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So, we left Puerto Madryn on a high, having seen City lift some silver wear for the first time in 35 years!! G assures me it was worth the wait! We celebrated with a meal on the beach, overlooking the harbour and watching 4 whales that were there!! (doubt many City fans celebrated in the same way!?)
We set off at 4pm on Saturday; following 4 coaches, one ferry (to cross the Magellan straits) and several border controls (we went into Chile for 4 hours then back into Argentina) we arrived at the Southernmost City in the World – Ushuaia at 9pm on Sunday!!!!!!
Some journey!!!
Checked into what we thought was a hostel (as we booked it on a hostel website!) but is actually a guest house! Good points are that we had best breakfast so far, we have our own bathroom and our laundry was done (for a small fee!), bad points are there is no kitchen (so we’ve just managed with beer, crisps, wine and bread!!!) and her wi fi isn’t working!!!
As we had arrived in the dark (through mountains and snow!) it was lovely to wake up to a clear day. As
we turned the corner at the bottom of our street on our way into town (having been given a “briefing” in Spanish by the guest house owner! We mostly understood it although I did ask if she could speak a little slower and she pointed out that she was talking as slowly as she could!) we were suddenly surrounded by snow capped mountains!
Ushuaia isn’t a particularly “pretty” city but we like it – it has a harbour (the beagle channel) and mountains, so we’re both happy!
Having had a wander and booked our next journey (details later!) we found a café/bar overlooking the water where I had the best hot chocolate ever! I got a glass of hot milk, with two bars of chocolate to melt into it!!! Twice the price of G’s beer though!
We then got a taxi up to the Martial Glacier chair lift (which we’d been warned might not be open – it wasn’t!) and then walked up to the Glaciers (there are three of them but they are pretty small and you can’t walk on them! In fact, you wouldn’t really know they were Glaciers if the map didn’t proclaim it!).
Despite our 5 hours a day walking round BA, the first uphill walking has taken its toll and we’re a bit stiff today! At least we have 5 months before Machu Picchu!!!
We ate in (see earlier menu details) and then walked into town for a few drinks (20 min walk) we even went into a bar that didn’t have wi fi and played cards!
Today we’d planned to go to National Park but G wasn’t feeling great when he woke up (think it’s a bit of jet lag setting in!) so we decided on a quiet day as loads of National parks still to come!
So, more hot chocolate for me and another wander around!
We are venturing out for a meal this evening (none of the restaurants open before 8pm and we need an early night……see travel details below!). G has just found tonight’s City game on the TV so that will keep him quiet until then – I meanwhile have to pack - again! (we’re trying out doing the blog in a word document and then transferring to blog when we have wi fi later!).
So, where to next???
Well, we’ve booked
a mere 19 hour journey to El Calafate (still in Argentina but we have to cross the Chilean border again!). We leave at 5am (hence need for early night!) and arrive at half past midnight (although there is a chance that we can change to an earlier bus which could get us in at 22.30 if the border crossings go quickly……our experience of them so far is that there is a lot of getting off the bus, moving bags around and stamping passports!!!).
In order to make some savings to our budget we are trying out dorms at the next hostel……will see how well that works but as its low season we’re hoping it should be ok (booked a 4 bed mixed dorm, so potentially only two other people…..)
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Albert
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Impressive stuff and still early days. Must try that hot chocolate recipe.