us! All of our meals are delivered to our room. The food is very good! Breakfast is delivered around 8-9 am. We get a sandwich (sometimes egg salad, jam and butter, or meat and cheese), yoghurt, a piece of fresh fruit (an apple, orange, or plum), a cereal bar, and a juice box. Plus I can have a cup off coffee! It's a lot of food, but it's nice to be able to eat part of it and snack on the rest throughout the morning. 

Lunch and dinner are both hot meals, and they have been delicious! I have had steak and potatoes, chicken curry, fish, and speghetti. They even come with a little bit of dessert. So we are eating very well, despite not being able to leave our rooms.

Meals here are a bit later than we are used to in the U.S. Lunch comes around 1-2 pm, and dinner around 7-8 pm. But that's ok, because around 5 pm we have "once"!

Once is the Spanish word for "eleven". (So, it's pronounced "on-say".) Around 5 pm, we have a cup of tea or coffee with a little sweet treat. It is similar to having "tea time" in other countries. In those places, it is usually a mid-morning break around 11 am, so it is called "elevenses". But in Chile, it shifted to being in the afternoon between lunch and dinner. It just kept the name of "elevenses" (or once, in Spanish), even though it's at 5 pm.

The only other time I open my door is when a hotel clerk comes by each day to trade my dirty towels for clean ones, and drop off anything else I might need (like toilet paper or soap). So, I spend a lot of time alone in my room, but it's ok. I have a corner room with two windows, so I can watch the ships on the Strait of Magellan and people moving around the beautiful, old bank building next door. There is always something interesting to see! 

Dr. Hannah took this picture from her window at sunrise this morning.

The windows open, so I can feel some fresh air. I have a comfortable bed and plenty of work to do on my computer while I wait to go to Antarctica. Hopefully we did not accidentally pick up COVID in the airports to get here. I would like my next test to also be negative so that we can go next week!