Back to the Real World!

They could’ve, at least, taken us off the ship in the zodiacs, that would’ve been appropriate… Instead, we walked off the gangway onto the pavement, spent some five rather boring hours in Ushuaia, and went off to the airport. The Ushuaia taxi to the airport was no different than the other taxis in the town (sorry, city!), except that the trunk opens with a little piece of wire of wire strung through what used to be the lock, and the driver’s side passenger door is hanging a little crooked, so can really only be opened from the outside … by a professional (in our case, the driver).

At the airport, LADE remains the bastard stepchild without its own dedicated check-in counter and widespread confusion at the gate, which finally received an agent about five minutes before our scheduled departure time – we’d leave twenty minutes late. The plane says something like Fuerza Aerlinges Argentinians (sure to be spelling that wrong), I had noticed it on the inbound flight too, but still had no idea what it meant – just found it noteworthy that it said this instead of, say, LADE. Well, I’ve since figured it out (I think): Argentinean Air Force. Boo-yah!

As for military precision… well, that’s not in such high demand for the Fuerza Argentinian… as we left twenty minutes late, and then seemingly made a stop to pick up every hitch hiker along the way to Buenos Aires that wanted a ride (Ok, we made two stops, but at the departure gate, nobody had a clue what the number would be, I just knew that I’d had one stop on the way down). To be honest, I kinda like LADE’s pragmatism – they don’t pretend to be a discount airline (we got two food services on the way down and two more on the way up). They simply don’t bother issuing boarding passes or assigning seats because they don’t need to. And they don’t care what you think or what all those other airlines do. They also fly little Fokker F-27 jets, with overhead luggage bins that are just a shelf (much better than what Air Kras operates anyway!). And, finally, when they are going from Point A to Point B and Point C is on the way, and somebody wants to get on/off at Point C, well, we’ll just have to stop there. You know you’re not flying LADE to get there quickly. And, they get you there cheaply!

Ushuaia

Up at 6, last Ioffe meal – breakfast at 6:30, and off the boat before 8. Everything ending too quickly and with a bit of an anti-climatic whimper. Now to learn to interact with people other than the hundred or so I’ve gotten used to over the last 13 days, settle for less amazing meals, and be forced to occupy myself on my own unlike Quark providing a full program here on board!

Ushuaia, Argentina: a bus from pier to the ship

As Ushuaia is mostly comprised of narrow one way streets, the bus actually goes a couple of kilometers from the parking lot to the ship. The actual distance is probably about 500m … and they did collect all the luggage in the morning. This is all about simply keeping the tourists organized. There are four ships in port – our Akademik Ioffe, flying its Russian flag, and looking every bit like an actual polar research ship, the Clipper, another Quark-chartered ship that doesn’t look quite so Russian-ly sturdy and ready for the ice, a real, large cruise ship, which, I imagine, goes to the Falklands and nowhere South of there. South Georgia maybe? And finally, a ship sporting a Brazilian flag that looks more like a cargo vessel, but is bringing some passengers on board… and has two helicopters sitting in the back – that bit makes it rather interesting…

Ushuaia, Argentina: Los Acebos hotel shuttle bus to town

Speaking of getting into town, the Los Acebos does provide a shuttle to town that makes 5-6 trips daily, saving you that $5 cab ride. Ushuaia itself isn’t much of a city – there’s one main street and a boardwalk in front of the dock. The one main street specializes in selling souvenirs. And fairly expensive food (Oliver notes that prices have gone up since his last trip 4 years ago). There’s a not so interesting, graffiti-covered lookout point at one end of the town, overlooking a skateboard park… and a nearby grocery store, which specializes in 2.70 peso boxes of wine and 10 peso bottles of vodka ($1 USD = 3.30 peso) – we stocked up!

Ushuaia, Argentina

Ushuaia, Tierre del Fuego – Fin del Mundo. There’s not much public transportation in the “Southernmost City in the World” (not to be confused with Chile’s somewhat smaller “southernmost town in the world”), so from airport to Los Acebos, Warrick and Mary (a Kiwi couple I ran into in the overly-crowded Ushuaia arrival lounge, which isn’t designed to handle two simultaneous airplane arrivals, who were doing the same Quark trip) piled into a taxi, along with myself, and we bounced along up a hill (and up mostly paved roads) to the Los Acebos hotel, where, lo and behold, Oliver was hanging out! Oliver and I took a couple more cab rides around town, visiting a mountain-side glacier and getting to/from town. Los Acebos is quite nice, but I would’ve preferred a hotel actually in town, I think.

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Argentina: LADE airlines

I should figure out what LADE actually stands for… it’s the military-run Argentinean airline that zips little airplanes all over the country, doesn’t assign seats, issues little coupons in place of boarding passes, doesn’t speak much English, but gets you there on time and in relative comfort, and quite cheaply… Also features another marginally necessary bus ride from terminal to airplane at the Buenos Aires airport.

Primary takeaway upon arrival in Ushuaia: I can’t believe my overnight bus -> plane (TACA) -> bus/boat -> plane (LADE) itinerary for Tamarindo to Ushuaia via San Jose, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires actually worked, and moreover it went off without a hitch! Actually, the biggest problem was that I kept getting places too early and had too much time to wait… Resulting in sight-seeing in Montevideo and catching the Superbowl in BA.