El Fin Del Mundo

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When things are too good to be true, they usually are. We left off in Junin de los Andes in a warm beds and house, our car issues had seemed to be solved; our transportations to the end of the world and back home again had been planned and paid for. However, yet again, our plan never unfolded the way it was intended to. Flights were changed, then canceled, then re-purchased, then canceled again. Not only were we not on the same flight anymore but we weren’t even leaving the country on the same day. Lets break this down…
We left Junin de los Andes on our purchased bus tickets and were to make a few stops along the way. (Carl insert the stops.. I don’t have my tickets on me or the towns…) One great feat we have accomplished other than driving all the way from Toronto and into Argentina would be that we have managed to pack one entire car full of gear into two backpacks. We are now carrying our life. We slept on busses, inside of bus terminals on the floors and benches. As we made our way south the days got shorter, sun rise would come around at 10:00am and sun set would rapidly approach at 4:00pm. Stopping in Bariloche, Argentina for a few hours, we found ourselves walking around in a chocolate factory, and then eating the chocolate laying in the sun on a rocky beach gazing out over the crystal clear lake with the snow covered Andes Mountains in the distance, no photo could grasp the satisfaction of fresh chocolate and a cool breeze. One down side of the day was that Argentina lost to Germany in the World Cup and were eliminated, it was a gloomy day in Argentina even though the sun was shining and birds were singing. These 3 days of travel consisted of over 60hours of travel, most time was spent in a bus. It was here that we fully understood the difference of traveling by car as backpackers and traveling by bus as backpackers. In a bus you miss the interaction with the people from small towns that you have to ask for directions when you are lost, you miss the search of every small town on the map and the constant understanding of where you are. On a bus, you are simply moved around and arrive to a destination. Yes it is cheaper and a very efficient way of traveling, it is just different, especially after driving all the way to Argentina. We made a stop in Comodoro Rivadavia at a bus station where we found a nice piece of floor to sleep on. Using our backpacks as pillows we crashed and got a solid 20min of sleep and 2hours of just relaxing on the ground. Giving up on sleeping we decided to go on an adventure to search for food. We found a super market that had a café shop on the side. We indulged ourselves in some hot coffee and media lunas. We returned to a row of benches and continued waiting for the next leg of the journey to Rio Gallegos. While we were waiting we met a couple from Argentina that were traveling together (other backpackers) they offered us some warm mate and kind conversation. They had no fixed plans, no time line, and no work to go back to, they were just following the road to nowhere and not knowing or worried with what they might find. Having forgotten our Mate in Junin de los Andes we enjoyed what we thought was going to be our last Mate until we got to City Bell (just outside of Buenos Aires) Dane however, received a gift from the two backpackers, a small mate cup and a bombilla. This would come in handy when we reached Ushuaia. The last leg of the trip was the defying moments of our car problems. This was because we were told that we were not allowed to leave the country of Argentina without our car; to get to Ushuaia, Argentina you must first leave Argentina and enter Chile for a 4hour stretch or so. Then you re-enter Argentina and arrive in Ushuaia. When we reached the Salida for Argentina they said nothing of nothing about our car, then we entered into Chile, again they said nothing about our car.
We won! We were in! We began this trip on Monday May 10, 2010 around 10:00am and we reached El Fin Del Mundo in Ushuaia, Argentina on Monday July 5, 2010 around 9:00pm.
We woke up early the next morning and caught some pictures of Ushuaia at sun rise (10:30am) then wandered around and found the tourist spots to take pictures and made the best of the day we had at the end of the world. We made some phone calls to our loved ones and made some purchases of small gifts. Then we realized what time it was and we had 20min to get to the airport and onto our flight. We cut it pretty close to say the least. Our taxi driver put it to the floor and we made it to the airport with 15min to get on the plane. When we walked into the airport we were greeted with a long line of people waiting to check their bags on. (For the next flight for sure) We walked up to the front and explained that we were going to miss our flight if we waited in this line and that we needed to catch this flight, then we were told that everyone in the line was on the same flight and in fact that the flight we were going to take was delayed, very delayed. The plane that we were going to take was still in Buenos Aires and if we were lucky it would be on its way within the hour and then 3 hours for it to get here, then all the plane and airport time. To say the least, it was delayed 5hours. We waited, and waited, and then we found out that it was delayed even more because it was still in Buenos Aires. Then finally, one plane left Buenos Aires and was on its way. This plane was then rerouted to another city and our flight was changed from being delayed to being canceled. There was 3 flights that were suppose to leave Ushuaia that night, 2 flights were canceled and one was going to be leaving later that night once a plane finally reached Ushuaia. However, our flight was canceled. People were going nuts in the airport, you can imagine having an airport full of Latin men and women who needed to fly home, it was hectic. Carl came up with the idea of waiting for things to cool down before we went up there, but not just any kind of waiting, we purchased a bottle of red wine and sat down to enjoy the show!
Later on we would learn that we would need to wrestle with the rest of the chaotic people to get our bags back, and then wait in a line up of continuely screaming people until we recieved a free night stay at a very expensive hotel with food and beverage paid for, along with transportation to and from the place. Life was only getting better. To top it off we got an extra day to wander the streets of Ushuaia! Literally eating on silver plates that night, we amused our selves by indulging in the rest of our wine and relaxing on the shores of the great southern Atlantic/ Pacific ocean point of the Americas.

The next morning we awoke to an ice rink for a walk way and enjoyed the day sliding around with the other guests making fools of ourselves and the local dogs; who for obvious reasons couldn't play catch on slippery ice, but were very amusing when wiping out face first! We got picked up at 5pm for our flight at 6:30pm and with little hassel the airport ushered us through to our plane, you would hardly know that 3 flights were delayed a day as people were content and calm as they filed into the plane. Nothing like Argentinian drama! So we were off to Buenos Aires, a 3.5 hour flight to the north east end of Argentina, where by the climate would be humid and much warmer.

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