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Published: February 15th 2011
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The drive from my hotel in Buenos Aires I saw lots of dogs... not quite sure what I was expecting but I definitely wasn't expecting so many dogs. There was one lady who was walking about 6 dogs all at the same time.
It was a long wait at the airport since I got there around 10:20 and my flight wasn't until 13:00 but that was fine. I just sat and read and drank my first cerveza of the trip. I guess I kinda cheated though I got Stella since I knew I'd like it. Only $5 for Stella and that was airport prices. Not too bad I don't think. Stupidly I chose not to eat since I thought they'd give us something on the plane. But I don't think you could really call what they gave us on their LAN domestic flight a meal. Some crackers and a sweet biscuit. But the flight crew did allow me to practice some of my limited Spanish: "Uno agua y coca-cola light por pavor." And my neighbours next to me allowed me to practice some french. They were a french couple from Bourdeaux and he had some english so I told him
that I work in New Caledonia etc as best as I could.
I was tempted to try out some German too since the people behind me were German. the flight itself was a little rough with more turbulence than I've experienced anywhere on this trip so far but the scenery was spectacular! some lovely rugged mountains / hills. I guess they were no more than tall hills, but they have snow on the top so that makes them mountains in my mind. It was a two part flight. We stopped in El Calafate but didn't disembark and then a quick little trip n to Ushuaia. The End of The World. Quite apt I guess.
I had a few issues wtih my transfer. The guy didn't have my name on his list but I showed him my printed voucher and I got to the hotel in the end. And again what a hotel. I have a huge appartment to myself. I have a lounge room, kitchen, dining, bedroom and bathroom. all nicely separated.
After settling in I headed out to chech out the town. It was about 6pm and showed no signs of getting dark for ages. Ushuaia
is a pretty little town. Although wtih 40000 people it is technically a city. It reminds me a lot of Queenstown. I'm not sure why. Probably because it's the only other place I've ever been as cold. I wandered down to the dock and took a photo of the boat that I'm going to be boarding in 10 days. Did a little souvenir shopping. Got my Argentinian flag and I splurged and got a Tierra del Fuego one as well. Plus some small things for the family.
On the walk back to the hotel I ran into a couple of ladies (Helen and Kaylee) from Mt Gambier who were on my transfer bus and decided to go to dinner with them. We were halfway through dinner before we realised that we were going on different tours. They get on the boat tomorrow and I don't until next week sometime. But it was lovely to meet them and we exchanged a few of our more amusing travel stories... Gossy getting maced won again. Good one Gossy.
In typical Lauren style I got back from dinner to find that a note had been pushed under my door from my tour leader telling me that we were to meet in the reception at 8, that we'd all meet, get to know each other and go to dinner.... yeah... whoops. This was already at 10. But she also gave me her email and phone number so I sent her a quick line and I'll be seeing her along with everyone else in a couple of hours when we meet to go to El Calafate. We then transfer to Chalten and then we start hiking. Looking forward to a tough couple of days!
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Jodee Beath
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Awesome photos!
Hi Lauz, Glad to hear you are having a great time and love the shot of the sign that nearly spells Avienda. I will have to print it out for her. She will be stoked. Keep safe and make sure you keep updating this so we can keep track of you (and live vicariously thru you of course!). See ya Joeds