Amateur Traveler: Wednesday, Dec. 30 - Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

This was a travel day. We needed to get to Ushuaia, at the very southern tip of South America. Ushuaia bills itself as the most southerly city on the globe. Our flight did not leave until 2:05pm, checkout was at 10:00am, so we had some time to kill. We took a walk through the park near the hotel and then headed back to the square. We had a leisurely coffee. The square is a very well known place in San Telmo. Often Tango dancers will show up and put on a show for the folks frequenting the square. As we had just ordered our 2nd cups of tea/coffee, a pair of Tango dancers began to perform. We watched that for a bit and then made our way back to the hotel to catch a ride to the Airport.

Buenos Aires has 2 airports, the international airport and the domestic airport. We were going through the domestic airport this time. It was very easy to get through, no lines for ticketing or security. Our meal was a challenge. It was not clear how to get your food after you ordered and we had a significant language barrier with the staff. Eventually we got our meal. We took off for Ushuaia, there was a stop in El Calafate but we did not change planes. Total travel time was about 5 hours.

When we got to the hotel we met a very nice couple, Ralph and Trish, from Memphis. They were taking the same ship to Antarctica as we were. Trish wanted to go to Tierra Del Fuego National Park, she organized a guided tour through the hotel and asked us to join them. We had been contemplating a tour of the park, but I originally thought we would not have enough time. Well it turned out that it fit perfectly into our schedule.

We had a nice dinner at the hotel including native King Crab caught right in the channel facing the hotel. In many ways Ushuaia is similar to Alaska. It has snow capped mountains which drop right down into the sea, and the weather in Summer is more often than not cool and cloudy. It often rains. However, the trees and vegetation make it look distinctly different than Alaska. And the mountains that we saw are not as dramatic. We enjoyed watching the sunset as we finished our meal. The sun set at around 10:30pm. And it is apparently a special event to see a sunset here in Ushuaia, as they are quite rare.

Becky having tea in Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo