It is quite nice to be in one place for a few days. We didn’t have to rush to get up and on the road. We spent the morning tidying up and doing some minor repairs and maintenance around Poki. After our usual cheese and tomato rolls for lunch, we set off to walk the 5 and a half kilometres into town.
It was chilly with a strong wind. Overlooking our camp on the hill is an enormous hotel. Monica, the lady camp owner, tells me it is the 5 star Arakur Resort and Spa and that Leonardo DiCaprio stayed there during the filming of The Revenant. Booking.com tells me a room is USD400. I thought it might be more.
The walk is mainly downhill and takes us about 45 minutes to get to the edge of the city. We want to look for the Wayfinder Adventures office and to meet Ana, who has done all the work for our cruise booking. Ana has told me she will be in the office between 5 and 8pm. We want to find where the office is located and will come back later.
View during our walk of Ushuaia Airport
Next we find a supermarket for some small items, including black shoe polish for Dennis’s shoes, which are looking rather tatty for cruising. At least he has 2 pairs to take with him. I only have a pair of trainers. My other footwear is 2 pairs of flip flops (jandals), another unsuitable pair of sandals or an equally unsuitable pair of boots. Ana assured me there is no dress code on board, but I fear I will feel underdressed for Christmas meals.
After the supermarket we need to find a Claro shop to top up my phone. I’ve run out of WiFi again!
It’s quite annoying. We often find a shop displaying a “Claro” symbol, but they can’t recharge my phone.
We are trying to find some Glucosomine and Chondroitin tablets for our old arthritic limbs. We come across a health food type shop. They don’t have the tablets we’re looking for, but we get some more walnuts. Like everything here, they are expensive. Finally, a chemist shop has some Glucosomine and Chondroitin tablets, but they are super expensive .
By now it is nearly 5pm, so we decide we are going to treat ourselves to a nice dinner, to celebrate making it to Ushuaia at the “end of the world”. We have talked about reaching here and spent much time planning it, to have actually made it, feels pretty special.
Yesterday we passed a nice steak restaurant while we were walking around town, so we headed back there. After a lovely meal of rib eye steak with roasted, herby potatoes and a selection of various breads and dips with a couple of glasses of Malbec, we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves.
After dining we headed back to the travel agency. Ana is a lovely, bubbly young Ushuaian native, speaking excellent English. She very kindly answered all our many questions. One added extra the agency is giving us is a haircut. Rather unusual I thought, but very welcome by both of us. Ana has booked us appointments for 11am tomorrow.
We are also being given free hire of waterproof pants and gloves. The shipping company gives us a free parka, which we get to keep and boots. We also talked about the arrangements for parking Poki in their parking while we are on the cruise.
All around Ushuaia there are references to the Malvinas, or as Brits call them, the Falkland Islands. There are streets named after them, a number of memorials to the fallen in the 1982 Falklands war and signs displaying a picture of the islands with the number of kilometres to them.
A bit of history on the Malvinas/Falklands. The Argentinians maintain they inherited the islands from the Spanish in the early 1800’s. Britain has ruled the islands since 1833 and Argentina has contested sovereignty since then.
In 1982 President Leopoldo Galtieri decided to take control of the islands by force. The Falkland islanders, 3000 or so of them, who consider themselves British, called on the U.K. government to defend them, after the Argentinians invaded. The Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, sent British forces, the air force, navy and army to their rescue.
A ten week undeclared war took place. The British sunk the Argentinian battleship, the General Belgrano with the loss of 323 lives and surrounded the Falklands capital, Stanley, forcing the Argentine forces to surrender. In total 907 lives were lost. 649 Argentinians, 255 British and 3 Falkland Islanders.
In recent times the wish by the Argentinians to get the Malvinas back has been given new emphasis, as the Labour Government, under Sir Keir Starmer, has agreed to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The British Government has denied it has any intention of ceding sovereignty of the Falklands.
Now it was time for us to return to the campsite. Should we walk or get an Uber? After our substantial meal, we thought we should walk. Luckily the wind had died down and it was much warmer. So, 11 kms to and from the town and an extra 1 or 2 up and down hill around the town. We’re making up for our lack of exercise!
Back at the camp we made for the cabin in the garden. It is very comfortably furnished with a wood burning stove, which we lit, a large table and benches and a kitchenette area. We made ourselves a hot chocolate and relaxed. Me to write the blog and Dennis to catch up with correspondence. We’re just debating whether we will walk into town again tomorrow, or get an Uber?
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