Ushuaia, The End of the World

NOTE:  We're now in Valparaiso, Chile.  But I have about 15 or so blogs from our cruise, so I'm going to post these a few per day, in chronological order.  I'll try to remember to add this note so that people know to go back a few days. 

14 February 2020

We left Antarctica a few hours early to avoid stormy weather in Drake’s Passage and going around Cape Horn.  Some of the times, the seas were pretty rough, with 4 or 5 meter swells (12 to 15 feet or so).  This is one of the sections where the Atlantic meets the Pacific Ocean, and the Antarctic Ocean or Southern Ocean adds more cold water to the mix.  All those currents converge and come at the ship from all directions.  

So we had some major bouncing and swaying, rising to the crest of swells and dropping with a thud into some of the troughs some 12 to 15 feet below.  For those of us who like roller coasters, it was fun.  For people with more delicate systems, well, it wasn’t a fun night for them.

Cruising around Cape Horn the next morning was much calmer, though it was a grey and sprinkly sort of day.  Lots of pretty islands, and we wound our way through and around the waterways to reach Tierra del Fuego to the town of Ushuaia.  (Pronounced oosh-WHY-yah, sort of.  No H sound in the WHY, more like WEYE, if that makes sense.)  We actually arrived in Ushuaia half a day early, and spent the night at the dock.  It was nice to get off the ship and stroll around a bit in the evening, just to be on solid ground again.

There were some interesting ships at the dock, including what looked like a luxury small cruise ship registered in Malta, and a huge old wooden sailing ship that was from Vladivostock, Russia.  The variety of sailors, both on the Russian ship and then on an Argentinian naval ship, made for quite a mix!

Ushuaia is a pretty town with colorful buildings, more and more glass buildings, and huge mountains towering over the town.  Really, they loom like giant guardians standing sentry, and dwarf the town itself, making it look smaller than it probably is in reality.

Ushuaia is considered the southernmost city or town in the world, and they bill themselves as the End of the World because the Panamerican Highway ends there.  It also is the place where people can find expedition ships and sometimes freighters heading for Antarctica, so many of the stores carry gear designed for polar weather and travel.

I started the day with three quests – one, to pay the tour operator whose tour I went on way back in Puerto Madryn, before the Falkland Islands even.  Second, to find the post office and mail several postcards.  And my third quest was finding embroidered patches with penguins on them.  Important, right?  I like the penguin patches on my rolling duffel, because they help identify my bag.  (I only have two, one from Oamaru, New Zealand, and one from the Galapagos Islands.  So I definitely need a few more patches.)

The terminal building had wifi, so I accomplished paying the tour operator fairly easily.  The internet makes travel so easy at times.

I left the terminal building, and asked one of the security guards where the post office was located.  I showed him my map, and he looked up the location of the post office on his phone, then explained (all in Spanish) where to go.  It was pretty easy, so I walked over to the main waterfront road, up the steep hill to the next street, turned right, and there it was, el correo!  Bought our stamps, mailed the postcards.  Easy peasy.  Two quests completed.

It took a while to accomplish quest #3.  I wandered in and out of touristy stores, because let’s face it, patches are pretty touristy.  I had to point out the patch on a hat, and ask what the word was.  Turns out the Spanish word for patch is “parche,” or at least that’s the Argentinian word.  So I asked at several stores for “un parche con pinguinos, por favor.”  Eventually, one young lady said si, they have them.  They had an abundance of penguin patches, so I picked out several I liked.  The young lady complimented me on my Spanish, and then we switched to English.  She grew up in Ushuaia, and loves it there.  All kinds of fun winter sports.  It was hard for me to imagine how cold it must be here in winter, since it was really cold in the middle of summer!  She said that yes, it’s all snow and ice, but she loves skiing, skating, and snowboarding.  

And then she recommended her favorite chocolate shop in town.  Argentina seems to have chocolate shops all over the country, and Ushuaia follows this trend.  But this particular shop my new friend suggested carries chocolates made in Ushuaia, not elsewhere in the country the way all the other shops do.  So that became my fourth quest, finding Laguna Negra, the Black Lagoon chocolate shop.  It turned out to be really busy, but I was able to buy two brownies that were really chocolatey (though not the usual fudgy brownies that we’re used to in the US).  

I know, all of these missions were pretty trivial, although paying the bill was important.  But it gave me a direction for the several hours I spent wandering around the town, rather than wandering aimlessly.

There was also an artisans’ market near the dock, and I walked through there on my way back to our ship.  Lots of really wonderful jewelry items – Argentina is full of beautiful semi-precious and precious stones, plus the silver the country is named for (argente being Spanish for silver).  All kinds of handknit items.  Paintings, wood and stone carvings, small knickknacks, small items that are easy to pack.  

I found a painted emperor penguin that was attached to a small building.  And while he was larger than life, towering over me, I just had to pose with him.  Because we didn’t see emperor penguins while at Antarctica, so this was my only chance.  Besides, I don’t go for selfies with live animals, I’d rather let them do their animal thing.  But a painted pengie?  Sure, I’ll pose with him.

We left Ushuaia by mid-afternoon, so that we could cruise through some of the fjords and channels heading vaguely northwest, winding around islands and maybe the mainland.  It’s hard to tell from the ship, and some of the islands are huge.  But the scenery was dramatic, with huge rocky hills and occasional surprise glaciers running down to the water.  Snow-capped peaks rising up to the clouds.  Cascading waterfalls, green trees and bush climbing up the side of the islands.  Occasional seals or maybe sea otters swimming alongside the ship.  Tons of sea birds flying around, because all of the waters are a mix of ocean and fresh water.

It was still cold, but beautiful in its own dramatic way.  Especially when a rainbow appeared in that drizzly rain as we cruised onward.