Today we began Step 2 of our Antarctic Circle romp. We got up at the fanny crack of before dawn so we could fly down to the end of the world—Ushuaia, Argentina. The Argentines like to call it the “City at the End of the World.” And it was for a long time. However, Chile was not about to let Argentina outdo them so they built Port William which is the southern most place. Our local guide said that Port William was a town, therefore Ushuaia still holds the title as southern most “city.” Splitting hairs, I know, but the two countries are quite competitive.
Anyway, we got up a little past 5 AM because we had to have our luggage out and ready to go a few minutes before 6 AM. Plus if we wanted coffee or tea, we had to be at the breakfast room at 6 so we could get some. Breakfast didn’t start until 6:30 but they were providing hot beverages and pastries for us. At 6:30 we were loading up the bus and leaving for the domestic airport.
We did quite well in getting everything accomplished and the suitcases out before the deadline. While I was double-checking the room, Doug went ahead to get coffee. I finished checking things and packing up the rest of my electronics and met him there. It was WAY too early to eat anything but I did make myself a fake latte (a little bit of coffee with a lot of warm milk). I needed the caffeine!
Downstairs we made sure our bags were identified and with our group—the Green Group. We didn’t want it accidentally on the wrong bus. We also had green tags on our bags but it never hurts to double-check. Then we loaded up the bus for the fifteen minute ride to the airport.
Things slowed down quite a bit there. The airlines we were flying on was Aerolineas Argentinas. The weight limit for their flights is 15 kilos or 33 pounds. We knew before we left home that we were over that. Winter clothes are just heavy. However, OAT knows that so they reached an agreement with the airlines that they would pay overages up to 50 pounds. So we knew we were okay. As Doug and I went to check in, I told Pablo that we would both be over. I was correct. I weighed in at 18.5 kilos and Doug at 19.5 (he had my parka as well as his own in his suitcase). Because we were over, we couldn’t get our boarding passes until Pablo paid.
Thus began the long wait. Doug and I were by far not the only ones overweight. Most in the group were. Liz and Chris just made the 15 kilos so they scooted on through security and went to the gate. Pablo couldn’t pay until everybody had checked in which took time. Then there was a long line of other people paying. Once he reached the window, he had to pay for probably 20 people and get their boarding passes. It took time.
There was a silver lining to the wait though. We ran into a couple who we had done Australia and New Zealand with! We hadn’t seen them since them. They were in the red group which had been staying at a different hotel in BA. It was so great to see them. Sue and Bob were such fun to travel with. I was thrilled that we could share this adventure with them as well. It was a lovely piece of serendipity 🙂
Eventually Pablo got all of our boarding passes and we made our way through security which was no problem. We found the gate but didn’t have long to wait at all. In fact, we barely had sat down before we had to start lining up. I didn’t even make it to the toilet before boarding. I had forgotten how military the ladies are at lining up people to board here in Buenos Aires. They lined us up by our zones and woe to the person in the wrong zone! I’m not sure why they went to all of that trouble though because we all ended up on buses going out to the plane. You just have to smile and shake your head.
We got onboard which is the important thing and had room for our carryon in the overhead bins. It was a full plane. You can’t begin to imagine how many people are here to do Antarctic expeditions. We saw scads of people doing Viking. I am still gob-smacked at the amount of people. It wasn’t like this eight years ago.
The flight to Ushuaia was a little over three hours. I put it to good use by getting caught up on yesterday’s blog posting. By the time I could start working on it last night, it was late. I started falling asleep after about an hour so I called it quits and went to bed. I was glad I had the time today to try to finish it although I’m not overly fond of doing that much typing on my iPhone. It took most of the flight to get it all written. I had to stop a few times because my hands started cramping up. I got it written though so I felt good about that.
We flew a different route this trip. Last time I could swear we made a quick stop in El Calafate. This time we didn’t even fly over it. Doug had planned on looking for Silvia’s “green, green grass.” She was the trip leader on our last Antarctica trip and she had just built a house in El Calafate and planted grass. She was so proud. We actually saw her last year when we spent a couple of nights in El Calafate on the Patagonia trip. She met us at the hotel which was so sweet. I always loved her💖
It was a bit of a mad scrambled once we deplaned. We rushed down to the baggage claim area. Pablo thought this was where the COVID testing person was going to meet us. It took a few minutes but Pablo found him. Doug had gone into the toilet and Liz hadn’t gotten down there from the plane yet so I was first up. The man was very gentle but boy, did he put that thing WAY up there. As Doug said after his turn, “I think he got some brain cells with that one.” My eyes were watering by the time he finished.
The good thing was we didn’t hold anybody up. The test was fast. We were done before the luggage had even started coming out. Doug got our bags while I stood in line for the toilet. I had waited until after I had done my PCR test 🙂
Baggage all claimed, we met Romina who is our local guide and she took us to our bus. While we waited on the rest of our group and Pablo, most of us kept busy snapping pictures of the beautiful Andes Mountains. This is the tail end of them here in Ushuaia. This is their southern most point and where they are the shortest.
Once we were all on the bus, we headed to our hotel for tonight—the Alto Andino. It was just a couple of streets off of the main drag and within easy walking distance of the downtown area. We dumped off our luggage and carryon’s and then were free to do whatever we wanted until our meeting at 4 PM. Since we couldn’t get into our rooms until around 2 PM (it was almost 1 by now), we decided to walk down to the Hard Rock Cafe (it wasn’t here last time) and enjoy a beer and a snack. Then we would just wander and do whatever.
We found it easily enough walking and went right in. It wasn’t crowded at all. In fact, it was pretty empty. We seated ourselves and then the fun began. As many restaurants have done because of COVID, they have gone to their menus being available through QR codes. No problem except you have to have cellular or WiFi. Hard Rock always has free WiFi but you have to get the password which isn’t with the QR code. As a result you have to rustle somebody up to ask them what it is. We all got connected and then tried the QR code. Fiasco! The lighting was poor so it was difficult to get the camera to cooperate. Then when we finally did, the website didn’t want to load. When we finally got it to load, it was all in Spanish. She hadn’t give us the one in English. Oy vey! Now neither Doug nor Chris are ever very patient with this type of thing. I thought they were both going to blow a fuse. Doug was threatening to walk out. Chris kept telling the poor server that they ought to have at least some printed menus…..It was not fun. Eventually we managed to order our beer and a snack. I’m not sure what beer it was, I just know Doug, Liz, and I got the red. I believe Chris got the blond. To make matters worse, when Chris ordered chicken wings, she told him they didn’t have any. Oh, boy! That didn’t go over well after the menu ordeal. He finally ordered nachos like Doug and I were sharing.
After all of that, things settled down. Thank goodness! We chitchatted while snacking and enjoying the brew. After we finished eating and drinking, I bought a T-shirt and then we headed out. Liz was on a mission to find an Antarctica T-shirt for a friend. The kicker was that it needed to be a 3X. We hit several places but they either didn’t have Antarctica shirt or no 3 Xs. She found one but wasn’t sure about the size. We decided to check another store when we realized that it was 3:30 and we needed to head back to the hotel for our 4 PM meeting with Pablo. Plus we still needed to check in and unpack.
It was uphill getting back to the Alto Andino. I got a bit of a workout which was good. We got checked in and Pablo told us the gentleman was there to collect the money for our PCR test. It was all locked in Doug’s suitcase. However, when we got in the room, his suitcase and carryon weren’t there. Mine was but not his. So while he went on a search mission, I tried to unpack a little bit. He was back faster than I expected as it had all been next door. He paid while I headed up to the fourth floor for our Antarctic meeting.
There was a fabulous view from the breakfast room where we were meeting. You could see the Beagle Channel and the plethora of ships in the harbor. The mountains made a perfect backdrop. We had a similar view from our room. Absolutely gorgeous! I sat with my back to the window so I wouldn’t be distracted from the meeting by the view. Pablo went over our schedule for tomorrow and then a few things about our time on the ship. He told us this was our last opportunity if we didn’t have waterproof pants. They were an absolute must and this was the last chance to get them if we didn’t already have them. He made me paranoid. I was almost 100% sure I had packed them but he put doubt in my mind. I knew it was going to bother me until I checked (I did when we got back to the room after the meeting. They were there). He also answered any questions people had. I was surprised that we didn’t get our boots. Last time we got them before we boarded. Pablo said they would be in our cabin when we got on board. Things change.
After the meeting we had a panoramic city tour via bus with our local guide Romina. I’m not sure what was going on but we had to wait 15 minutes for one of the couples. I just hope this was a one-off and they don’t make a habit of it. Anyway, as soon as they climbed on, we were off. Romina had told us a bit about San Martin Avenue which is the main street. San Martin was the hero of Argentina. I’m sure his name is found everywhere. We went the other direction on San Martin this afternoon. She pointed out the Beagle Channel and the old casino shaped like a whale’s tail. We drove by the old cemetery that use to mark the edge of the city and then the military (naval) housing just passed the cemetery.
I was a bit surprised that she didn’t say anything about the history of Ushuaia. It started out as a penal colony for Argentina. Buenos Aires sent their worst prisoners here. During the day the prisoners were sent out into the forest in Tierra del Fuego to chop trees for wood. A railroad was built in 1910 to haul the convicts to the forest area and haul them and the logs back. It became the southernmost railway in the world.
There was also a military prison in the area which was moved to Ushuaia. Argentina had planned on building an entire penal colony but it never came to fruition. In 1911, the military prison and the jail merged. In 1947 the President ordered the jail closed. The buildings were transferred over to the Navy which eventually turned it into five museums.
Pablo touched on this history a bit but Romina didn’t say anything about it. I’m just sorry we aren’t going to get to see the prison museum like we did last time. It was very interesting and well worth the time. I don’t know if they just don’t do it anymore or it the air schedules make it impossible. I’ll have to ask.
Romina did give us current information. The population of the city is 80,000+. It was 65,000 eight years ago so it has grown quite a bit. She said that many people in Buenos Aires move here because they get tired of the rat race of the city. They want to enjoy a more relax lifestyle. I can’t say that I blame them although this place now gets inundated during the season with cruise ships. They even get those big 3,000 passenger cruise ships. Can you imagine what Ushuaia is like when three of them are in port along with the passengers of the expedition ships? Yuck!
Ushuaia is also the capital of the Malvinas. You may or may not have heard of the Malvinas. Or you may know them as the Falkland Islands. You know, those islands that the British fought the Argentine people for back in 1982. The people here are still unhappy about that war. In some ways, I can’t blame them. The islands belonged to Argentina since 1803. Then in 1833 the British moved into the island and kicked the Argentine people out. They held the islands ever since. Frankly, I don’t know why anybody would want them. The weather is terrible. Life there is just plain hard. What is to fight over? Despite the fact that Great Britain won the war in just over 70 days, the Argentine still consider the islands theirs.
Other facts we learned as we drove are:
—68 degrees is considered a very warm day here
—the weather changes CONSTANTLY. I can personally vouch for that one. We had overcast skies, sunshine, rain, hot, and cold, and windy. In fact the wind blew so hard at one point it blew water from the Beagle Chanel on us! Then it went back to being beautiful. It is no exaggeration when they say they can experience all four seasons in one day. The longest day sees the sun rise at 5 AM and set at midnight. The shortest day starts with sunrise at 10 AM and the sun sets at 5 PM.
—People here are called Fueginos, not Argentinians. Why? This area is known as Tierra del Fuego. Because of that, they prefer to be known as Fueginos. This area was actually named by Magellan in 1520 who looked out and saw all of the smoke when he sailed here. He thought the land was burning so he named it “Land of Smoke.” It was later changed to “Land of Fire.” He didn’t realize that the smoke was from the fires the indigenous people had burning.
—The city had both a hospital and a clinic. Unfortunately they don’t have enough doctors. The city does offer incentives to doctors, dentists, and other professionals to come work here. The government provides a car, housing, tax incentives, etc. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I wonder if they need any librarians 🙂
—Gas is used for heating the homes. Most do not have A/Cs as it doesn’t get hot enough here. The gas is subsidized by the government so people can afford to heat their homes.
Our first stop on our panoramic tour was the old airport. Apparently it was constructed with a short runway that ran north/south. That made takeoffs and landings quite difficult. As a result, there were many airplane accidents. In 1997 they built a new airport with a much longer runway that goes east/west making it much safer.
I have to say that the location of the old airport was very scenic. You had great views of the Andes as well as the Beagle Channel. Boats bobbed in the blue waters. Further out we saw way too many ships. Viking alone had two ships here. The Hebridean Sky wasn’t one of them, however. Pablo told us she was due in in about three hours. They must have made good time on the Drake.
We enjoyed the views and huddled together for a group photo with the mountains in the background. By now the sun had disappeared and we were starting to enjoy fall/winter weather. The wind was blowing water on us and it was starting to rain as well. I was glad I had brought my raincoat with me. I quickly put it on and covered up my camcorder with it. Off in the distance we could see a faint rainbow rising up out of the mountains. Despite the less than great weather, I had to smile. I was in Ushuaia!
Once the weather turned, we didn’t dwaddle. We had had our fill of the view of the mountains, Beagle, and Ushuaia. It was time to get back on the bus. We drove for a bit before making another photo stop at an enclosed bay. A gaggle of geese were happily paddling around on the bay. It couldn’t have been totally enclosed because it looked like the tide was out. The water seemed low.
We had one more stop before finishing up the tour and returning to the hotel. This was a multi-purpose stop. First we took photos at the Ushuaia sign with the Beagle in the background. Doug and I got our picture and then we got one with Chris and Liz as well. I managed to snag a picture of it just plain between people. After making this tourist stop, Romina walked us over to the Falkland War memorial.
She probably wasn’t even born then but she was quite passionate about the war and the young men who died. I believe she said 649 young men perished. Many of them came from up north around the border with Brazil. Those poor kids were ill-equipped to deal with the harsh conditions on the Falklands. The boys were use to heat and humidity. They were sent by Pinochet who was the dictator controlling Argentina at that time, to fight the British. It was winter time. They were poorly equipped and supplied. It was a recipe for failure. All of those lives lost because of one dictator’s pride. I mean really, what rational person starts a fight with a super power like Britain and expects to get anything except thoroughly trounced? It was a terribly sad situation.
The memorial was very nice. An outline of the Malvinas Islands was cut all the way through a rock slab. You could see the blue sky through the islands. Beneath it said “We will be back.” I liked it. Off to the right side of the memorial was the eternal flame in front of a wall covered with the names of the soldiers lost in the war. It was very well done.
The memorial wrapped up our city tour. By now it was well after six. Some people got dropped off on San Martin Avenue but we chose to go back to the hotel. Both Doug and I wanted to dump our backpacks before going to dinner. Plus I had drank a good deal of water during our meeting. I needed a toilet in the worst way.
As we drove to the hotel we decided to just have dinner at the Irish Pub we had walked by on our way to the downtown area. It was close to the hotel and would be easy to do. Both Chris and Liz were agreeable. We agreed to meet in the lobby in ten minutes. Obviously there was a bit of miscommunication because Chris didn’t show up. He had mentioned something about king crab so Doug figured he had decided to eat somewhere else so he could have the crab. We waited a few more minutes and then made our way to the pub. We invited one of the solo ladies in our group to join us. It had been her room where Doug found his suitcase.
We found an empty table for four at the pub and ordered beer. They didn’t have Guinness but they had a porter which was good. We had just ordered our food when Chris came in. He had waited for us until 7:30 in the lobby. Oops! He wasn’t a happy camper. We HAD waited an extra bit of time for him. I’m not sure why we missed him. Anyway, it was done and there was nothing we could do about it. Karma gave him his food first. We got our pizza last 🙂
The pub wasn’t the best place I’ve eaten nor the worst. We had the Popeye pizza which had tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, green olives, and spinach. It wasn’t half bad after I ditched the cold olives :-). Since three of us were sharing it, none of us made a pig of ourselves.
After dinner Chris and Misty went back to the hotel while we went with Liz in her quest to find the shirt for her friend. As luck would have it, we walked into a store that looked like a liquor store and right off the bat Liz found a good shirt for her friend. It was the right size and was an Antarctica shirt. Just for grins and chuckles, I looked for a coffee mug. I got one last time but it was way too small. I couldn’t find anything else then so I got it. However, tonight I found a good mug which is the perfect size. It’s simple but it has the land mass of Antarctica on it. I grabbed it right up. Now I have to figure out how to fit it in my suitcase 🙂
To celebrate our success, the three of us enjoyed some dulce de leche ice cream from Freddo’s. It is suppose to have some of the best ice cream. I got the dulce de leche with chocolate chips. I believe it’s called dulce de leche granizado. This was so much creamier and better than what we had yesterday. It was really rich though and filled me up fast.
We were eating it as we trekked back to the hotel. By now it had started raining a bit again and the wind was back to blowing. Typical Ushuaia weather. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow is a good day weather-wise since we will be out hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park. Then tomorrow afternoon we board the ship!!!!! Antarctica, here I come!
Tales from the Trail 