Sunday, 4 January 2015
Ushuaia, Argentina
Temps:Hi 82F (28C) in Buenos Aires / Lo 40F (4C) in Ushuaia
Darn … seems like most of my photos from today have gone into a black hole somewhere.
Luckily I have photos from our visit in December 2006 to supplement the few images I still have from today.
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After 31 sleeps, the time was at hand to gather our bags and vacate stateroom 7203 aboard Celebrity Infinity. The cruise was great … we enjoyed all of our ports of call; explored some great places; saw captivating landscapes and wildlife. But it was now time to move on to another phase of our long months of southern hemisphere travels.
Since we had a late flight, we had asked for and been given the latest disembarkation time from the ship — 9:30a. One last breakfast at the Oceanview Café. Farewells said to new friends. We then headed to the SS United States, the specialty restaurant that was designated as the waiting area for the Captain’s Club elite and above passengers. Alexandra greeted us at the door and encouraged us to disembark immediately since the gangway was clear — “no need to wait for your number to be called; there is another ship in port and the terminal will be a zoo,” she said. So, off we went at 8:30a, waving our farewells to the crew that had taken such good care of us for a month.
Our cruise adventure at an end, we fly down to the tip of Argentina to begin another adventure.
A short shuttle ride later, we were at the passenger terminal, searching for our luggage amongst the thousands of bags neatly organized by disembarkation number. It didn’t take us long to find what we were looking for. Five minutes later, we were through customs — nonexistent — and negotiating with the dispatcher for a cab to Aeroparque Jorge Newberry, the domestic airport. No more than a 10-minute drive … and we were soon at the departures terminal.
Hoping we’d get a different answer to our request to switch to an earlier flight, Mui headed to customer service. Alas, no can do — all of the flights were sold out. Since we had checked in online and already had boarding passes, next we looked for the internet check-in counter to drop off our bags. A helpful agent told us that they no longer have the special counters. Alrighty then; onward to the domestic check-in counter … only to be told that we couldn’t check our bags until three hours before our scheduled departure time.
By now, it was 10:00a and our flight wasn’t until 4:00p. We had planned to go for a walk along the river after dropping off our bags. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work now. In for a long wait, we looked around and decided to do what so many others were doing — make ourselves comfortable … luggage and all … at Expresso. A beverage order or two, and later … a light lunch, netted us the internet password in return.
Whiling away the time until check-in.
And now, 1:00p is upon us. Time to gather up our belongings and join the other passengers queuing up to get checked in. More after we’re in the air …
Aboard AR1890 …
We’re in the air! So far, all’s going well after an on-time departure from BsAs — certainly a better experience than the time in December 2006 when our flight out of Jorge Newberry was delayed hours and hours due to work-stoppage in the control tower.
So, let’s catch up from when we queued up at the counter to drop off our bags.
Amongst the first to line up at the counter, it wasn’t long before we were in front of an agent. Before she could tag our bags, however, we had to pay the overweight baggage fee. Aerolineas Argentinas allows 15kg (33 pounds) per person on domestic economy tickets — not much when your trip includes varied modes of transport, locales, and climates. The agent weighed our luggage, did some calculations, scribbled some notes on a print-out, and sent us to a different window. The line there was a little longer, but once we made payment we could cut-in to the line at the first counter. When we were given the final tally, we were surprised the charge came out to just under $50 — on a US carrier that would have been more like $200.
Sans bags, we headed upstairs to the departure gates. So much of the airport looked familiar from 2006, yet there were some changes, too. New eateries in the general waiting area; gate areas beyond security sectioned off into smaller lounges; seats with arms — making it impossible to lie down for a nap as I had during our long airport wait eight years ago. Not that I needed to snooze today. Not only were we coming off a cruise ship in BsAs and not a red-eye from the US, but boarding for AR1890 was called on time.
Symphony of blue!
We were able to change our seats to the exit row when we checked our bags, so we’re quite comfortable on the Boeing 737-700/800 that is whisking us 1,475 air miles [2,370+ km) south to Ushuaia. In another hour or so, we should be on the ground at Fin del Mundo [end of the world] … again!
P.S. The writing on the wall in the picture above has changed … as we noticed when Infinity stopped in Ushuaia eight days ago. The wall, now proclaims Ushuaia as the capital of Las Malvinas [Falkland Islands], with a reference to it being so for 50 years.
Well, caught up for now. I think I’ll get a head start on reading Captain Scott’s journal — the one he wrote during the fateful journey to the South Pole in 1911-1912. More later …
Wrapping up the day at Casa Los Tulipanes …
Three hours and 20 minutes after taking off from BsAs, AR1890 landed at the airport in Ushuaia. An on-time departure; an on-time arrival; and none of our bags lost en route — that’s a good travel day!
When we were here in 2006, we stayed at a hotel outside the city — a quiet location, walking distance … by our standards, at least — Los Ñires was a good multi-night base for us. It had the added advantage of being the place where our expedition operator was putting us up the night before embarkation.
This time, there was no pre-expedition stay included in our package. So, for our five-night stay we turned to AirBNB instead of booking a hotel. A room at Casa Los Tulipanes [House of Tulips], a log cabin overlooking the Beagle Channel in the forested Bosque del Faldeo neighborhood outside the busy downtown area, looked like a cozy little place. The reviews of the property and its hosts convinced us to click the reserve button. Only our second booking with AirBNB; we are not disappointed this time either.
It was 8:30p when we arrived at Casa Los Tulipanes. Jack, originally from Holland, but living in Ushuaia after he and Marta married four years ago, was on hand to cheerfully greet us and show us to our room — the larger of the two they rent out.
Welcome to Casa Los Tulipanes!
A simply furnished, spacious room … Private facilities; shared shower.
perfect for our needs for a short stay.
We didn’t dally long after settling into our room. Although the light was bright and it felt more like 5:00p than 9:00p, we wanted to get some dinner before calling it a day. Jack gave us the number to call a taxi, but wanting to stretch our legs, we decided to walk down the hill instead — about a 20-25 minute walk at a fairly slow, but steady pace. It felt good to be using our legs after sitting around so much all day.
Glimpse of the Beagle Channel from our room.
We were tired and hungry, so instead of checking out a new place for dinner, we went to Tante Sara — a tried and true standby for us. We ordered a steak salad and a flatbread pizza to share … as we have come to expect from this casual eatery, the food was good. Tummies sated, we had one more errand to run, and that was to buy some fruit from La Anonima, the local supermarket. It sure is nice to be in a place where we’re familiar with the layout of the place and know where to go to get what we want.
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Flatbread pizza and a steak salad for dinner — yummy!
It took just one look at the skies after we finished up at the supermarket to decide that we’d better take a cab back to Casa Los Tulipanes. Turned out to be a good decision. No sooner were we in our room that it started raining; and has kept up at a steady pace for the past hour. We surely would have been soaked had we walked back. The pitter-patter of the rain on the tin roof is reminiscent of rain falling on the roof of our motorhome; we feel right at home.
It’s almost 11:30p, and though it is not as dark as it would be further north, we definitely won’t be having 24-hour days while we are here — that’s to come later. Mui’s fast asleep; I will follow soon.
No real plans for tomorrow — other than breakfast at 8:00a … compliments of our hosts. Afterwards … well, we’ll see how the day shakes out.
