Day 146 - Don't mention the war

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We finally bid goodbye to Ushuaia, its remarkable mountain surroundings and its debatable claim to fame. Before we leave we head for a spot of culture in the musuem housed in the ex-prison. Ushuaia actually started life as a prison colony, much like Australia, with the first handful of residents being accompanied by a dozen female 'volunteers' to get the colony going. God knows what sort of person chooses such a lifestyle, but we can safely assume they had some issues of their own. As things progressed, future inmates were allowed to bring their families along with them to live outside the prison itself. Otherwise visiting hour would have been a bit of a non-event.

The prison musuem was pretty interesting - the obviously harsh conditions and some of the prisoners were colourfully described. One of them - including a life-size model - was a teenager from Buenos Aires called 'Big-Ear Short Man' who had a fondness for torturing and murdering young children and babies. That story ended happily though when he himself was murdered.

Another part of the ex-prison belongs to the Maritime Museum, with exhibits on all sorts of things including Shackleton's 'Endurance' (check that out for one incredible story), Antarctica (did you know that the ceremonial South Pole with all the flags is now miles away from the actual South Pole?) and a cruise ship that sunk 40 or 50 years ago in Ushuaia's harbour. Their version had it that the sole death was the captain, who heroically went down with his ship. We've heard differently though - the word on the street is that his body was never found, an unidentified boat was seen leaving the disaster scene and salvage divers since have failed to find the money and treasure documented as having been on board. How mysterious.

Another notable series of exhibits was on the Falklands War. Initially it seemed like they were trying to steer attention away from this bit - can it be coincidence that this was the only section not translated into English! But credit is due to the museum for being more objective than we at first presumed - there were far more photos of Argentine losses than British. The best bit was the Spanish-language newspaper they set up after the invasion, and on display was the only edition they had time to publish before Maggie kicked them out. Interestingly, the war turned out to be good for both countries. Everyone knows it got Margaret Thatcher through a dodgy spell which gave her the opportunity to sort Britain out. But the Argentine military - who had governed the country through some bleak years - were made to look to their own people as fallible at best and pretty stupid at worst. The civilian government that took over is credited with playing a big part in making Argentina the successful story it was for the next couple of decades.

After lunch we headed to the airport. Ed's Colo Colo lighter made the scanner go off but the bored security guard wasn't fussed because he was going off on one - in a friendly way - in Spanish. All we could make out was 'Malvinas' (the local name for the Falkland Islands), 'no amigos' (not friends) and 'Inglaterra' (England). However with Ed wearing an Argentine polo shirt - with 'Argentina' emblazoned across the front - what he meant was 'even though our countries don't like each other, I like you two'.

In Calafate we took a taxi from the airport into town. A very quick transfer as we were driven by a maniac who only periodically remembered that when driving you can get some useful information by looking out the windscreen. We had a nightmare trying to find accommodation and reluctantly ended up in a cheap hotel, but paying about 3 times as much as we'd hoped. Calafate is the ultimate tourist town, again with that unwelcome ski resort feel.

One last thing though that we can't resist. We saw a map marking shipwrecks in the Cape Horn area, with loads and loads from the 17th and 18th centuries. Eagle-eyed as ever, we spotted amongst them 'General Belgrano, 1982'.

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