We docked early in the morning and disembarked at around 8:00am. Ushuaia is a small town, but after having spent the last 9 days on the ship it seemed like a metropolis. We got to the airport. The airport in Ushuaia is small but very nice. It appears to be fairly new and has a mountain lodge theme. It is made of large timbers with the beams exposed beneath the roof line. We took off on our flight to Buenos Aires at around 12:30pm. They were running late as the plane was having equipment problems.
We landed at the Buenos Aires domestic airport at about 6:00pm. The air felt so warm and comfortable. I had planned this trip so that we would spend the next week in warm weather. We had considered visiting some of the southern resort towns next to the Andes. There you can see the cool mountains and some glaciers. I think we had done enough of that already. It was time for some warm weather.
We took a cab to our hotel in the Palermo Hollywood section of Buenos Aires. This is supposed to be the hip and stylish area of town. I would call it eclectic. Most of the buildings are 3-5 stories tall and could use a good coat of paint. The sidewalks and roads were in need of repair. Then there would be these fashionable restaurants and retail stores set between these drab looking buildings. I would say that is the essence of Argentina, trying to live the good life in the midst of a gritty backdrop. Mind you, we never felt unsafe and the sidewalk bars and restaurants were quite lively.
We arrived at our small boutique hotel. It was comfortable and the staff was incredibly helpful. They helped us plan a day-trip to Uruguay for the next day. They also tried to help us get a piece of luggage shipped directly to our home. We no longer needed parkas and fleece and wanted to unload the big suitcase. It turns out that you cannot ship a suitcase like that to the US. If they allowed that then, people would load up suitcases with new clothes bought abroad avoiding the duty payment. We went to an early dinner, 9:00pm, so we could get to bed relatively early. We ate at a nice Italian place seated outside on the sidewalk. The place was empty when we were eating, but when we left at about 10:30pm it was filling up rapidly.
We went back to the hotel. Darkness had fallen. It was the first time we had been out at dark for well over a week.
Our Hotel Room at Hotel Home, Buenos Aires
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