My next flight to the city of Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina departs from the city airport of Buenos Aires – Aeroparque. It was less than a 20 minute ride from Plaza de Mayo which cost 6000 pesos (or about 6 USD).
I wish that I’d taken a photo of the check in area as it was pretty chaotic but I didn’t as I was really wondering whether I’d make the cut off time for my bag to be accepted. I arrived an hour and 40 minutes before departure time and with priority check in access at a relatively small airport I figured that was plenty of time.. nope… the lines were barely moving and kept getting longer and longer. Thankfully I made it to the counter at 10 minutes before cut off time. After all that, a quick security check and then into the departure area to wait for boarding time.
We departed more less on time to the west and flew over what looks like a water park close to the airport.
Then we made a sweeping turn out east over the massive Rio de la Plata – as you can see, although Buenos Aires appears on the map to be a coastal city, it’s not – this body of water is technically a river or more like an estuary, and the water is quite muddy.
Here’s a look back at the city.
Heading south over central Argentina the landscape looked like the Great Plains of the US or Canada from above.
About an hour and a half into the flight, those of us in Premium Economy were served a lunch tray consisting of some peanuts, a ham and cream cheese sandwich that was labelled high in saturated fat, high in sodium and high in calories; and a cookie. Water, Pepsi, 7Up, or coffee were offered with the lunch.
We approached Ushuaia airport over the Beagle Channel and the coastal mountains of Tierra del Fuego did their best to poke out from amongst the clouds. Whitecaps below indicated that it was a windy afternoon.
We landed at Ushuaia airport about 3.5 hours after departing Buenos Aires Aeroparque and pulled up to the small terminal in between blustery rain showers. The terminal building resembled a ski lodge, in keeping with the mountain and outdoor motif of the region.
After being blasted by strong winds and rain when walking out of the air terminal, the ride from the airport to my accomodation for the night took about 10 minutes, and I arrived at this cute little cabin on a hill overlooking town.
We had another break in the weather for a little while and a beautiful rainbow appeared.
After another heavy shower and very strong wind episode, I walked around the area a little bit on the way to a local restaurant recommended by my hostess.
Maria Lola Resto had a great view.
And great food, too!
I’d planned to spend my full day in Ushuaia heading out to the mountains to get in a hike or maybe the Tren del Fin del Mundo but the weather was looking pretty miserable again, so I had the same driver, Gonza, who’d picked me up from the airport, to take me down to the town center to the hotel for the next night which was part of the package for the upcoming expedition. After dropping off my stuff at the hotel, I sought refuge in a local coffee shop above this penguin themed souvenir outlet to wait out the weather with a cappuccino.
Penguins everywhere – so cute !
After it stopped raining I walked around the east side of the town center for a while.
The main street was mostly souvenir shops, outdoor gear outlets, and restaurants or cafes.
It wasn’t an incredibly remarkable town but it’s in a gorgeous setting and of course is the gateway to southern Patagonia and of course, the Antarctic, so it really is the end of the civilized world in the southern direction.
I enjoyed lunch in a local family operated pub (seemed to be 3 of them running the whole show) where no English was spoken for a very reasonable price. Being a tourist town, there are some good restaurants in Ushuaia, but not cheap, and there are some that are also not good and not cheap !
Then more walking.
This lamb grilling rack seemed to be a common feature at several restaurants here (this was at the place that I had dinner, which was buffet style).
Later that evening I met my roommate for the next two weeks, whose name was Albert and was travelling with his parents. They happened to have dinner at one of the restaurants that was both not good and not cheap!
The next day I spent more time walking around, and also took a lunch recommendation from Albert at the good place they’d tried – Garibaldi Resto. Not only was the food delicious, the server spoke perfect English which was a real relief as this was uncommon in Argentina. King crab is a speciality in Ushuaia, but I couldn’t bring myself to order a whole one as it was way too much food for one person, so I settled for the King Crab casserole.
The lunch was really great – funnily enough, as I’d tried Albert’s recommendation; him and his parents tried Maria Lola on my recommendation and we were both very satisfied.
The walk after lunch was quite pleasant and I even bumped into my hostess Guadalupe from the first night in town. And I also saw this Crotia Plaza which seemed a bit out of place, I wonder what the story is on that one.
After burning off some of the lunch, it was time to embark on the big adventure…
Curiosly enough, to board the ship at the port docks which were a short ~7 minute walk from the official hotel, we had to board buses in a parking lot that was about half the distance to the dock, and then be driven the rest of the way. I’m not sure why that was, maybe some security thing. Anyway, after our very short bus ride it was time to board the M/V World Explorer.
This will be home for Albert and I for the next two weeks. The room was really nice, much better than the hotel room that we’d stayed in the previous night in the Hotel Albatros and especially the bathroom was much better, with really hot water.
After getting unpacked and settled into the room there was a welcome and safety briefing in the ship’s auditorium in the bow. We’ll be spending a lot of time in here over the course of the trip.
The Ushuaia harbour was totally calm now, a far cry from the rain and wind of the last couple of days.
We’re off! This is essentially the last sort of civilization we’ll see for 2 weeks.
There were other cruise ships coming and going, from operators Viking and Lindblad/National Geographic.
As we headed east out down the Beagle Channel, the first of many great meals was served in the dining room at the stern of the 4th deck.
This is a sample of the menu, on which most of the items changed every day. The food was very good, better than I expected. The ice cream in particular was a huge hit as there was freshly made ice creams and sorbets every single day – it was hard to resist!
The next 3 days on the ship crossing eastwards 1000 nautical miles of the Scotia Sea would be more or less the same. Breakfast, a scientific presentation in the auditorium, lunch, another presentation, afternoon tea, dinner, some sort of social activity or other lighter presentation in the lounge area. Here is a sample itinerary for the first sea day which also included a mandatory safety briefing.
About half of the entire trip looked like this – unless you stopped to take a minute to look closer, then there was actually quite a lot to see. The Southern Ocean is literally teeming with life!
As was the forecast, the seas were a bit rough for the first day and a half. Here are some waves splashing up to the dining room windows, about 25 feet above the waterline. The winds that day were about 50 knots, or close to 100 km/h.
The staff do a lot to give guests options to keep busy, but there was also plenty of downtime to take in the views of the endless expanse of waves. This being the first time in my life to spend any significant amount of time at sea, I also took a seasickness medication, Meclizine, when the ship started rocking, and this made me a bit drowsy. So I spent a lot of time those first few days resting and intermittently napping amongst everything else.
The staff put up a very cool demographic slide about the composition of our fellow travellers!
The World Explorer also had a great observation lounge at the front of the 7th deck, with huge windows and an outer deck to take in the sea and the life it harboured. Over those first days, particularly the third sea day, we saw plenty of humpback whales, a rarely spotted sperm whale, orcas off the bow, and our first icebergs in the afternoon. Not to mention birds, particularly the famous albatross of the Southern Ocean. Given that I’m just working off my phone as a camera, I don’t have pictures of any of these, since you really need a decent camera with a good telephoto lens to properly capture these creatures.
Yay ! Our first iceberg! It’s funny to think back to how so many people snapped this pic of an iceberg way in the distance when in the days coming we’d be surrounded by them… haha
After 3 full days at sea, we are ready for our first stop….
Ellie's Adventures 