Last thoughts on Ushuaia
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2009
1
7
20
Trip End
Ongoing
Ushuaia,
Patagonia,
Argentina
Friday, January 16, 2009
Before we leave for the last time from Ushuaia some last thoughts:
It really is the end of the world.
Most stores and many other signs mention it. They are quite proud of the fact that they are the southernmost city in the world. Having said that it is only as far south as Edmonton is north. Meaning that they never have 24 hour days as we suspected. Sun sets around 10:30 with a light dusk for another hour or so. Then dusk sets in again around 4 am ish and the sun rises around five. Port Williams across the channel in Chile is more south but it is more of a military outpost than a city so Ushuaia is regarded by most as the southernmost city in the world.
The backdrop is awesome with mountains all around except the Beagle channel, but there is nowhere to see it and enjoy it L
There is a bunch of tourists, but fortunately many are Argentines so you are always surrounded by Spanish, good for us gringos.
Very cool to see that in a tourist oriented town, there is little pressure to buy stuff. Maybe we have forgotten what South America is about, but our experiences in Asia, and mostly in Africa had many touts approach us about buying anything and everything. In 4+ days in Ushuaia (silent 'h' in Spanish) we had one guy try to sell us something for about 4 seconds. Otherwise unbothered. That was pretty cool.
Generally it was quite expensive. We will compare to the rest of the trip but most things were about 75% more expensive than they were in BA 2 years ago. Maybe this is part of the cost of gas going up the last 2 years ( last 4 months not withstanding) or the remoteness of it, but hostels at 50 pesos/night is more than we paid in BA, RIO or outside London 2 years ago. A trip to see some penguins was over $70 US.
Cool main strip (San Martin).
Friday we boarded a bus for Punta Arenas, Chile. Quite happy to be out of Ushuaia, not sure if we are happy to have been here in the first place. It is the southern most city in the world, and a couple days would have been cool, but we were kinda stuck for 5 days. Time will tell if it was worth it. Call/write us in 10 years to ask about our travels. If Ushuaia ever comes up, it was worth it. If not, then we should have gone straight to slightly northern Patagonia in Chile.
