It’s out last morning in Ushuaia for the time being, returning for a few days after our voyage, and I’m a bit perplexed today. Jen and I both thought we were very smart to get everything arranged with a few days early-arrival… but now that we’ve sat through the early-morning introduction from the expedition company and now we’ve learned we have until 3:30 PM today to wait for the boat… it seems like we’re spending way too much time sitting around, waiting. Yesterday we explored the city, walked most of the streets on this side, and wore ourselves out. On top of this… I work up this morning with an extremely sore throat. Some master of travel I am… I’m about to get on a “cruise ship” and I’m coming down with a cold. How did this happen! I’m trying to convince myself it’s just all the cold air the night before, but I’m pretty sure it’s not actually… and Jen is concerned too.
I took some Benadryl to rule out allergies, however it also pretty much ruled out me feeling normal as well. I slept in a chair at the hotel from around eight o’clock until noon (checkout was at 10:00 AM), and then we headed downtown. Stopping by a pharmacy to pick up cough medicine (the worst-tasting I have ever had, ever.), we headed to the same restaurant as earlier in the week to grab some of the sandwiches we saw there, and to kill some time since we’ve had so little to do today overall. We’re officially without internet now, and we’ll remain that way at least through our return to Ushuaia on December 5. It’s going to be an interesting trip!
A view from the Hotel
Lunch was fine, I honestly don’t remember all of it except that I was served nachos without cheese (seriously, no cheese on the nachos dish. I failed at reading the menu on that one). My throat was getting worse and worse the whole time, and eventually it was time to board the boat. I was starting to get excited, but also apprehensive. The tour company encouraged us to leave our luggage outside our door some eight hours ago now and assured us it would be in our room. I hoped it would, this would be the absolute worst time to lose my gear!
See the blue one? That’s our boat!
I really shouldn’t have worried, they did very well. We arrived at the pickup place, were greeted by boat staff, and were shuttled to the ship (just a few blocks away, but if you’re not officially allowed to enter the dock, you don’t get close.). In our rooms, we found our luggage waiting for us, a warm towel came with the greeting, and soon we were all herded into “the lounge” to learn what came next.
We would be leaving soon, we’d have some time to get settled in, and then it was into the Drake Passage, and potentially some of the worst seas on the world. The night wrapped up with a short dinner, the room is crowded with chairs commonly backing up into each other, and the fact that they are chained to the floor has me a little concerned. Just how rough was the Drake Passage?
The on-board Restaurant
I watched from the balcony as we un-tethered, and left Argentina and headed into the unknown (for me). Open water was hours ahead of us, but I was on deck to see that too a few hours after. We were leaving South America swiftly behind us.
Tierra Del Fuego
Bye bye, Ushuaia!
Open Water for the first time in my life
My throat kept feeling worse, and I kept hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was. I slept fitfully that night as my throat got more sore… it was going to be a long trip either way at this point.
