Dec 10 - Saturday - Had breakfast at the hotel then waited in the lobby for our ride to the airport. The airport at El Calafate is at least a 15 minute ride from the center of town. That doesn't seem peculiar, except El Calafate only has 30,000 people, so 12 of the 15 minutes were on a deserted road. We passed through a military? police? checkpoint, and I asked what they were looking for. Drugs, apparently. El Calafate is a very safe town and the Argentinians want to keep it that way.
At the airport we faced an amazing line to check our bags. It wove Disneyland-style, then down almost the whole length of the airport. Apparently, this is the beginning of a long week-end and everyone is anxious to go somewhere.
Short, easy flight to Ushuaia. The pronunciation of the town sounds a bit like OOO SU AI A. The sh seems to disappear. I thought my Spanish was coming back in Chile, but Argentinian Spanish is a real challenge. They've been very sweet as I fumble around. But when they get started, it's all I can do to understand any of it. Sigh.
We were picked up at the airport and driven to our hotel. The setting here is spectacular! The Andes mountains run north-south along the entire continent of South America. But in the very southern portion (Ushuaia) they make an east-west turn. They apparently continue out to Antarctica (told to us by Alejandro yesterday). The town is very frontier-like, surrounded by a bay and magnificent mountains. I love surprises when I travel, and this was one of the best.
Our hotel, the Arakur, sits high above the town. I haven't managed to get a photo yet, but I will before we leave. It's large, green and sits in front of a big black peak. Night on Bald Mountain meets the mad scientists mountain lair. The interior lobby is fabulous. There are a series of wonderful sitting rooms facing the bay. Each has comfy chairs, tables, and places to relax. They may have to pull me kicking and screaming out of here tomorrow for my tour.
We took a van to town (you need a ride back, we're too far up the hill to casually walk back and forth). We then walked most of the length of town. South American stores often close at 1 and open again at 4. We had left the hotel at 3:15, so most of the shops were closed when we first got there. We took a 4:30 van back up the hill.
Some photos of town. It's a very odd combination of Alpine, frontier, South American, and drop-dead gorgeous peaks behind the scene.
We had a cappuccino and tiny scones for a snack. We'll eat dinner at the hotel tonight. On our brief run through town we didn't see anything exciting.
If they manage to get me off those chairs in the lobby tomorrow, we tour the Tierra del Fuego National Park and take the train to the "End of the World" - the Convict Train. To be continued.....
At the airport we faced an amazing line to check our bags. It wove Disneyland-style, then down almost the whole length of the airport. Apparently, this is the beginning of a long week-end and everyone is anxious to go somewhere.
Short, easy flight to Ushuaia. The pronunciation of the town sounds a bit like OOO SU AI A. The sh seems to disappear. I thought my Spanish was coming back in Chile, but Argentinian Spanish is a real challenge. They've been very sweet as I fumble around. But when they get started, it's all I can do to understand any of it. Sigh.
View of Ushuaia from our room
We were picked up at the airport and driven to our hotel. The setting here is spectacular! The Andes mountains run north-south along the entire continent of South America. But in the very southern portion (Ushuaia) they make an east-west turn. They apparently continue out to Antarctica (told to us by Alejandro yesterday). The town is very frontier-like, surrounded by a bay and magnificent mountains. I love surprises when I travel, and this was one of the best.
Our hotel, the Arakur, sits high above the town. I haven't managed to get a photo yet, but I will before we leave. It's large, green and sits in front of a big black peak. Night on Bald Mountain meets the mad scientists mountain lair. The interior lobby is fabulous. There are a series of wonderful sitting rooms facing the bay. Each has comfy chairs, tables, and places to relax. They may have to pull me kicking and screaming out of here tomorrow for my tour.
We took a van to town (you need a ride back, we're too far up the hill to casually walk back and forth). We then walked most of the length of town. South American stores often close at 1 and open again at 4. We had left the hotel at 3:15, so most of the shops were closed when we first got there. We took a 4:30 van back up the hill.
Our van in front of the hotel. It cleared up a bit as the afternoon wore on. The next few photos are shots of our ride down to town.
They sell themselves as the "end of the world". We are officially in Tierra del Fuego, lattitude 54° 47'
We had a cappuccino and tiny scones for a snack. We'll eat dinner at the hotel tonight. On our brief run through town we didn't see anything exciting.
If they manage to get me off those chairs in the lobby tomorrow, we tour the Tierra del Fuego National Park and take the train to the "End of the World" - the Convict Train. To be continued.....
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