USHUAIA, ARGENTINA – THE END OF THE WORLD

This afternoon, we arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina; aka ‘The End of The World’. It’s even possible to have your passport stamped as such in the post office on the pier (we forgot to take our passports ashore with us, so Tracey bought a postcard and had it stamped instead).

On our way in to Ushuaia, throughout the morning, we were treated to some awesome scenery, including a couple of magnificent glaciers stretching right down to the water, and waterfalls running off from beneath the higher glaciers.

Frustratingly, I had classes in the morning. There was only one advertised in the programme, at 10am, but I ran a second one at 11:30 anyway. As it happens, we could have managed with just the one, since most people, other than the most loyal onboard students, were out on deck, enjoying the scenery, so the class was a bit on the light side. On the plus side, the Conference Room is located on the port side of the ship, which is where all the best scenery was to be seen, so I was still able to see it, in a fashion, from there (I was still a bit miffed, though looking at it through slightly grubby windows is not the same as looking at it from out on deck).

We arrived in Ushuaia at about 1:30pm so, after lunch, we went ashore for a walk.

We decided that we liked Ushuaia almost instantly. Surrrounded by the snow-capped mountains of the Martial Range, it is a place where the Andes meets the Beagle Channel, and from where ships set off on their voyages to Antarctica. MS Fram, operated by Hurtigruten, was berthed right alongside the Marco Polo; a chunky, rugged-looking vessel, purpose-built for the harsh South-Atlantic seas.

After pottering around the harbour area for a bit, we headed towards the outskirts of the town, and picked up a footpath that led us upwards, through Scooby-Doo woods with spooky, furry trees, as far as a clearing, from where we could view the lofty peaks a little closer. As far as we can tell, the footpath continues to rise up right to the top of the snowy summits, but you’d need a full day, and probably a little more to achieve that. We’d met up with Ian the photographer in the woods and a friend, along the way, who walked with us for a while, but when we reached the clearing, we decided it was a good point at which to turn back.

Back in the town, we visited a small craft village – which was nice because you could tell that all the crafts had been properly hand-made by each of the crafters in their little cubicles and not mass-produced or bought-in – before heading back to the ship. To top off what had already been a great afternoon, there was even some halfway decent, free wi-fi in the small terminal there (so I take back what I said about the Argentinians).

As we left the port, at around 9pm, the warm light on the surrounding hills was quite beautiful, making for some spectacular photographs. A drone, flown by a film unit who has joined the ship, was buzzing away high above us; I would expect that footage to be particularly stunning, and look forward to seeing it, hopefully, on the CMV website sometime soon.

The portholes have been closed again (boooo!)… hopefully, it will just be for the duration of our next mini-adventure… to see Cape Horn.