Days 1 to 4
Nov 19, 2022
After almost 2 years of waiting (due to Covid), now here I was at the airport at 4am in the morning getting ready to catch the multi-leg flight (Austin – Houston - Panama City – Buenos Aires – El Calafate - Ushuaia) to the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia! Argentina Aerolineas was constantly changing my flight timings and then finally gave me just 1 hour of transit time to change airports in Buenos Aires, where I had to collect my bag and re-check it again at a different airport (which was at least a 45 min cab drive) and go through customs. I had enough of this ridiculousness and decided to re-book with United/Copa Airlines even if it was going to be a longer flight. Thankfully Argentina Aerolineas refunded the entire ticket price. Only drawback was I had to check in and check out bags in 2 locations (I had sufficient time though). But on getting to the airport at Austin I was greeted with the friendliest agent who got my trip off to a great start by punching a few keys and making sure I had to transfer bags in just 1 location, Panama City. Had an equally arduous flight back but will worry about that later.
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The flight to Houston and then to Panama City were uneventful. Collected my bag at Panama City, short 5-10 min walk outside the terminal to the next terminal, checked in and waited for the next flight. I was so paranoid about making sure my bag got on the next flight to Buenos Aires that I sat near the gate and watched as the bags were being loaded. Luckily, I spotted my bag getting on the plane. For the first time I was completely lost on the flight as all they spoke was Spanish. But on the plus side the flight did take off 10 mins early, which was a pleasant surprise. There was an old lady on the flight who was caught vaping. A puff of smoke rising above your head is a dead giveaway.
Nov 20, 2022
After all that as we started to descend into Ushuaia, the feeling of 'its finally starting hit' me and as we land and pulled in I could see this beautiful city nestled between mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. It’s actually whole network of inlets with a lot of islands to the south of Ushuaia, which makes for an amazing location. The city is also known as “el fin del mundo”, or the “end of the world”. I landed in the late morning hours in a small airport with just one conveyor belt which could be reached straight from the plane. Took a cab to ‘Hotel Monaco’ to drop my bag off as check-in was not until 2:30PM. The hotel was on Av. San Martin, which was a block away from all the shops and restaurants, so decided to explore a bit. Grabbed a coffee and a burger at a place called “Triumph Café & Resto”. Walked up the streets and to my surprise most of the shops were closed, which I later found out back at the hotel was due to it being “National Sovereignty Day”. Anyway, I decided to make most of it, so I went down to walk along the shoreline. Back and checked into the hotel and turned on the TV to pass the time, but EVERYTHING IS IN SPANISH...ugh. What else can I do, let’s go walk those streets again before picking up a bite at the local grocery store and back to tuck in for the day.
Nov 21, 2022
The next day was meant to be a spare day, just in case I missed flights due to the many connections. I had no plans, so after breakfast at the hotel I re-packed my bag and decided to explore the city a bit more. It was just a small town, but the streets were steep, if you wanted to walk vertical to the shoreline and that was some workout. But the weather was cool and cloudy with a sprinkle of water in the air, nothing too uncomfortable. The
stores were open today and there were a lot more people on the street, so it felt a lot livelier. Decided to get the souvenir shopping done today as I was anticipating there to not be too much time after the trip was done to accomplish that. If you are ever in the city and want to shop for souvenirs, go straight to the “Monte Olivia Souvenir” shop. It has everything you need. You won’t find the expensive garments, but for all the other trinkets and knick-knacks, this is the perfect place. Stopped for a bite at “Abrime & Disfruta” for a sandwich, but that was no sandwich for a normal human being. It puts the Subway footlong to shame. A whole chicken breast and probably 3 eggs and all the fixings, enough to feed 4. There was no way I was going to finish that so had to pack it up for dinner.
Nov 22, 2022
After breakfast at the hotel, I checked out and dropped off my bag at the designated location around 10AM. Due to local port laws and for safety reasons we were not allowed to take it onboard ourselves. It was better this way anyway since that meant I did not have lug around a bag till 3:45PM which was the boarding time. Had an early lunch and walked the same streets again, and for the first time I could see our boat. The ‘Honduras’, was larger than I expected it to be but still nowhere close to being called a cruise ship. Along the way I came across a time capsule, which was buried in 1992, meant to be re-opened on Dec 20th, 2492... 500 years!! Seems a bit absurd. So many questions, what if this part of the town is buried underwater? Will this structure still be standing? And I mean 500 years seems an awfully long time. I would think 50 or maybe 100 years should have been ok. Just imagine after 500 years, someone loses track of the date and forgets to dig it up on the precise day of December 20th.
Headed to the port 30 mins before boarding and just walked straight onto the dock, no checking of any sort. As I came close to the ship, my home for the next 2 weeks, journeying to a continent which is a world unlike any other, the last place on Earth that is untouched and rarely visited. I lined up as the crew were preparing to welcome us onboard. They greeted each of us individually. Jovial lot they were. As we were stepping up the plank onto the ship it started to rain, so just made it on time. Collected my key at the registration desk (lobby) inside the ship and was escorted to room #618, which was on deck 6. The room itself turned out to be surprisingly better than what I had expected. 2 separate beds (smaller than twins), with quite a few racks and a cupboard for storage. A desk and an attached bathroom and a TV.
After unpacking, I waited for my roommate to show up, who walked in with a bottle of bourbon. We made our way to deck 5 (main gathering area with access to both the front and back outer decks of the ship, lecture hall, gathering area and the bar) for a welcome and safety drill briefing. To give you a sense of the height, deck 3 was at sea level, with deck 2 and 1 below sea level. The ship was supposed to leave port at 6PM, but there were more ships than usual at the port, so we were delayed by an hour to make sure the ships ahead of us got away first. Given that we had 2 days of sailing ahead of us, nobody complained. Anyhow, we had our safety drill which included us running up to our cabins, grabbing our life jackets, bringing them back down and learning how to wear them. Those jackets were not easy to master, heavy and weird locking mechanisms. As part of this process, I ran into some other folks, who were all solo travelling and it just clicked. Did not realize it immediately, but we had all just formed our little band for the trip and we managed to stick together the rest of the way.
By this time the ship had gotten underway and as we sailed down the Beagle channel in calm waters, we were treated to a champagne toast with our Captain Artur, who as all captains go does not turn his back to front of the ship (apparently). After that we were served with 5-6 different appetizers by the expedition crew members. Our expedition leader Pippa gave us a short introduction of what to expect, including how rocky the Drake passage that we were going to sail through for the next 2 days was going to be.
The Drake passage is the body of water between the southern tip of South America and the South Shetland islands of Antarctica. The waters here are extremely turbulent because the Pacific, Atlantic and Southern oceans converge. With no landmass to create any resistance and high winds the swells of the ocean could reach as high as 25 ft. The average depth is 11,150 ft and its waters hold more than 800 shipwrecks.
