We woke this morning to find ourselves still at sea, only traveling so smoothly that we thought we were already tied to the pier. Still in the Beagle Channel we were quickly approaching the port of Ushuaia and soon the loudspeakers onboard were barking instructions for our last morning onboard the Sergey Vavilov. After another amazing breakfast - John says his most favorite meal of the day - we checked our bags one more and left them in the hallway. At around 9AM we left the ship and were taken to the luggage storage location. The rest of the morning was free time to wander the streets of the southermost city in the world, mail our heavy antarctic clothing home, and visit the museum.
At the post office we got a big surprise. A mere $50 to $75 to mail our parkas home...yikes. With people saving our place in line we each took turns going across the street to the bank to get more pesos. Our packages will arrive home in three to six weeks - or - maybe never - we are warned that the Argentine mail service is notorius for losing packagbes!
Some of us had lunch once again at Ramos General Store - just can't seem to get enough of that lovely little antique store/restaurant. At 2:00 PM we gathered at the lugage storage spot, got our bags, and headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes and the terminal was unbeleiveably hot. So once again we were pealing off layers of clothing.
Our Austral Airlines was quite nice with a bit of turbulance upon takeoff and landing. Flying high over the Argentine Pampas it was hard to beleive that somewhere in the distance were 16,000 to 20,000 foot mountains. We landed in El Calafate on the Chilean border and were met at the airport by our personal guide, Nicolas. He is a pleasant and well spoken young man in his early 20's. He will be with us for the next nine days.
We checked into our hostal, Los Pioneros de Los Glaciers and got settled in. We were all pleased to find beautifully prepared rooms, clean as a whistle. With city maps in hand we each took off in different directions looking to exhange money, find bottled water, and do some quick souvenger shopping.
Later that evening we gathered at a really fine restuarant - way, way out of our budget - and enjoyed an amazing dinner of truly succlent Argentiean steaks, chops, and lamb. Along with a couple bottles of whine, with was quite an evening. Afterwards a short walk found us at the local ice cream store for a late night treat.
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