Ushuaia
After another lengthy bus journey including 4 border crossings between Chile & Argentina (we had to go through Chile to get back into Argentina), a long stop while the Chilean police searched and reprimanded 3 guys on our bus and a ferry crossing, we finally arrived at the southernmost city in the world. By this time it was around 11.30pm making total travel time around 20 hours so eventually seeing the bright lights of the city came as quite a relief. It wasn’t such a relief when remembering I had this huge heavy bag to carry up the hill to our hostel (Los Lupidos) and then discovering that our room was up 3 flights of stairs and that we were sharing with 3 randoms! Still one positive was that it was a nice view from our room. By this time we were exhausted so we all just decided to crash without dinner.
The next morning we woke at around 8am to get to the tickets to Punta Arenas (there are only 3 buses a week and we had to get this one or we would miss our flights) so luckily we got there to find that there were just 6 places left. That was indeed a big relief as it meant that our travel plans were now complete until we came back to Santiago from where Steve will depart back to the UK and Lee and I will need to cross Argentina and head over to Paraguay.
Next we decided to head back to the hostel, have some breakfast and explore the place a little. Unfortunately the guys decided to head out before me so I was alone but sometimes it’s better just to be alone so you can do the things you want and take your own time.
So off I went to have a wander. To sum it up Ushuaia is a pretty little port and fishing city with a picturesque waterfront filled with fishing boats, yachts and ferries with a backdrop of tall snow covered mountains and the city itself set into the adjacent surrounding foothills.
It was quite a cloudy place and was a little chilly but not nearly as cold as I expected considering it’s latitude and proximity to the Antarctic. I certainly had never envisaged that I’d be this close to the Antarctic in my lifetime and I had already decided I wanted to go and see the penguins on a nearby island as well as the famous lighthouse also on one of the islands although I wasn’t going to do that today and I knew the others wouldn’t either as we wouldn’t be back in time to see the big game, Inter Milan v Chelsea in the champions league (which started at 4.45 as we are 3 hours behind) so I decided I’d go the next day. I explored the city centre, they had one main high street called as many other cities in Argentina San Martin (Saint Martin must’ve been a special guy to the Argentines) which had many shops, restaurants and a pretty church. Then I headed up the hill slightly to get some pics from a bit higher. I then headed across town towards the waterfront and a nice looking town hall building which was quite a classic old building with symmetrical turrets and a nice red roof.
I passed a football pitch with floodlights and watched the training going on thinking to myself I missed football and really wanted to get on there and kick a ball about. I noticed they had a stony pitch next to it with goals and thought I’d suggest to the guys that we could have a kick about at some point as I was having withdrawal symptoms having not kicked a ball for about a month since wrecking the soles of my feet in Brasil. After lunch which consisted of a steak sub and chips I headed back as by this time it was about 3pm. After some time uploading new photos and updating my blog, it was time for the game which turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax as we lost 2-1 but at least we got the away goal and I was confident we could thrash them at home in the 2nd leg. After the game we went to the supermarket to get food to cook which wasn’t the tastiest meal I ever had but it filled a hole all the same and we had some wine with it. After chatting for a while with this American girl from the hostel, I got chatting with some 3 Chilean guys who were unable to get to Puerto Williams across the water (part of Chile) due to the bad wind so they suggested we should go to the irish bar for a drink which I agreed to. Since they spoke no English at all it was good for me to be a part of the conversation even though most of the time I couldn’t get what they were on about but I had no problem understanding about football and how Marcelo Salas had socred against England and they beat us 2-1 last time we met. The irish bar was cool but they shut early so we went to a bar opposite our hostel called dreamland and had a few dark beers in there but by this time I was shocked to look at my watch and find it was about 4am!! I quickly said my goodbyes and went off to sleep at the hostel knowing that it would certainly be a struggle to make breakfast! I woke at around 11.30 and went back to sleep as I was still very tired and had a stinking hangover! There was no way I was going to make the penguins or get on any boat today with this hangover although I didn’t feel so bad as our next destination Punta Arenas in Chile also offered excursions to see penguins and sea lions so I got up and found that Lee and Steve had been for a 3 hour walk up the mountain but neither on them had thought to take a camera! After bread and coffee I felt a little more human and suggested since half the day was gone that we just took the ball down to the pitch I had seen which the guys agreed to and I stopped for a pancho (hot dog) and drink on the way. After playing for about 10 minutes, some guys at the other goal approached and asked if we wanted a game. Which we agreed to so it was 3 on 3 for a short while, then many more turned up so it was 6-a-side and after a while the guys announced that the training on the pitch had finished so we would move our game onto the pitch which was a nice pitch with floodlights and even a stand. More players joined and we had quite a good game. As always I scored quite a few but looked the most out of place with my jeans and scruffy transformers t-shirt on and got some strange looks from the guys who were fully kitted out with boots, socks and shin pads but they could see I could play so they didn’t care! At least I had trainers on I thought to myself but realistically I should’ve had Astros on on this surface but I was fine. After a while the game lacked tempo and motivation so we decided to call it a day and I headed back to the hostel.
I was a little frustrated with myself that I had missed out on doing the things I really wanted to do but it would’ve been another 7 hours and 200-300 pesos which I had neither the energy or the money for so I decided that I’d definitely see the penguins in Punta Arenas.
Overall Ushuaia was a pleasant place and a pretty setting for the worlds end at the bottom of the earth but 2 days had been long enough and it was time to move on to our next destination in a new country being Chile. It was sad that we’d be leaving Argentina having been there for the last month or so but we had to get to Punta Arenas to catch our flight to Santiago the Chilean capital from where we fly to Easter Island which we were all quite excited about.
On the bus now, which was leaving at 5am this morning so an early start for us! Another long 13 hour journey, the last of the long journeys for a while. Bring on Chile another new country to experience and to explore! J
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