Port of Ushuaia

I was woken up out of a deep sleep by the announcement that we would be landing in Ushaia in twenty minutes.  I looked out the window and took in the stunning views.  White peaks rose dramatically through the clouds, while the water glimmered below, finally meeting the town.  We grabbed our bags and bundled up, which didn’t quite take the sting out of the 30 degree temperature change from Buenos Aires and the accompanying wind.  Welcome to the end of the world (or la Fin del Mundo).

We made it!

A short taxi ride and we arrived at our hostel.  At 270 pesos ($27 CAD) each a night for a shared dorm room with five other people, in a normal town this would surely be the most luxurious hostel ever, but this was the end of the world, where everything is expensive.  And scarce it would seem, judging by the four bathrooms for thirty six people.  But it was clean and warm and friendly.  We settled right into our beds for a nap, after last night’s adventures.

Exploring town

Forcing ourselves to get up, we hit the local bakery for some hot empanadas, and explored the town.  Which is really quite small, consisting of about three main streets.  Nonetheless, in the course of the day, we managed to get lost at least five times.  I blame either the lack of sleep or the fact that every street looks pretty much the same, with overpriced restaurants, outdoor shops and tacky tourist stores lining the blocks.  My favourite episode of getting lost was when we finally found the store noted as selling bus tickets to our next destination, only to discover a sign in the window giving directions to its new location, then overshooting that street, and stumbling upon it finally, only to discover it had closed eight minutes earlier.  We’ll blame that one on the fact that at 8:08 pm it looked like it was 3:00pm with the days being so long.

We ambitiously signed up for a tour of the famous Beagle Channel with a 7:30pm departure time, only to be told the wind was blowing the wrong direction, and we’d have to go in the morning.  Oh well, an early bedtime it would be for us!  We grabbed some pasta at the supermarket to compete at the hostel for space in the tiny kitchen, which inexplicably closed at 9:30pm, forcing everyone to cook early, at the same time.  We managed to laugh about it all with everyone else, consume our gourmet meal, and headed to bed for some much needed rest and warmth.