Ushuaia, Argentina

March 12^th. 2024

My hair remains the same, but my eye seems to be on the mend. I am soaking my eye, and resisting taking my nail scissors to my hair to even it up, mindful that I will make things worse.

We woke up to the beauty of Ushuaia. It is proud of the fact that it is the city at the “end of the world”, the southernmost city on the planet, but with the soaring mountains surrounding the city I think it is one of the most beautiful ports in the world.

The weather forecast on my phone was for nasty weather, but luckily it was wrong, and the sun was shining and there was no wind.

We decided to take the tour on the vintage railcars of the  End of the World Train the  “southernmost railway” for a journey into Tierra del Fuego National Park. The railway was built to bring lumber from the forests to Ushuaia’s penal colony. I love steam trains, so I was very excited to get to the station,

And climb on board our little train as we headed through beautiful scenery in the Tierra Del Fuego National Park.

We had one stop at the Macarena waterfall.

At the end of the train ride we took a coach to nearby Ensenada Bay and saw great views of the Beagle Channel and looked across to Navarino and Hoste islands, part of Chile, and the nearest land to the Antarctic continent.

Back in Ushuaia we went in search of a restaurant for lunch. We avoided the Hard Rock café. We were looking for a crab or steak restaurant, but could not find one, so we ended up at Tante Sara, where we had a very tasty schnitzel. Not what we had planned, but still a great meal.

Ushuaia was much larger than I had imagined, and it had the feel of a thriving frontier town. Sort of like being in an Alaska port without the jewelry and tacky souvenir shops.

We had a great time wandering about the town, and it was great that we were docked right near the city center.

A seagull escorted us back to the pier.

There were 2 expedition ships on the pier near us – dwarfed by our much larger ship.

We went up to deck 15 to watch our sail away. By this time the wind was blowing again, and it was very cold.

Rather randomly there was an Indiana Jones movie with a Spanish soundtrack playing loudly on the movie screen. There was one person all wrapped up in blankets watching the movie, but everyone else was watching the sail away. I think that movies under the stars is a great idea for Caribbean cruises, but at the end of the world in freezing weather it seems a bit weird.

We took a few photos and headed back indoors.

Later in the afternoon the captain announced that we would be sailing by an area of beautiful hanging glaciers. He wasn’t wrong. It was spectacular, and a wonderful surprise. We must have sailed by here during the night on previous cruises, and missed the splendor of the glaciers and mountains.

We also saw whales – well I saw a whale tale and spout, whilst others say they saw the whales breaching. I was sorry to miss that, but I did enjoy watching the small ice lumps float by.

It was a lovely way to end our day in beautiful Ushuaia, and as the sun set, we waved goodbye to Argentina – and we look forward to Chile tomorrow!