Ushuaia

Catamaran Ride to Nowhere

Weather in Tierra del Fuego is highly changeable.  Storms and weather systems coming from the Pacific are funneled into the Beagle Channel and head for the Atlantic.  Ushuaia sits right on the Beagle Channel.  As we were flying out of Buenos Aires, the weather in Ushuaia was sunny and nearly 70.  When we landed 3 hours later, it was in the low 40’s, windy and raining....

The plan for arrival in Ushuaia was to take us to a catamaran, on which we would take a short excursion into the Beagle Channel and be served lunch.  This was to buy time for the crew to load everyone’s luggage on board and to clean up the Explorer after its last Antarctica excursion of the season, without new passengers underfoot.  So, we were duly loaded onto busses, passed the naval station at the site of Thomas Bridges’ original Anglican mission to the area, and delivered to the catamaran.   In time, the boat’s captain made the decision that the weather was too poor to venture out.  So, we had our lunch sitting on a catamaran in the harbor of Ushuaia.  Since we were warmly indoors with a nice view of the city, it was pleasant enough.  It might have been nice to wander through a bit of Ushuaia.  With a population of 70,000, it’s surprisingly large for being located at the end of the world.  But the catamaran’s crew had removed the gangplank, and apparently weren’t going to replace it until it was time to leave for our ship.  I suppose that was partially due to getting ready if the boat had left the dock, but also to keep passengers from wandering away into the town just at the time Explorer was ready to cast off lines!

The flight from Buenos Aires was smooth and felt short after the red eye from Miami the day before.  Perched in a window seat, I was excited to be able to catch some glances of Patagonia and the Andes.  What I didn’t think about was that South America gets so narrow as you go south, most of the trip would be over water.  So that’ll have to be for the next trip.  I guess we did get to see the very end of the Andes in Tierra del Fuego.

Ushuaia can get pretty windy!

In the evening, we met most of the ship’s staff.  They range from oceanographers, to natural and cultural historians, botanists, photographers and marine specialists.  The botanist, seemingly a cross between a mad scientist and a homeless person, introduced himself as the guy who will be able tell us what plants on the islands are hallucinogenic and what ones to use when you want to get rid of your cabin mate.  The rest seem like they will be equally informative.

Exiting the Beagle Channel, heading for the Atlantic

Buenos Aires

A day of sitting, and sitting and sitting.  Then a lot of walking.  

After sitting on the plane for 9+ hours, we then sat on a bus for an hour.  Then we sat at the hotel and had a buffet breakfast.  Since it was still before 9 a.m., we then sat, waiting for our hotel rooms to be ready.  Finally, we decided that was enough sitting. 

We left our luggage with the hotel concierge, and headed out into the city.  One of our favorite locations when we were here before was the Cementerio de la Recoleta, final home of famous and not so famous Argentines.  The headliner here is Eva Peron, but you can also find former presidents of the republic, generals and statesmen, and many people who have tried to make themselves look more important than they might have been in life. 

Eva Peron

Lunch stop

Walking back to hotel

Tomorrow, a pre-dawn wake up call will start us on our way to Ushuaia.  On arrival, we'll take a catamaran trip through the Beagle Channel, then board the ship and cast off lines by 3 p.m.  Then there'll be no looking back, and no dry land for about 6 days.

And we're off

Five hours in the Miami Airport is not as bad as 7 hours in the Toronto Airport.  After you eat cheese curds and poutine in Toronto, there’s just not much else to do.  International departures are in a small section of the terminal, the Canadian customs folks just aren’t that friendly, and let’s face it, Canadians are a little bit, well…..bland.

Miami’s airport has a bit more going on.  It’s a busy, jostling place.  I think there are fewer announcements in English than other languages.  Japanese girls, most in some kind of strange pigtails, and more than a few sporting what seem to be specially designed surgical masks, seem to be everywhere.  As you might expect, everyone except the Japanese girls seems to be speaking Spanish.  (After weeks of trying to review Spanish through Rosetta Stone and Duolingo, I’m still lucky if I recognize a word or two.)  Finally, there was a 20-something year-old guy in one corner of the waiting area.  He was obviously quite fit.  To keep himself in that condition, dressed in his t-shirt and gym shorts, he proceeded to do a full work out, much to the interest of several teenage girls nearby.  In between squats, tricep extensions on the handrails, jump ups and God knows what else, he constantly picked up his cell phone.  Don’t know if he was checking what came next in his workout, or if he was tweeting what great shape he was in.

So, anyway the time passed in Miami not too painfully.  Along with everything else, we got a chance to meet a few of our fellow passengers.  As expected, we’re on the younger end of the demographic spectrum, but just like in the Galapagos, the folks we’ve met seem energetic, engaging, and excited for the odyssey ahead.  We already know there’s one that will be best appreciated in small doses.  But there’s at least one like that in every group, right?  Above all, despite the fact that we’re not exactly homebodies, we’re being put to shame by these people’s travel resumes.  Locations like Nepal, Cambodia, South Georgia Island, Seychelles, Tristan de Cuna, St Helena, etc., etc., etc. are being tossed around.

We’re now on the plane, having just passed over Cuba, and having had a delightful airline dinner, we’re settling in for a movie, and hopefully at least a little sleep.  So, here we go!