Ushuaia

We piled into our buses at 5:30 this morning and headed to the airport for our flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost “city” in the world. (There are more southerly settlements of various kinds, but they make the city claim.) The views of the Andes on this flight were beautiful, as well. This set of large glaciers was particularly interesting.







Upon arrival, we drove through the Tierra del Fuego National Park, and to the very end of the Pan American Highway, about 11,000 miles from its start near Fairbanks. Here, we boarded sightseeing catamarans for lunch as we cruised down the Beagle Channel back toward Ushuaia. It was an unusually warm and calm day here, so we were lucky. Stopped to observe a large colony of cormorants and one of sea lions. Then pulled into the dock near our ship, the National Geographic Explorer.

















When I got to my room, only my small bag was there—no suitcase. I didn’t panic yet. They made an announcement over the loudspeaker that there were several bags missing, and asked everyone to please check the bags in their room to make sure they had only the ones they should have. Nothing. They made the announcement again. The staff actually went to every single cabin and asked. Nothing. Four times they made this announcement. They finally came to my cabin with the bad news that it couldn’t be found and that we would have to hold the ship to take me (and two others) into town to purchase new a few things to get us by—with our own money, of course. Keep in mind that this bag had all my specialized Antarctic gear that I had special ordered over the past few months—boots, gloves, pants, etc. Not to mention underwear, medicine, and much more. I was pretty upset. We headed into town and I had just purchased ski gloves and a good pair of socks when it came over the radio that my bag had been found in someone else’s cabin. I was relieved and annoyed at the same time. The couple introduced themselves later acting as if they had helped me. I thought they owed me a drink, at least.

Finally shoved off around 7 pm, had dinner, and crashed. The ship is very nice by the way. Totally redone in 2008 with modern cabins and beautiful public areas.