Antarctica: Ushuaia

Man, was I happy to get off that plane! Unfortunately, it still took about 30 minutes to get through Immigration and Customs, but I was just happy to see my luggage coming on the carousel. (Even though I had been told that my bags were checked all the way through, I was a little concerned that maybe I was supposed to have picked them up in Santiago after I went through Immigration there.)

I wasn't expecting anyone to meet me at the airport, since I was arriving on the day before our official day, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman holding a Quark Expeditions sign in the public area. Turns out they had another ship leaving the next day, so she was actually waiting for those passengers, but of course she was happy to steer me in the right direction as well.

I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel. The pre-departure information I had received had mentioned that most places take U.S. dollars there, so I hadn't bothered changing any money. It had also said that the taxi ride should be around $6.00. So I was a little surprised when the fare turned out to be $13+ (not that that was a problem at all). I made a mental note to tell my booking agent to update their info and gave the driver $16, and he gave me a really big smile in return. I found out why his smile was so big a little later. If I had done the proper research before I left the States, I would have discovered that the symbol for the Argentine peso is exactly the same as the dollar sign. So my fare was really 13 pesos, which is around $4 U.S. Which means I had had actually just given my driver a 300% tip... Merry Christmas to him! :) I just counted my blessings that I had made the mistake for a relatively small sum of money.

I was staying at the Hotel Los Nires, which had a gorgeous view of the mountains and the Beagle Channel.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I had in my head that the hotel would be more like a hostel, but it was actually a regular hotel room.

There are two beds because on Thursday night I would be getting a roommate, the same person I would be sharing a cabin with on the ship.

Surprisingly, I wasn't all that tired, so I decided to take the hotel's free shuttle into town and see if there were any interesting day trips I could go on the next day. In the van, I met a Dutch guy who was leaving on Thursday, but he had already done the trip three years earlier—and had already reserved a spot for next year on the much more expensive trip to see the Emperor penguins (the ones that were featured in the documentary, March of the Penguins). It was nice getting a little first-hand info from him about what to expect.

The town of Ushuaia was actually a little bigger than I expected. Apparently it's grown a lot over the last few years as more people have been taking trips to Antarctica. Even still, there was really just one main shopping street.

This was one of the side streets going down to the marina that had a really colourful mural painted on it.

Of course, even at the “end of the world,” you can't really get entirely away from home... (At least they didn't have a McDonalds!)

I found out about a couple of day trips I could take on Thursday, including a catamaran trip to see some sea lions and Magellanic penguins (which is one type we wouldn't be seeing in Antarctica), but I decided against them. And since I had a good long sleep-in the next morning, I was happy I'd made that decision.

So on Thursday, I went back into Ushuaia for lunch and I finally got to meet someone who was going on the same trip as me. Sarah is from the U.K., but she's lived in Calgary for several years (she works in the oil and gas business). Then later that afternoon, the Quark rep came to the hotel again to answer any questions we had. That was another time I was glad I hadn't signed up for any excursions, because I got to meet a lot more of my shipmates there as well.

There was Ike from Montreal, Brian from southern Ontario (I forget which city exactly), Lisa and her mother Karen from southern California, Jeremy from Australia (originally from the U.K.), and a few more. One of the really cool things about this trip was that everyone who was on it had already travelled extensively—after all, not many people are going to choose Antarctica for their first vacation. :) In fact, I think this was going to be continent #7 for most of the passengers, including me. So there were LOTS of great adventure stories going around.

Sarah, Ike, Jeremy, and I decided to go back into Ushuaia for dinner. As we were waiting for the shuttle, I saw a woman checking in, who turned out to be my roommate, Julie. I found out later that she was 23, from Toronto, had recently graduated with a degree in architecture, and was going to be travelling for 8 months (3 on her own, then 5 with her boyfriend) while she waited to hear if she would get accepted into a master's program.

Our dinner in town was great, and we did a little last-minute shopping (mainly booze to bring on board), and then we headed back to the hotel a nightcap, followed by our final night's sleep before leaving for Antarctica!

The pics below are of Ike and Sarah (top) and Jeremy.

Next installment: All aboard!