Monday, 17 January 2011 – Ushuaia

BIG SPENDER

Today we arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most city in the world. On the other side of the Beagle Channel, though, is the Chilean Puerto Williams, a little further south, but Argentina conveniently dismisses any claims it might make to the title.



View of Ushuaia from Veendam's Sky Deck

 

Tall ship in port



Except for Antarctica where I wore my $19.95 Alaskan parka over a fleece, most of the time when it’s been cold I have been warm enough in a t-shirt with light sweater and a polar fleece and that was more than enough for today. No gloves, no beanie, although I saw a lot of people going ashore rugged up to the eyeballs but it wasn’t really necessary. I hate the cold but I found I could have done without the sweater beneath the fleece.

As we only had a short time in port, I decided to have a tour free day and instead, with the last of my Argentinean pesos burning a hole in my pocket, decided to hit the shops. I searched high and low for a particular book I wanted on Antarctica but because it also mentioned the Falklands in its title I couldn’t find it anywhere. I’m sure if the title stated the Malvinas (Argentina’s name for the Falklands) I would have found it. Anyone else notice a pattern here?



Avenida San Martin - Ushuaia's main street



With the grand total of 260 pesos (about US$65), I was able to buy a photographic book on Antarctica, a copy of Shacketon’s book on his last trip to Antarctica, some bookmarks and a bottle of water – no stuffed penguins, cutesy caps, or snow domes going home in my luggage!

One thing I noticed here is that the plant life is on steroids, courtesy of the long summer daylight hours. The poppy heads were larger than two open hands put side by side and the lupins were gorgeous.

The town is fairly small so I also had time to visit the Maritime Museum and the Prison Museum, the latter in use as a prison up until the 1930s. The Maritime Museum had scale models of vessels which rounded the Horn over the years. As the last of my ancestors who came to Australia from England sailed around the Horn in the 1870s, I found the models of vessels of that era very interesting. By the way, none of my ancestors got a free trip courtesy of HM Prisons!



A traction engine used in the saw mills - the prisoners
 were  made to cut timber as part of their hard labour



Back in my cabin I found a certificate from the Captain and Ice Pilot certifying that I had sailed to Antarctica and around the Horn, covering the same areas as Sir Ernest Shackleton did on January 14, 1915, exactly 96 years to the day that we sailed the Lemaire Channel and Paradise Bay. How appropriate then that I bought his book of his trip earlier today.

Later this afternoon we cruised along the ‘Avenue of the Glaciers” all named after European countries. HAL’s travel guide said that out of 12 cruises along here, he’d never seen such great weather as we cruised under clear blue skies.



Avenue of the Glaciers



While I was at the formal dinner tonight, Captain Eversen came over the PA system to announce that due to strikes and civil commotion in Punta Arenas our stop there tomorrow has been cancelled. We are therefore going to have a sea day and on Thursday call in at Puerto Chacabuco instead. My CC group has prepaid for a tour tomorrow to see the flea-ridden Magellan penguins (I really must stop maligning these little burrowing creatures but they just don’t stack up against king penguins) so we’ll have to wait and see if we’ll get a refund or organise something else for the other ports.

After dinner, Deb and I discovered where the really good chocolates are kept – dark chocolate crisps and truffles and the same in white chocolate. They only come out in the evening and I’ll make sure I visit again tomorrow evening.