Today we woke up at 6am, and all the bags were to be outside of our cabin by 6:30 for a pickup before breakfast and shortly thereafter, disembarkation. I reluctantly woke up this morning. I don’t want to go! It’s not real just yet… I’ve been having too much fun! As you can imagine, everything I own has been hung up in the bathroom, the hall closet, and scattered over the cabin… re-packing was not going to be easy. Instead of worrying about what is packed where, I just threw everything into the suitcase with the steely determination to re-pack the luggage when I had more space at the Ushuaia hotel. To be honest, with the parka I received on the trip and the wine we purchased in Ushuaia before the trip… nothing would fit correctly in my suitcase. I actually had to put some clothes in my waterproof bag in order to give everything a home. Finally everything was packed, and we placed our gear outside in the hall then headed towards breakfast. Breakfast was food followed by a lot of hugs, and exchange of information. I went around and said my goodbyes to the friends I had made onboard ship. After breakfast, Brad and I hunkered down in the bar/ club area where we relaxed and talked to Katie’s family, Keith, and Mo. Around 9am, our ride had arrived and we had to disembark.
I grabbed my purse, and went downstairs towards the front of the ship hugging John- The photographer, Sena- the geologist, and Anja- the expedition leader before walking down the gangway. I was pleased to see the whole expedition team at the bottom of the gangway and gave everyone a big hug and a few people my contact information to stay in contact if they’re so inclined. Our van was waiting with our gear, and Marta – the assistant expedition leader asked us to inspect the luggage to make sure everything is correct. When we viewed the back of the van we noticed that there was my water proof bag, Brad’s backpack, and my luggage… but my backpack and Brad’s luggage was missing. Marta jumped on the phone to start calling around while Brad and I hung out for a little bit watching the ship unload. Brad went back inside to see if he could spot his luggage with the remaining luggage left onboard ship. No luck. While we were waiting, Anja offered to take Brad and I to dinner tonight since she had just started her vacation. We happily accepted, and look forward to having dinner with her and Guadalupe tonight. After an hour or so, Marta informed us that our luggage was dropped off at a hotel on the other side of town, then coordinated in Spanish with our tour guide. She provided him the hotel name and we were off and running towards town!
We arrived at the hotel to discover that only my backpack was there, but Brad’s luggage was still missing. Internally we agreed that Brads luggage is just cursed, because this is the second time that we’ve had this issue with his luggage on this trip. Our guide called Marta to let her know what happened, then drove us over to our hotel Las Lengas in a different part of town. When we arrived at our hotel, we hunkered down at the restaurant to enjoy wifi, charging the electronics, down time, and just relaxation while our room was being prepared. For lunch we ate at our little spot, and enjoyed an Argentine pizza flavored with onions, sausage, cheeses in a calzone. We ordered the calzone and split the pizza together. I was surprised at how big the pizza was, and how good it was! Omg… so delicious!
After lunch Brad and I were exhausted. We went upstairs to the room which was prepared finally. I was happy to see that they had prepared a twin sized bed in the living room, leaving the king size bed in the bedroom. We were separated by the bathroom and a wall so it affords a great deal of privacy. I should say, this was a good thing until we realized that we don’t have AC and windows that open all the way. So the windows will have to be left open tonight, for sure. Now… It is nap time. I was exhausted. I crashed on the king sized bed… Brad crashed on the twin bed in the living room and I took a well-deserved nap for three hours. When I awoke, I was still tired but I pushed myself out of bed to ensure I had a productive day. I had a little time to kill so I went to the lobby to ask if there was a gym available on property for me to use. He politely responded that they didn’t have a gym, so I guess that mean I could walk up and down the stairs or hall as necessary. I went back up to the room then Brad and I decided that we would walk over to the post office to see if we can ship home our parkas and other winter gear that we wouldn’t be using in Peru.
We walked downstairs and asked the hotel manager if there was a shuttle available to downtown. He politely stated that downtown was two blocks away and we could walk. He also stated that the post office was a walkable 12 blocks away. Brad and I chuckled because on-board we were thinking “okay, so… taxi?”. We agreed that a walk would be best, so we walked into downtown. We arrived at the post office 30 minutes later, to find that it had closed already… so we just continued our walk down to the ice cream shop we had discovered earlier called Frodo. As we were waiting for our ice cream, we couldn’t help but notice that the person in front of us was Anja! We gave her a big hug before ordering our ice cream and she went off to take care of her business. Brad ordered an ice cream mocha and I ordered what I had thought was dolce de leche… but was actually chocolate ice cream with some kind of caramel/ coconut flavored ice cream? I have no idea but it was delicious! Brad mentioned that the mocha was perfect for what he was looking for and he could live in that store forever. I agreed, that the flavors were spot on and I would love to open up an ice cream shop in the US. We walked next door to grab some water before walking back to the hotel. By now it was nearing 6pm so we figured we would head back to the hotel. Brad checked his phone and we were notified that the short 12 block walk was 2 miles, so we afforded ourselves some extra time to get to our destination.
Our walk back was uneventful. We walked and enjoyed watching the people of Argentina walk around the city, and for once we didn’t feel like tourists but felt like we were at home. It was wonderful to walk through the different neighborhoods and see the buildings. We cut through a park which was a series of staircases with statues that looked like concrete ice hockey sticks sticking out of the ground. As we started to walk up the stairs, I couldn’t help but notice that the staircases weren’t completely even in height so I had to be extra attentive to my footing so I wouldn’t fall. Brad and I laughed because we had seen a couple of construction workers at lunch attempting to build a metal handrail outside of our hotel. We joked that the height differences was from the unusual measurement practices we witnessed earlier in the day at lunch. When we arrived back at the hotel, we had some time to clean ourselves up and watch the Argentine news before meeting up with Anja and Guadalupe for dinner.
Dinner with Anja and Guadalupe was incredible. We went to a restaurant on the hillside overlooking the marina. This was a restaurant that Brad and I had actually seen while walking around town before our trip to Antarctica and made the comment that we would have to try it upon our return. The restaurant was originally a house in Argentina, but it was renovated to be a restaurant. The interior décor was modern, with big windows overlooking the scenery. Guadalupe suggested the pasta, so I chose a fish pasta with crab and scallops followed by red wine and bread. HOLY COW that meal was delicious. The pasta sauce was a butter- white wine sauce which had to have been made by the angels because that was to die for. We talked and laughed for a while, and decided to enjoy some dessert. We chose the brownies, with chocolate sauce, dulce de leche, and ice cream. It was unbelievable… and it made me very glad that I had walked four miles today. I had a wonderful dinner, with great food, and excellent companionship! I love when people are so well traveled there is a feeling of a kindred spirit and it makes it so much easier to talk and share stories. It helps that Anja is hilarious 🙂 After dinner we were given a ride back to the hotel followed by hugs and well wishes of our journey. It was then time for bed. Since we’re more northern now, we got to experience the sun going down again at night so we can now relax in our beds with the windows and drapes open for the fresh air. Good Night Argentina! 🙂
