picked up in Ushuaia and driven to our hotel which is on the top of the hill overlooking the city and channel and bay. very nice view but going to be a mess trying to walk into town for dinner so once again, hotel meal. It was a very good meal though. Most of the hotel meals have been pretty good just so very limited in choices because they are all trying to be Michelin world class gourmet restaurants apparently. Froo-froo food with not much of it, expensive price, but tasty. Ah well. makes me enjoy it now because certainly wouldn't search out these types of restaurants otherwise.
Next morning we are gathered up with our luggage around 10 because that's when the ship check in begins. Everyone on board takes their luggage to a single office in town where one poor lady checks your passport and boarding instructions, hands out your boarding pass and then you tell her which luggage is yours, a couple of burly types put tags on them with your room number, and then haul it away to be put on board the ship later and taken to your room, which is nice that you don't have to mess with your luggage past that. BUT, if you are behind a group of people checking onto the boat, you stand and wait in the office for quite awhile. we were there about 1 1/2 hours before we got to the front of the queue. Finally, just before we got to the front, another man came out to help her check people and passports. Wow, cannot imagine them doing this for every cruise what with being so inefficient.
We are then left to our own devices by our guide who will come back for us at the tour agency office when it is time to go to the ship. Ushuaia, The End of the World. Now a tourist town where everyone heading off for Antarctica or small cruises in the channels pass through this town. There are things to do but some of them involve arranging transport ahead of time and we had not. But there are museums in town, including a rather famous prison museum and there is the End of the World Sign. Required visit for all tourists in the area, practically.
It was in Ushuaia that we stumbled across another statue of Eva Peron. How lovely to see her again. Still didn't look like Madonna. But first things first. We were running a tiny bit short of Argentine Pesos. Don't want to end up with any left over because not too many countries will exchange them for you. We couldn't get any in the U.K. before we left. But will still need a few for tips and maybe some meals today and such. AND my darling hubby had his long underwear sitting right next to his suitcase and then didn't pack the bottoms. He had been borrowing my second pair but I was feeling strongly that I would need them in Patagonia. So to the shops! Took a couple of shops to find some but later it seems there are plenty of outfitting stores for any kind of cold weather hiking - natch. Then to the bank where there was a queue to use the ATM machine. Our turn and it didn't give us any cash. bummer. Now we had to stand in another queue to try and get to a teller. Figured out that we could just ask someone and she checked the machine we had used and it was out of cash. figures. So back into the ATM line to use the other machine which was also being used by numerous customers in front of us to do all of their paying of bills and such. So that took up quite a bit of time.
Finally we have cash and go back to The End of the World Museum which is where we had started and didn't have enough cash to get into the museum - hence to the ATM. Might as well have skipped it because it wasn't that good of a museum. not enough signage and very little in English and not really too much to see. Hope the prison museum is better.
Searching now for the End of the World sign and had to ask around to zero in on it. Once found, it always seems so simple and how did we miss it. weren't but a couple of other tourists there so didn't take long for our photos and we could see our ship sitting at the dock.
time for a spot of lunch and seems most of the people in the restaurant were going to be on the ship with us. Then off to the prison museum which was quite good. very informative, very interesting, great explanations. We enjoyed it very much. They also had a penguin parade, penguin statues painted in all sorts of colors and shades, and decorations. Spent quite a few hours there which worked well into the afternoon so when we left, it was close to our pickup time. We had found the travel agency earlier so we just went there to wait for our last half hour or so.
Finally off to the ship. No problems and for once, we didn't have to do the usually obligatory photo when getting onto a cruise ship. Turned in our passports because tonight we will be crossing into Chile. Found our room which was fine and our guide explained that we needed to try on our life jackets as we would be wearing them for any disembarking. He said there wasn't really a safety briefing which was rather disturbing but we had a "program" for sailing and it listed one so all was good. Always want a safety briefing - no matter how many times I've been on a ship or an airplane or whatever. Tell me where the exits are or the gathering points or what to do just in case.
We wander about the small ship and find pretty much everything we will need and then watch other people arrive and then finally watch as the ship leaves port. Our safety briefing was actually before we left port, in three languages. Then a very good dinner and we met our dining companions who would be at our table for the whole cruise. sometimes that works well and luckily it did in this case as we were only at a table for four. Ugh, can't imagine having to eat with the same people if we had not gotten on well.
We were warned that the first night might be rough as we would be crossing some open ocean before we got closer to Cape Horn. seemed that was the case as there seemed to be a good many people missing from tables at dinner. We were also shown a video on how the landing at Cape Horn would be and fairly certain we will get wet. dang. We hadn't really thought that we would, hadn't crossed our mind. So when the ship's store opened at 10 p.m., we were some of the first ones there to purchase some waterproof trousers and a waterproof jacket for me to go over my heavy coat. Hadn't planned on that expense or need for waterproofs, ship board clothing is expensive.
It's pretty late by now so we hit our cabin to sleep. the ship is rolling quite a bit so we are walking sideways and tacking down the hallways but once in bed, at least we aren't rolling out. Seems like the ship is anchored and later we found out we spent several hours just within sight of Ushuaia while we went through Chilean Passport control. But good night's sleep anyway. Looking forward to Cape Horn tomorrow.
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