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Writer's pictureKen Murray

Antarctica - Anxiously Awaiting our PCR Test Results

Updated: Dec 30, 2021

So our Monday travel day started early. Shelly woke up at 3:00pm to check her phone to see if she got her Covid PCR test results. She saw the text that the results were available, and she couldn’t go back to sleep until she found out negative or positive. Fortunately she was negative, but now wondered about my results. By then she was wide awake and decided to have coffee and read the news. I woke up at 6:00am and she anxiously ordered me to check my results. I did and it also was negative. Another critical milestone passed and major stress was relieved!



Now that we had our negative results, our next task was to complete the Argentina Health Declaration. We had read through the Atlas Ocean Voyages Cruisers Facebook page that the declaration was difficult to complete. I started on mine and got quickly frustrated. There are two steps to complete. The first step was simple; I just entered my name, passport number, destination locations, email, and phone number. Some of the form and drop down lists are in Spanish, for example, I needed to select Estados Unidos de America for United States, Then I was prompted to upload my negative PCR test result and proof of Covid insurance (we paid $98 total to get insurance from AON that provided coverage if we contract Covid during our trip. I submitted my form, and received a message to check for an email to complete step 2.


I received the email and it was in Spanish, but it was pretty obvious to click a link (I forgot to mention that Atlas provided very helpful instructions to help complete the form. Step 2 was much more frustrating. The form and field drop downs were in both Spanish and English. I filled out the first section with some difficulty, for example, despite my entering the departure date of 28/12/2021, the field showed as NAN/NAN/NAN. I restarted the form several times to try to get the date to display correctly, and finally it did. I have no solution as to why it did, it just did. Another example, when I tried to enter Tierra del Fuego in the Province field, I could not find it in the drop down list. Later in the day I learned that “Land of Fire”, which was in the drop down list, is the English translation of Tierra del Fuego! This was not in the Atlas instructions, so I was stumped for 30 minutes or so, and tried starting anew several times. I also learned that Argentina modifies it’s forms and links frequently. I was using a link Atlas provided me on December 9, 2021. Atlas also provided a link on December 26, 2021, and it turns out the links were different. Once I figured out how to use the link in the last email, things worked out. The drop down lists are lengthy, often unsorted, and contain duplicates. You need to hunt to find the correct pick for the field. Atlas did a good job in its instructions identifying the correct picks. After over two hours of starts and restarts, I completed both mine and Shelly’s forms. We received confirmation numbers and entered them in the MyAtlas web portal per instructions.


We went to the Hyatt business center to print out the Argentina Health Declaration confirmation, and our Covid insurance confirmation. The business center at Hyatt costs $6.95 to use the computer for 30 minutes. It also cost $1.00 per page printed. We were now ready to pass (hopefully) through Argentina customs. I advise you to print out all documents required by Argentina, just in case they want paper copies. The next step will be the Atlas check-in.


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