Soon we were all on our way – all 178 of us, between the two hotels – to our charter flight to Ushuaia. The domestic airport was a lot easier to get through than the other one, especially since we already had our boarding passes and didn't have to worry about check-in. Do you know that the distance between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia is a little more than from Toronto to Miami? Our flight time was 3 hours and 20 minutes, and quite comfortable, although all that we were served food-wise was a little snack box with some cookies and a beverage of our choice (non-alcoholic – it was only 7:00 in the morning when we took off). We were starting to get hungry by the time we landed, not having had any breakfast to speak of, and were looking forward to the promised barbecue lunch outside of town.
Since Le Boreal had just come back from an Antarctic tour (almost a half-day late, as we later found out) and was being readied for our group, A&K had arranged a tour of the town and outlying countryside to keep us busy until the ship was ready. And since we had not been fed since the night before, that tour started with lunch! What better way to keep cruiseship passengers busy than with food?? Lunch was at a ski resort about 10 kms out of town, so we started with a scenic drive with a couple of photo stops along the way. We didn't actually get to see much of Ushuaia in 2007 beyond the pier and the airport so we were both surprised to discover that it is actually a good sized "city" of about 70,000 people. And even more surprised that, here at "The Town at The End of the World" (their motto) there is actually a fairly well developed industrial sector, primarily in plastics manufacture and electronics assembly, and a very busy container shipping port that services much of southern Argentina. We thought it was all fishing and tourists! Or fishing FOR tourists! It is also a very active winter sports area with downhill and cross-country ski races, snowshoeing and dog sledding. Of course they do get something in the area of 9 metres (!!) of snow in an average winter!. Larry says he will never complain about a Toronto winter again! (as if!)
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| Arriving in Ushuaia |
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| The countryside |
After a very pleasant lunch of lamb BBQ'ed "churrasco style", a bit charred on the outside from being cooked over a very hot flame, we headed back to town and a visit to the naval base, and local prison! Okay, not a "working" prison, but like Australia, Ushuaia got its start as a penal colony for "repeat offenders" and, apparently at different times, political prisoners. After a short visit, we strolled to main street, where Monica finally found a hair brush (peace in our time!!) and back to the bus for the final leg of the journey to the ship, arriving onboard just after 4:00, a mere 74 hours after we left home!!
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| See the ship in the background? |
Once on board the ship, as our suitcases had arrived before us, we took a look around our spacious double cabin (two of everything, including bathrooms!) and unpacked. The ship is small but easy to get around, and very well laid-out. You can tell that they put a lot of thought into design for expedition-style cruising from the way the lounges and observation areas are set out, with lots of open space and windows. We'll post some photos later on.
We were an hour and a half late leaving port, but made good time down the Beagle Channel while we had dinner. One thing we noticed was how smoothly the ship moves, and how little we were aware of the vibration of the engines. But we hadn't reached the dreaded Drake Passage yet! We'd have to see how she fared out in the open waters…
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| Sunset over the Beagle Channel |
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