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Published: June 29th 2006
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Ushuaia and the surrounding mountains We arrived in Ushuaia - the southern-most city in the world in a bus. The journey was more than a little hair-raising as the roads were covered in snow and ice. Remarkably we have now travelled from the Equator all the way to Ushuaia by bus, moving 55 degrees from the Equator and covering thousands of miles. We are now so used to long bus journeys that the thought of ever going to Scotland by bus sounds like a fun day out! As we were approaching the end of our journey we decided to splurge on a nice log Cabin as opposed to a hostel. A taxi took us the to the woods where the Cabanas were situated, but unfortunately there was no one in reception to let us in. In the end the Taxi driver dropped us off at an HI hostel, which was actualy pretty nice and not bad for the money. Argentina definately appears to have the highest accomodation standards of all the South American countries we've visited.
After settling into our hostel, we walked into town to have dinner, and ended up bumping into James and Robert who we had last seen in Puerto Natales. After
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Soaking after horse riding a few drinks with them we had a good nights sleep. I have never particularly liked red wine but the more Argentinian wine I taste, the more I like it.
Ushuaia, being the southern most city in the world, is a port town from which you can take very expensive boat trips to Antarctia (too expensive for us I'm afraid). As it was the beginning of winter it was pretty cold and icy. The mountains behind the town were becoming more and more covered in snow, which was only to be expected as the ski season started a couple of weeks after we left (bummer timing).
Our first port of call in town was the fabulously well staffed and organised tourist office. They provided us with tonnes of information and lists of places to visit. Noel was particularly excited by the free sticker book we were given. The book gave you descriptions of places of interest that you could visit for free and a sticker to put in your book once you've been there! Education and stickers! Who could ask for more?
Next we attempted to book our flight to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately all planes were full
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Noel being attacked by one of the inmates until after our flight left for the UK, so we had to book a flight from Rio Grande 3 hours north where we had changed buses on the way down. This wasn't ideal but it was the only way we would get a few days in Buenos Aires before going home. By the time we had booked this, and booked horse-riding in the mountains for the following day, we were getting peckish so we frequented a chocolate shop, where we had hot chocolate made with hot milk and slabs of home-made chocolate. Yummy.
In the afternoon we decided to walk to the Cabins in the wood to see if they were worth moving to the following day. This time we managed to contact someone who came to show us around a cabin. As it was both very beautiful and our third year anniversary the next day, we decided to take it.
The following morning we woke up, excited about moving to our little cabin and for our horse-riding in the lovely bright wintery mountains....only to find it was pouring with rain. After moving home and stocking up on provisions we put some mulled wine on the stove
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Tasmin behind bars and got into our wet weather gear. Boy did we need it. Whilst we thoroughly enjoyed our gallop in the mountains, it poured with rain for the duration. Still...I do love riding, even if the horses did slip on the ice a few times, leaving us to hang on for dear life.
When we got back to the cabin, our mulled wine (made using my father's secret recipe which knocks out half the village at Christmas-time), had heated up. The stove was used for heating the cabin and was therefore always warm and great for any type of slow cooking. After a lot of mulled wine we cooked a stew and watched film.
The next morning we accidently got up late. This was caused by the fact that the sun doesn't fully rise until gone ten, meaning that it's very hard to wake up, let alone get up. We walked into town (a rather steep and long but enjoyable walk) and went to the Ushuaia maritime and prison museum. The Ushuaia prison was built in 1902 by convicts and held the countries most dangerous and often famous convicts. It was very interesting museum but as it was massive
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Granda knees and tickly under the arm pits I must admit to ending up getting a bit bored at the end and feeling like a 10 year-old being dragged around by their parents. Noel has a habit of wanting to read very bit of information there is. I was also most distraught that the bakery (as advertised in the museums guide), was not actually a working bakery, but was a bakery during the occupancy of the prison. No nice pasty and cup of tea for me then! Still, after some compulsory silly photos we were on our way back into town and visiting sights in our sticker book. In the evening we turned the previous days stew into curry and had some more mulled wine to celebrate the fact it was 100 days until our wedding!
On the Friday we over-slept again, despite the fact that we were intending to go to Ushuaia National park. Instead we decided to do more sticker book and mooched around town taking in the cold sunny day and picturesque views. Saturday was similar, no National Park yet again. We walked up in the mountains to the ski runs to have a look and then walked back into town and to the
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Our lovely cabana with handy stove end of the peer to the lighthouse. On our way back we took in a local school football match, which was taken exceedingly seriously by both teams and had a huge following complete with fireworks and confetti for the winning team.
We had a really relaxing and wonderful time in Ushuaia and were sad to leave the following day, especially as we were on our way to our last place before coming home. As our flight from Rio Grande was in the morning we had to get a bus there the night before. Cheap accommodation is hard to find in Rio Grande as it isn't exactly a place that attracts tourists. We ended up in not the nicest of places, which is unusual for Argentina. Whilst we were already missing our cabana we were looking forward to seeing the sights of Buenos Aires and to more red wine and Tango!
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