El Fin del Mundo

Trip Start Jan 15, 2006
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11
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Trip End Sep 05, 2006


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Flag of Argentina  ,
Saturday, February 4, 2006

The locals refer to their town as El Fin del Mundo, 'The End of the World.' Ushuaia is about 3000 km south of Buenos Aires ("BA") and the equivalent latitude in the northern hemisphere would be slightly above Edmonton. The climate, evidently, is relatively mild in the winter with average highs at about 32F. The ocean is cooled by water from Antarctica, so the highs in summer are about 50F.

Ushuaia seems to be subject to some sort of strange time-sharing arrangement between passengers of the cruise ships that dock each day and the Argentinians who enliven the evenings.

Each morning two or three giant cruise ships tie up to the pier (the Queen Mary II was in town when we arrived. It must have held more people than the capital of New Hampshire.) After a sumptuous breakfast the inhabitants of these vessels begin to swarm the streets in a feverish search for bargains on trinkets 01 - Queen Mary II
01 - Queen Mary II
 . It turns out that the customers for a cruise appear to come from a relatively narrow social demographic. Usually, they have either recently cashed their first social security check or expect to do so in the very near future. They do not appear to have a penchant for hiking or other strenuous activities. Their attire tends toward plaid shirts, fanny packs and comfortable shoes. (Someone is usually pretty low on the fashion totem pole when they are mocked by this writer.)

By late afternoon the cruisers begin to hear the siren call of the buffet table and start to waddle back to their ships laden with several shopping bags. For some, their movements remind me of the gait of the penguins we saw earlier in the week. By this time, the Argentinians have worked through their hangovers and are probably out for a hike or a mountain bike ride. They emerge from their hotels for happy hour at 9 and dinner at 10 or 11. We found out that the discos (there are several) don't even open until 1AM. Unfortunately, I have not yet convinced Kia to stay up until this hour so I am still unable to report more fully on the late night happenings in town.

We did have an excellent gourmet dinner last night at a stylish restaurant. The Argentinians remind me of the French with their love of food, wine and fashion 02 - Posada Fuegina
02 - Posada Fuegina
 . We are looking forward to seeing more of this in BA and Uruguay.

We drove to the end of the road yesterday and it was somewhat unsatisfying. I had expected the road to end on a glorious cliff high above the channel and be able to see drifting icebergs in the distance. Not to be. Instead, one comes to parking lot with a sign that tells you how long you have too drive to get back to BA or to Alaska (a long ways.) I wonder is there some significance that 'el fin del mundo' is in a parking lot?

Tomorrow morning we begin the trip north. Next stop Punta Arenas, Chile.
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