Saturday--February 26--Ushuaia

Saturday--February 26--on the boat arriving into Ushuaia

I had to get up quite early to have breakfast and disembark by 8:30 a.m.  My luggage needed to be outside my room by 7:30 a.m.  I am not a morning person.

Extremely tired, I walked off the boat, collected my luggage and walked to find a taxi.  

As soon as I sat down in the taxi I realized I was in Argentina and didn’t have any Argentinian pesos.  Oops.  I asked the driver if he could stop at a cash machine so I could get some AP’s.  No problem.

With my foggy head I couldn’t think quickly about how many Argentinian pesos to the dollar, thus not knowing how many pesos I should get.  The only reason this is a thought at all is because it’s $5.00 each time you get money.

I got to the hotel Alto Andino @ 9:00 a.m. was told by Antonia, the nice young girl at the reception desk that the room wouldn’t be ready until 2:00 p.m. but I could go upstairs to the restaurant.  She checked me in and told me I couldn’t have breakfast because it wasn’t included today (not a problem I ate on the ship), but I could have a coffee if I went upstairs to the restaurant.  I asked if there was a laundry near by and she told me there was a laundry next door at the hostel that I could use but it didn’t open until 10:00 or 10:30 a.m.  My only choice was to go upstairs to the restaurant.  

I left my bags with Antonia but took my computer and camera with me.

Antonia also told me about the different excursion options to the National Park and the Train at the end of the world.  I could arrange any of these through the hotel.  I really wanted a ride on the Train and to visit the National Park.    

great view from the restaurant

As the restaurant was on the fourth floor there was a magnificent view overlooking the port.  I could see where I just came from.  Again, I was lucky with the weather.  The sun was shining, although there were some clouds in the sky it wasn’t raining but looked awfully ominous.  There were a few people in the restaurant having breakfast.  I had a coffee and wrote until I could go next door.

As I was getting the dirty clothes bag out of my suitcase I saw a couple checking out of their room.  I heard them say the room number because they were storing a suitcase at the hotel while they went on their Antarctica journey.  Their room was the one I had seen I was assigned to because when Antonia took my bags she put a sticker on them with the same number.

  

I was hoping that maybe when my laundry was done I would be able to check in but really all I wanted was a nap.

I went next door to the hostel to do my laundry.  A load of laundry for both washing and drying was only $5.00 a big difference from the $40.00 I paid in Valparaiso.   

The noise of the music hit me as soon as I walked in.  This was a very lively place filled with young travelers but the noise level and style of music confirmed why I haven’t stayed at hostels.  I’ve become much more noise sensitive with old age I guess.  However, I needed to hangout here for at least an hour for the laundry to wash and then to dry so I got a bit of a taste for what a hostel was like.  

I was able to get one of my two bags in one load of laundry.  This part of travel is not so much fun.  As it is I’m sick of my clothes and because I don’t have that many clothes I need to do laundry every 5 or 6 days.  I try to wash out my underwear and thin shirts in the hotel room but I’ve run out of castile soap.  I’ve tried to find more in several places but have not succeeded.  So, I’m stuck with having to get the laundry done. 

This is just one of those things as I traveler I have to accept.

It was nearly 12:00 when my laundry was done and I went back to the hotel hoping to have a nap.  No such luck.  The girl said it would be ready at 2:00 p.m.  I asked her for a restaurant recommendation for lunch.  She gave me a few suggestions and showed me on the map where each of them were.  The main street in Ushuaia is San Martin and the next one down close to the water is Maipu.  I choose to go to Ramos Generales, which is on Maipu.  I took my computer with me as I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it at the hotel, and the restaurant had free wi-fi.  Go figure.

I thought I was ordering a salad with salmon (as in a piece of fish) but what I got was a salad, well lettuce with smoked salmon.  It was o.k.  but the best was what I had for dessert.  I’d seen these cute penguins with their heads and beaks made from chocolate, sitting on the counter.  I heard someone sitting next to me say they were meringues and I wanted one.  It was so good but I felt a little guilty eating this cute thing.  

I stayed here for a few hours writing and checking e-mail since I hadn’t had internet for 4 days on the boat.

I was happy to be in Ushuaia, after all this was the goal of my entire journey.  The wind was a bit taken out of my expectation because I’d taken the cruise and gotten to Cape Horn, which truly was far more exciting.  Also, it wasn’t much of a town and I was tired.  I went to the Museum “at the end of the world."

About Ushuaia:

Pioneers arrived attracted by commentaries on the existence of gold in the area. But the central government was interested in permanent residents, and so took as an example the policy of countries like France and Britain to build a prison in the archipielago. It was first built in States Island, and then in Bahía Golondrina, near Ushuaia, in 1902. It marked the characteristics of the city during the first half of the century.

In 1947 the central government closed the prison, and the building was acquired by the Ministery Of Marine to create in 1950 the Base Naval Ushuaia Almirante Berisso. The seventies marked another moment in the history of the city. Law 19.640 of industrial promotion was passed and many Argentinians from different provinces were attracted by the possibility of working and saving. Since then, Ushuaia´s population has been constantly increasing.

an old slot machine in the museum

an old typewriter I found in the museum

Finally it was after 2:00 so I walked back up the hill to the hotel.  Antonia was no longer at the reception, now it was Patricia.  She was very kind.  There were only two of my bags in the storage closet and she helped me to the room to make sure my suitcase was in the room.  Yes it was.  Phew.  Patricia and I had a conversation in broken English and Spanish.  She said she would call for the excursion to the train and the park with a guide for tomorrow and I needed to be ready at 8:00 a.m.  Another early  morning.  There is no grass growing under my feet, that’s for sure.

  

This was a nice room with a great view and a t.v. 

view from my room

I took a shower, laid down and watched t.v.  I was only going to be in this hotel for one night.  Because of my last minute arrangements, I tried to change the date of the original hotel but was unable to.  It was only available for Sunday and Monday night.  The person I was communicating with at Hotel Austral, told me that it would be very difficult to get another hotel and saved my reservation for the Sunday and Monday and therefore I got the other hotel. Funny as it was the Andino hotel was literally around the corner from hotel Austral.  

Keeping up with my changes is difficult, even I have trouble sometimes.  But there was a rainbow at the end of this change.

I rested for a bit and was actually hungry around 7:30.  I decided to try one of Antonia’s other suggestions Bodega Fueguino which was on the main street.  Good choice.  

When I got to the restaurant there weren’t many people as it was relatively early for Chilean’s to eat dinner.  But within half an hour or so the restaurant was full.  

Two nice girls from Switzerland were seated next to me.  They had been traveling through Chile and Argentina for a month or so.  One of them was going home soon and the other one was going to travel a bit longer.  I always enjoy it when I meet people and I was having a bit of withdrawals from being on the ship surrounded with people 24/7.

I ordered a locally made beer, a salad, and a dish of pasta with pesto.  The beer and salad were good the pasta just o.k.  I had such a nice time talking with the girls that it was nearly 10:30 p.m. before I left the restaurant.  Oy and I had to get up early.

The hotel was 3 blocks straight up hill but at least I worked off one bite of pasta walking back.