Day 12: Ushuaia

 1:30am is when our alarm went off this morning. Tonight. Time is a construct. It was a handful of hours after we went to bed, anyway. 

After turning in at 8pm last night, I basically laid awake and tried to will myself to sleep. No luck. At 9pm I got up to use the bathroom and noticed a piece of paper had been slid under our door. Turns out our credit card number had been written down incorrectly (the lady doing it had forgotten her glasses!) so our attempt to sleep was interrupted by Dan heading down to reception to settle the issue. We had nothing on the room anyway. 

Round two at attempting to sleep. I guess I dozed a little bit here and there as I had odd dreams. Soon enough the alarm went off at 1:20 and we were up and about. Showers, dressed, packed and downstairs for 2am. 

We deposited the key and returned to the downstairs hall. We were greeted by a thumping baseline and disco lights! It certainly put a smile on my face. I grabbed a banana (omg fruit, I’ve missed you) and some very sweet pastries and we joined a table. Soon after Dan went to grab his drink bottle when he realised we had left them in the fridge of our room. He raced to reception then up to the room to collect them - returning just in time for us to head on. 

Meanwhile I was looking after his thing ngs and chatting with Diane and her husband at the table. From Hobart, they’ve been to South America many times and were interested in my flight prices. When Dan returned we raced back up the stairs to Bus 1, boarded a quite full bus, found a seat near the front and settled in. 

Jose, or Joe as he introduced himself was to be our guide to Ushuaia. He was full of energy and was a great start to the morning! He took a roll call, completely mangled my surname of course (made me start to wonder if I should change it 😅) and handed out our plane tickets. 

Once at the airport, it was through security pretty quickly, nothing much to report (except I had to take off my watch and I forgot to grab it again, so had to go backwards into security, oops). At time of writing Dan and I are sitting on the floor near our gate - the boarding area is tiny and we are already waiting for other earlier flights to go. I feel for the older folk who may not be able to get down onto the ground like we have (Altho I joked to Dan that with my grunting and groaning to stand up, they’d probably do better than I!)

That was 3:30am. We aren’t boarding til 5:30 so we have a bit of a wait. 

5:20am - sitting on the plane. There was a bit of confusion to get on - these chartered flights were through two different companies at the same time from gates next to each other. The queue was a mash, but we worked out that we were in the flybondi line. Altho the front of the line seemed to split into zone 1,2 and 3 for jetsmart, and we were 3 and in zone 1. But we followed others in the same boat and they were just waved towards the bus so… we followed. There’s people I recognise around us so we must be in the right place! A quick bus tootle and we were at the plane. Dan and I have ended up in an exit row, which is both good and sucky. 

We took off about 7am, an hour late. We think that we were waiting for someone, somehow. After an hour a security vehicle raced to the place and a man in high vis jumped aboard, making straight for the cockpit. Minutes later, push back. Still not entirely sure what happened! Also I’m quite sure Jose isn’t on board…

The flight was generally uneventful. I was told off by a guy who moved to a seat because my phone was flashing him, and a lady moved to the spare seat next to me because the lady next to her had a cold. The family behind us gave both Dan and I the absolute willies and we started to make ourselves an “avoid” list for the boat. They didn’t have a single positive thing to say. Even discussing getting money REFUNDED was somehow a bad thing. The food service was loving, but oh so slow. So slow. Had a jamon and queso roll and we got to choose a dessert - Dan and I both had the chocolate alfrejo cake. We landed a bit after 10:30am, an hour and 10 late roughly. 

Disembarkation was easy enough, and we had to go to the carousel to collect our luggage. Everyone’s luggage was wet because it was raining quite steadily in Ushuaia. We were originally meant to take the luggage to our bus number 1 but I think because of the weather we just left it in a pile, and got on the bus ourselves. 

Our guide, whose name escapes me, saw us into Ushuaia city and pointed out landmarks along the main road. Also on board to begin with was Lea, who gave us our boarding passes and took our boarding photo. Our envelope was different to those around us - everyone had been given a time for dinner that night and breakfast the next day but ours instead invited us to a celebration in the Londstrom restaurant, the fancy restaurant, because we are staying in a suite. I always find it interesting that the more rich you appear, the more free stuff you get. 

We took a very slow crawling tiki tour along the main shop street of Ushuaia - the shop part is quite small, walking distance but the sprawling town itself was surprisingly big. The backdrop to the town was majestic snow dusted mountains, and it was rather beautiful. We learned there were no postcards to buy on board, so if we wished to send postcards from Antarctica we would need to get them in Ushuaia. Ok. That dictated our first port of call. 

“Now everyone should be back at the bus by 3pm. Is that ok?” Our guide said. 

We murmured our agreement. 

“Good, because it’s not changing!” He laughed. 

We eventually pulled into a parking space with the other buses and jumped out into the rain. 

Dan and I rushed and found the closest souvenir store - we were worried that 300+ people trying to buy postcards would make it problematic to find them/find good ones. The first store we went into had a lovely selection of Antarctica postcards, good quality, about $2 each so we bought 17 of them! Also got a cheap magnet. 

On the crawling tiki tour our guide had pointed out a number of restaurants. I didn’t pay much attention because I was thinking about the postcards, but seafood and the local king crab took my fancy. Now the postcards were out of the way, we had to make a lunch decision. He had pointed out two seafood restaurants - one had a disturbing papier-mâché crab on the roof and live crabs in the window. I’m not super keen on choosing my food while it’s still alive, so we tried the other king crab place called La Casa de Los Mariscos. The prices were a bit higher but we came to the conclusion that this would our last meal we are paying for for the next week, so let’s splash out!

We were shown to a seat in the corner and handed an English menu. We were there to try the king crab, so we ordered king crab sorrentino (not knowing exactly what it was), the king crab with rice and two local beers. We were given a choice of red sauce or white sauce with the sorrentino. 

“What do you recommend?” I asked the lovely waitress. 

“I like them mixed together - half white, half red.”

“We shall do that then!” Dan and I agreed. 

We tried then swapped the beers we had chosen (Cape Horn Amber and Beagle Golden Ale) and soon some bread and accompaniment arrived - some kind of seed or lentil and it was delicious. Definitely stomach ache inducing for me tho!

I ducked to the baŋos and upon my return there were two delicious looking plates in front of Dan. Oh we did well. The rice had big chunks of crab through it, as well as peas and some other veggies and was a good solid base. The sorrentino turned out to be a sort of ravioli and oh my, blending the two sauces was the way to go. We wiped the plate clean of sauce with our bread. 

We paid and out on the Main Street again it was raining fairly heavily. By the end of the day we were pretty soaking wet because we stayed out in it! We peeked in shop windows and en route to the tourist centre to stamp our passports. We overshot so had to walk back a few blocks, getting more drenched by the second. We both had rain jackets; Dan has lost his hood but thankfully our top halves were mostly dry. We ducked into the tourist centre a few minutes before siesta closing to use the bathroom and check out the stamps. Looking at the stamps we decided we didn’t want to run the risk of invalidating our passports so we stamped a postcard instead. 

By now there was a scrap of sunshine so we found some spots to take photos of the MS Fridtjof Nansen on the docks. The sun didn’t last long and soon enough we were soggy. We tried a few spots and then decided to go back to the bus to dry off. 

I overheard our guide say “to the Germans, I say be back at the bus by 3:15. To the Chinese, I say 2:30. To everyone else, I say 3!”

Everyone was back on the bus before time except our driver who had disappeared. Once back, we went forward and back and forward and back and slightly sideways then a jarring stop(did we hit something) as he manoeuvred the bus to allow another bus to park next to us. I couldn’t watch when we finally went to leave, we were bees dick away from the bus next to us!

Eventually we were free and we drove to the dock. Exciting!! Dan and I were some of the first onto the boat from the bus where they scanned our boarding cards.  Mine worked instantly, but Dans had a problem. A few other people had issues too, but soon enough everyone from our bus was through and poor Dan was still standing at the front. I had been hanging back waiting for him - he said that they were reissuing him a card and it would be a few minutes. He insisted I go upstairs to collect my Hurtigruten jacket so begrudgingly I left him down there all alone to join the queue. Near the front I noticed he had joined at the back, and as I spoke to him the kind people behind waved him ahead up to me. 

I couldn’t figure out what size I wanted. L fit me quite well but was a bit tight around the bum when doing up. The XL swam and would work with bulky under layers, but the sleeves were far too long. I tried each on a few times, holding up the queue before finally settling on the one that looked better, the L. Done!

We finally made our way to our much anticipated room. Our luggage was stacked outside waiting for us. This level only has 2 suites, ours and the accessible one next door. We soon discovered the door to the balcony is for crew only, but this is only a minor inconvenience as we have the most spectacular view from our lounge chairs. But I’m getting ahead of myself. By now it was 4pm and we had the welcome drinks for suite occupants at 4:30. This means we missed the briefing about how the ship works. We did a very quick tour of our beautiful room - huge bed, Norwegian style doonas (ie, one each! Which means you get all twisted up…) a day lounge each and two lounge chairs, crackling  faux fireplace, nice big shower and bathroom area. On the fireplace (it emits heat sides, not up) was an ice bucket with a bottle of Bollinger wine, and a lovely note wishing us a happy honeymoon. 

I put a bit of makeup on and brushed my hair to look slightly more animated than a corpse (we had been up since 1am, and I hadn’t actually slept) and made our way to deck 9 to Lindstrom. 

On arrival we received a delicious glass of champagne, and not knowing quite what to do with ourselves we found a table by the window. Ushuaia had cleared up dramatically as we could even see blue sky. The snow on the mountain tops was crystal clear. We saw others helping themselves to a canapé so we went up, and naturally got one of everything available. I can’t tell you what they were - everything was a bit artistic and didn’t taste quite like it looked. They were tasty though. 

At 5.30 was a ship-wide safety briefing on deck 6, an on our way we did a short tour of the ship. Saw the sauna, found some doors outside (I was not dressed appropriately for that!) and went to deck 6. It was a bit of a middle where we needed to go but we realised our boarding card said muster station A and there was a man walking around with a card saying Muster station A so we figured we were in the right place. We were beckoned into a lecture room split in two and took a seat. 

Once the room was full, three guys went to the front - one in a security type suit and the other two in expedition clothing. The security guy did a room roll call, going through each room number and we had to raise our hands. “100% attendance!” He said at the end. 

Someone piped up, “you didn’t call my number!” And another couple of rooms said the same. 

One room said they were 743 and the expedition man, whose name is Tolsten, said “er does that room exist? Does it say A on your card?” Sure enough both were correct. Another room called out “ours says C!” To which everyone laughed and they realised they were in the wrong briefing. A few people more people scurried out. 

“More than 100% attendance!” And the briefing continued. Torsten took over from here, alternating between German and English. 

“This is a very important and not at all amusing safety briefing,” he began. “As such, I am going to read directly from this piece of paper to make sure everyone gets the same information.

Good afternoon. Ladies and gentleman, my name is dot dot dot…. Ah, Tolsten!”

We recognised his voice from the announcements we hear From time to time in our room. The briefing showed how to get into the insulated survival suit modeled by Bruno, another expedition team member. We had seen him practicing earlier, so we knew this would look amusing. While Torsten read the instructions in English then German, Bruno took that step to put on the suit. Feet in first - no sharp or stiletto heels, and then do the ankle straps. Next, one arm at a time, into the suit complete with black rubber gloves built on the end. Next hood, and tuck all the excess material into the front and zip right right right up until you look like Kenny. Poor Bruno looked like he was roasting, but he gave the occasional thumbs up and at one point did the air walk. 

“Once you have it on correctly” Torsten continued, “you should look like an orange penguin.”

We also learnt we would be given a survival pack with wooden clothes and other items such as sunscreen. 

Once the safety briefing was over we returnedtfo our room for a Kip before going to the launch ceremony. We realised we had launched early so we raced to the back deck where we were handed a delicious cocktail (I think it was a Bellini but with lots of peach). Took a lot of pictures of the departure and Chatted with Laura, chief environmental scientist onboard and ice expert. To put it bluntly, it was fucking freezing. We both were wearing our Hurtigruten jackets which is a windbreaker but has little warmth. And I overheat inside so was just wearing a top. I’ll have to carry an extra layer in my pocket for times we head outside on a whim! A little after 7 we went to the front lounge and wangled another free cocktail, and sat on one of the front couches to watch the front view. 

We had booked 7:30 for dinner in our exclusive restaurant, so we toddled off after downing our cocktail. This one is alacarte, and for suite occupants is included and other passengers can pay to join. Handed the menu, we made our selections and despite ordering the fish I went with Malbec because I’m still not much of a white drinker! We knew alcohol was included during meals but we didn’t know if it was a glass or more, so when Dan finished his and was topped up, we knew our answer. Dangerous. Here I ordered the beetroot cured salmon for entree, halibut with shredded shrimp and delicious glazed vegetables for main and the cloudberry crème brûlée for dessert. I wanted to know what cloudberry was, and Dan reminded me it’s the strange little orange cherry tomato like citrus fruit from the Scandinavian countries - I loved these! Dan got the oxtail terrine, duck and also the crème brûlée. The meal was delicious and the portions fancy-small, but we were still very full from lunch so this was perfect. 

At the conclusion of our meal we were given petit fours, the little after dinner chocolates which we shared. We were stuffed. We wanted to be on the main deck for 9pm as the captain was going to be greeting the ship. 

On approach we were handed yet another champagne, which by now was actually getting a bit much. We had both taken seasickness tablets earlier and it’s not recommended to drink with them (although not completely forbidden). The captain appeared and made a short, slightly stilted speech in English, and introduced his close crew. Then, suddenly, “Skål!” And we all raised a toast. 

Tolsten took centre stage now and introduced all the exhibition crew and others around the ship. Those how could speak German did their part in English and again in German. My favourite was one Young Brit who started to introduce himself in stilted German, concluding with “ich kann kein Deutsch”, which elicited a giggle from English and German speakers alike. There’s one Aussie in the crew, a fantastically dreadlocked lady who is the permanent expedition leader (ie, kayaking etc). 

“You’ve probably noticed from my accent that I’m an Aussie,” - bogan cheer goes up around the room, including me - “…but I live in Norway.”

At the conclusion we made our way back to our cabin and settled in for bed. Having dosed up on seasickness tablets, I thought I had it covered. It was not a good night. 

Day 11: Buenos Aires

 Today we checked out of our apartment and said goodbye to the pool that was our home for the last five days. 

It was time to pack up start the main leg of our journey - our Antarctica cruise with Hurtigruten. The Emperador Hotel that the tour started from was only a 12 minute walk away, so we shouldered our heavy backpacks and marched onwards. The walk wasn’t so bad in the end, but I sure was sweaty by the time we arrived. 

A lot of people were milling about in the foyer. We knew we needed to get a COVID test to allow boarding tomorrow - and we wanted to get it fast. We didn’t want to think about the alternative. I made my way to the counter and talked to some older British guys, they weren’t completely sure what was going on either! I saw a sign for Holding room, Hurtigruten so Dan and I made our way down there. 

In one of the expo rooms, a checkin table was set up next to a covid test desk, with a number of round tables filling the rest of the room. We immediately had our COVID tests (mine tickled so much I tried not to sneeze) and then was invited to join a round table for a briefing. There were 5 other people at the table. 

Instructions were:

• Luggage bags must be outside our door by 8pm tonight. 
• Buses will leave at 2:30am, and a light breakfast available from 2:15am. We all gawked a bit at the early hours. Dan and I are on bus 1 (because we have a suite room? I’m not sure!). 
• We were given luggage tags that must be attaché to our luggage and a sticker.

As soon as the briefing was complete our COVID results arrived. The lady handed them out one by one. 

Mine was….. negative!

Dans was….. negative!

Everyone else on our table was also negative and we collectively breathed a sigh of relief and ripped our masks off. We started talking to the others at the table - Arnika and Martin are from Melbourne, Australia - they’ve done a lot of budget travelling just like us and they like photography, John Samuelson and his presumed son probably in his early 20s, John Samuelson. Turns out these guys are foamers. Of course we would find the foamers instantly!! Dan chatted with them and I chatted with the Aussies, until we were asked politely to leave the table for the next group. In the room was juice and cakes so we helped ourselves. 

Dan and I then checked in and deposited our bags with the hotel. The queue was quite long by now. Once this was all complete we had to come up with a game plan for the rest of the day. Literally across the road from the hotel was the National Railway Museum (honestly, I couldn’t make this shit up) so of course we went there. Dan didn’t know much about it, so we walked inside and had to write our details down. Ahead of us on the list we saw John Samuelson - of course! Entrance was surprisingly free, and we walked through the small displays before going outside to look at the big trains. We were sort of forced to join a “Tour” - turns out our guide is a legitimate railway worker - I assume they come in periodically and host tours, or he was being ingenious as he asked for tips at the end. The John’s were also on this tour, of course! They too had just walked across the road once the briefing was one. One of the carriages had a fireplace in it, which I thought was hilarious. 

This pretty much concluded the railway museum so now it was time for lunch. I had a pizza place on my list, so Dan punched in directions and we set off. Two subway rides later we pop out into a completely different kind of Buenos Aires, bustling, made me feel a bit of Oxford street. Pizzeria Guerrin wasn’t far, and it was PACKED. we panicked a bit at first - so many people squashed in but the we realised everyone was at standup tables scoffing slices of pizza. We were beckoned further inside and noticed the whole back and upstairs was tables and chairs, which is a little more our style!

We must have looked pretty obvious as an English menu was brought to us. Upon opening, we were assaulted by about a thousand different pizza options. After a long while we returned to the front page and chose one of their famous square pizzas, with a side of fainá which is a traditional chickpea slice and a 750ml bottle of Patagonia beer that we shared like a bottle of wine!

When we tried to order, the young man wasn’t comfortable taking our order in English so he motioned for someone else to serve us. We sat there for quite a while until he came back and got the person to speak to us. We ordered to a young lady who spoke constantly into a walkie talkie and understood our stilted Spanish. The pizzeria was pure, delightful chaos. We had arrived at the lunch rush and were lucky to get a seat so easily, but it seems the restaurant is quite large. The din was incredible. After ordering we saw other couples have half a pizza delivered to them, and we concluded that the “small” option probably wasn’t a smaller pizza, but half of a big pizza. And the half was huge. We realised we had made a big mistake. 

Soon enough a giant rectangular picante pizza, famous for its toppings spilling off the crust, arrived along with our plate of fainá. I liked how the pizza was on its own little stand so that other plates could fit underneath. The pizza was beautifully presented and tasted amazing! It had rivers of mozzarella. The jalapeños were full flavoured but muted on the heat - which was good for me. The restaurant was quite warm, so we were rather getting the food sweats. 

Find someone who looks at you like I look at this pizza

😍

By now it has calmed down ever so slightly so when we flagged a waitress we also motioned that we would like the remaining pieces boxed up. She took them away with a smile and became back with them bagged, which was actually better as it would fit in our bag. 

Leaving, we realised we needed more cash. We didn’t have the energy to go to the “blue” market places and get our US dollars changed and we weren’t getting much out, so we went to the closest atm. The lady ahead of us swiped her card to get into the atm building, so we left the queue as we didn’t have the banks atm card. We tried two other bank atms and they either didn’t have money or wouldn’t accept our card. We went back to the first one as it was the same bank we had withdrawn from at the airport. This time we followed a lady who just opened the door. Ah. We managed to get a bit of money out but the exchange rate has gotten worse since we got it out last time. 

Back on the subway and back to the hotel to hopefully have a room ready! It was indeed, and our bags were brought up separately on a trolley. The room is interesting - it has two double beds, but they look quite small so we think they might be king singles. We have a view out over the railway station and rooftops beyond, so Dan has been positioned at the window for the last few hours photographing trains as they go past, and generally just staring out the window in bliss. 

I took a bath, which hasn’t happened for a very long time - and was great on my tired muscles. At time of writing, it is 7pm, we have had our left over pizza and our luggage is packed, ready to put outside our doors shortly. 

We will go to bed shortly as we will need to get up at .. 1:30? Dear lordie. It’s still so light out. 

Internet is going to be either patchy or non-existent until 8 January so please excuse the radio silence. I’ll keep writing during that time and you’ll just have to read it all in one go!

Day 10: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

 Thankfully I was already awake when the alarm went off at six. Also thankfully Dan and I had fully prepped the night before, as he had an email waiting in his inbox that we needed to be at the ferry terminal and hour and a half before departure, not an our. We somehow turned ourselves around in 15 minutes and out the door.

We raced to the corner to see a bus on its way but we were too late to get to the stop. Mere minutes later another bus arrived, and we were on our way. Today we were going to Uruguay!

The bus journey was uneventful, Altho I think we may have gotten off a stop early. At w quick pace we walked the last distance to the Colonia express ferry terminal, following others with luggage. We were in the right place. Once inside we joined the queue as the sign above the self service said “foreigners must join queue”. At the front we were waved over to a self service. “We are foreigners,” I said, and she smiled and waved and it was all ok. She entered our booking number, peeked at our passports and handed us each a few pieces of paper with no explanation. She pointed to Boarding, where we went to queue again. 

All in all the queuing and the waiting took no time at all! At time of writing it’s 730, the time we were originally going to get here, and we are waiting to board. Through Boarding, we threw our bags on a scanner and picked them up again ten seconds later. We joined the immigration queue, and Once at the front, Dan and I had to go to separate windows. The man disinterestedly looked at my passport, took my photo and finger print and pointed me to a single window that said URUGUAY above it. I see - I’ve done Argentina immigration, now I’m walking five steps and doing Uruguan immigration. The lady took my passport then, starting at the front, began flipping the pages. She hit the middle and had to keep flipping. Her eyes growing wide at all the stamps, she made a celebratory sound when she found a blank page. We had a laugh. In English she said thank you!

I realised Dan was still waiting to be processed by Uruguay so I asked the lady if he could come to her window to which she said yes. I called him over so he managed to skip the queue he was in. 

Through, up some stairs and as of time of writing, we are sitting in the waiting area! 

4:55pm On the ferry back to Buenos aires. What a lovely day we had! 

Once we were on the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, we sat and sat and sat. People were streaming on, struggling to find seats (there were still plenty but the groups would have had to split up). About 15 minutes after scheduled departure we started moving backwards out of the dock. Then slightly sideways. Then mostly backwards. Eventually we were in the open ocean and we were at proper speed. 

After a short while we stopped in the open ocean. And started to reverse. Then slightly sideways. There weren’t any boats that we could see. After a little while of this, we started straight again, and off we went.  A mystery we will never solve! 

I basically fell asleep again for most of the journey (damn transport!). We managed to pick the correct exit and were one of the first off. We joined w queue at the top of an escalator to have our bags scanned (or collect luggage and scan for those people who needed it). Like everyone coming down the stairs, we joined the closest queue. I got an angry tap on the shoulder and some harsh words in Spanish. I eventually realised she was shitty with me for jumping the queue, but we had done exactly what those in front of us and those behind us were doing - blending from the escalators. 

No drinkbottles outside the bag, we threw them in, got through customs and burst into the sunshine outside. We started walked leftish and soon we were in the outskirts of the town. 

The average housing area is leafy green and beautiful, eith the occasional painted colour house and cobblestones, but as we continued through it we came across the historical centre. Being some of the first there, it was stunning to walk the streets and find different beautiful buildings covered in different coloured and carefully trained bougainvilleas. Some were so big the door was almost non-existent! We saw a many of the gorgeous streets, took too many photos and before long the streets were swarming with people who hadn’t managed to run out of customs as quickly as we had!

Happy with the photos we had taken, we decided to have an early lunch. I had done some research and found a cute little place that was off the beaten track a little called Calms Coco. The lady greeted us with a big smile and a little bit of English, and we sat outside at upcycled tables made of singer sewing with a painted blue door as the table top. The place had gotten many great reviews but I couldn’t remember exactly what was on the menu, and we weren’t super hungry, so we order 1L of fresh lemonade (non fizzy, fresh squeezed! So refreshing!). We also got a serve of handmade spring rolls with mango dipping sauce, a bruschetta and croquettes (risotto) to share. It. Was. Delicious. Especially the spring rolls. Just wow! And enough food for us. 

I had looked up local Uruguayan fare but the main thing I found was the chivito , the National food of Uruguay , which was essentially a beef burger. We gave it a miss. 

The lady introduced us to Coco, who the restaurant was named after; a slightly shabby golden retriever type doggo with a sore foot. Once we had paid up (1100 U pesos) we decided to walk to the water front. I started down the jetty and didn’t notice a security man shouting at me. Eventually Dan and I realised and wandered off the pier, and stared at the do not enter sign we had completely walked past (to be fair it was in… Spanish or Portuguese). Near here we picked up a magnet for me. $50 U pesos, about Au$2. She only accepted card for $100 U pesos. We enquired about Argentinian pesos and American dollars but the exchange rate she quoted was ridiculous, so we bought another magnet for $50 U pesos and I’ll turn it into a Christmas ornament (yet another thing I collect).  

We continued along the foreshore, stopping for Dan to replace cambers batteries and making our way down to the waters edge. What’s a Sasha and Dan adventure without some rock scrambling? As usual we dipped a finger in - the water was kind of brown so neither of us were keen for a swim. The beach has very little sand, a lot of rock, and a lot of grass, plants and trees! It was very odd. The rocks looked like the tessellated pavement in Tasmania. 

We made our way back to the old town gate, where we were blocked by a mime. That kept wolfwhistling. Not only are wolfwhistles just horribly infuriating - but from a MIME? Did he miss the brief? Mimes are silent! Anyway. Across the road was an icecream store where we stumbled our way through with minimal Spanish to order. While we were eating, I noticed some of the local parrots in the distance, above the old city wall line. We finished the icecream and climbed the wall to take closer photos. 

From here we meandered our way back to the ferry. We had mostly exhausted what we could do in the town - we had wanted to climb the lighthouse for a view but it was shut, and I’m sure you can hire boats or kayaks that would be fun. For us tho, the town had done exactly what we had set out for it to do, and it was time to head off. 

We found ourselves in the main town centre with modern shops. Once inside the terminal, we found our way through security exceptionally easily - had my passport stamped for the second time for exiting Uruguay (yes! Stamps!) and Dan and I entered the waiting space. 

We chilled here for a while until an announcement was made and while we didn’t know what it said, we saw people make for the boarding queue. We joined the snaking line. And waited. And waited. And waited. After standing for about half an hour, the queue finally started to move forward and at a snails pace, we boarded. I spent some time writing this post and then - you guessed it - I fell asleep. 

Getting through Argentina security was a bit of a faff. Thankfully we got off near the front of the queue, which was snaked through the ferry terminal blocking passengers from boarding other boats. This queue was SLOW. It meandered around, disappeared around a few dark corners before finally popping out in a dismal customs room. I was directed to a lady who took my picture (again) and my thumb print (again) and we were finally allowed to leave. 

I literally snorted with laughter when we walked through the customs gate. We didnt majestically enter a big room filled with waiting families -no, we were unceremoniously expelled directly onto the street into oncoming traffic. 

We reversed the journey of 12 hours prior - walk to the bus stop, catch the bus, desposit at accommodation. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the buses yet. I think I mentioned we had to tap on twice, once for Dan once for me. But as I usually board second I have to scoot right in because before Dan has finished booping the card, the bus is away and the doors are shutting on my backpack. The doors of the bus seem to be able to remain open even when the bus is in motion. There is no waiting until the elderly reach a seat or people are ready and hanging on. It’s PAY AND GO NOW. 

After a swim, the rest of the night was spent packing as we are sadly leaving our well-used pool tomorrow. But onto bigger and better things! Tomorrow we shoulder our backpacks, walk to our new accommodation and before long we will be in Ushuaia. 

xx

The National bird of Uruguay is the southern lapwing and this fella wasn’t at all shy:

Day 9: Tigre Delta

Today we planned a day trip out of Buenos Aires to the Tigre Delta, where the Paraná River ends. It is a series of canals and waterways which have now been filled with houses, hotels and restaurants only accessible by water. It’s only a 45min train journey from Buenos Aires, and we could use our Sube card, so dirt cheap. 

We wanted to try the scenic route there but there were warnings we couldn’t quite understand for this line, so we caught the direct route instead. I liked that there were markings on the group where each of the tram doors line up, and people formed orderly queues behind them. 

Not sure what was up with me but I COULD NOT stay awake during the train journey. I kept doing the uncomfortable nod as I jerked awake every few seconds. What I did see from the window was a different Buenos Aires, one quite a bit poorer than what we have seen before. The journey was slow and seemed to take forever. 

On arrival, I got myself an energy drink called SPEED. It was pretty vile but I think it did the trick!

We got a bit lost trying to figure out what and where we needed to go. I hadn’t twigged that Tigre was not the stilted houses waterways, and that we would need a boat to see that. I knew we wanted to get on a boat, but I guess I didn’t expect to find a built up modern city area by the waters edge. There were twenty plus booths selling tickets for a tour up and down the river, but I had it in my head that I wanted to do a local ferry. Cheaper, but also you could get on and off at will. After wandering a good 10 min in the wrong direction (and 30C sun - yes, the summer seems to be incoming now!) we made it back to the start. I checked the blog I was basing my entire knowledge on - the ticket booth was IN the McDonald’s building. Ok. Eventually we found it, and “duos, Tres Bocas” later, we had two tickets. 

Now what? It said “seccion 1” on the ticket, but no mention of a dock or where to go. 

We wandered past a long line at Dock 2 and stopped at Dock 1. Nothing was happening here at all. We meandered back to the long line at Dock 2 and I showed the ticket to a local, who pointed in the general direction of the long line. By now it had expanded considerably, so we joined it. And waited. Probably close to an hour in this queue - later on I wandered to the front another time to ask a local about the ticket, they again pointed to the long queue so we were in the right place. We were surrounded by locals with small eskies and lots and lots of luggage - I think we hit returning home from Christmas locals. 

Eventually the line started to move and before long we were at the front. “tres bocas“, we said, and we were shunted towards the first boat of three tethered together. Instead of doing a touristy tour we (well I) had opted for (us) to do it the local way. I had read the instructions in a blog and it did indeed turn out amazing - but the blog left out a few key details that would have saved us some stress! In total, return trips cost us 300 pesos, which is embarrassingly cheap. 

It was really cool to see how the local do. We squeezed into the boat, and somehow the huge line managed to fit itself into the three boats. Luggage was chucked on top of the boat (which just seemed like a sure fire way to lose it) and a man got on with a TV and put it at my feet. 

Soon enough we set off, and got splashed! When another boat passed it gave the occupants a good splash, which was fine as by now it was getting quite warm. Santa Rosa, we kept a look out - this Is where the blog said to get off. 

On the way we saw many houses and hotels up on stilts, pier jutting out into the water, some in rather states of disrepair. Many people were swimming in the shallow water - it looked cold, judging by some of the squeals!

After about twenty minutes we arrived at Santa Rosa pier, and quite a few people got off. Santa Rosa had a few bars and restaurants on stilts over the water - just what we were looking for. I think there was a walking track inland but we were Keen to stick to the water front. 

We chose one of the few restaurants, found a seat on the waters edge and grabbed a bill. Spanish of course, but google translate had a hard time of it. I wrote down what we wanted in Spanish on my phone (2 beef empanadas, 2 ham and cheese empanadas, a serve of local calamari and 2 mojitos). I wandered inside to try to order and ran into the young lady waitress. She spoke to me and I said, sorry, English! I was holding the menu and she thought I needed an English menu so she put down all the things she was holding to try to find one. I felt so bad. I kept trying to shove my phone in her face to show we had alrwdy worked out what we wanted. An older lady came out, the mother I presume and I showed her my phone - after protesting she realised I had written our order in Spanish and beckoned me to the back of the store. She wrote down my order but unfortunately they didn’t have the the calamari. I said that’s ok we will just have the rest! I wasn’t sure if she had understood my sentiment but she wandered to the kitchen so I assumed I put the order on. Back at the table, Dan and I watched many boats of different sizes go by it was beautiful. I was trying hard not to think about my empty belly, but it was getting difficult, and I was still unsure if I’d actually managed to order anything. After a little while, our mojitos and empanadas arrived and we tucked into them. They turned out to be just the right size and amount of food - and quite different from the ones we had a few nights ago. More flaky. 

As we finished our mojito we noticed the ferry in the distance. We ummed and ahhed about whether to stick around but ultimately decided that we should flee while we knew we could. We paid up (3200 pesos Inc tip) and made our way along the rickety path to where we had been dropped off. There were a few people here alrwdy, so we joined the queue and in a few minutes we were back on the boat. 

Returning to Tigre was interesting! The boat zigzagged across the river, backing up to piers and racing off once someone had hopped on or off. In a short while the ferry was completely full, so we drove past some piers with people. Then we would deposit people at other piers, which had let up room to collect more people. As I am a pretty stressy person, I would struggle with this system - not knowing if I would be able to get to my destination or not! We continued left and right across the river until we returned to Tigre. 

Alighting the boat, we made our way to the other train station to catch the scenic route back. I stayed awake for the first leg a bit better - there was a promise of an antique market on one of the platforms but alas it was shut. The route was much prettier, but not the scenic we expected. We changed trains, and despite this one being literally icy cold, I kept falling asleep again. It didn’t go the whole way (the warnings that we had read about this morning) so all passengers had to get off and on a new train shortly after. This one took us back to Retiro. 

In the station now, we made our way toward the door, but I spotted an art display and wanted a closer look. We hadn’t even looked at two before a lady bounded over and started talking to us in Spanish. 

“Sorry, English!” We said, when she asked us in English where we were from. Australia, we said. She was very excitable. she then asked if we wanted to meet the artist, and before we e had time to answer she was beckoning another lady over. She asked us again “where are you from?” Australia! She has a family member living in Melbourne. The original lady made us gather for a photo while the artist explained her work. She was an architect by trade, and had painted the Buenos Aires roof tops without all the modern buildings in the city scape! The art was great. They didn’t try to make us buy anything, and we’ve since added each other on Instagram. 

The walk to our accommodation was uneventful, except we ducked into the Dia to get some icecream - it had gotten so hot today! Before we could get into the pool, we had a minor pigeon problem to solve. Right in between the handles to the pool stairs lay a pigeon, facedown, quite dead. No sign of foul play, probably died of old age. Dan scooped it into a dustpan and deposited it in a plant pot. I hope it doesn’t start to smell…

Now it was straight into the pool with some red wine, and we ended the day with a swim, some pasta, wine and our ice creams. 

Day 8: Christmas Day

 Christmas Day. No alarm. Outside, Buenos Aires was silent, aside from the odd parrot song. It sounded like home. The parrots sounded like budgies, their skwarking interspersed with beautiful birdsong. 

Soon enough the stray dogs started barking and the light was streaming in, so we so figured we shouldn’t sleep the days

 away. Egg, ham, tomato, cream cheese and mushroom sandwich - complete with mimosa - was the perfect Christmas breakfast. After we finished eating we planned our next couple days. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in! We sorted a day trip to The closest town in Uruguay, and also to the Tigre Delta, interspersing the other things we want to see amongst and around those bigger day trips. We wil be returning to Buenos Airies after our tour, so that gives us a little more time. 

While Dan was researching, I washed my clothes in the sink(no washing machine here) and once everything was booked and/or decided, it was time for lunch. 

I put out a cheese platter with Argentinian provolone, blue cheese and an amazing Wapi camabert, some cream cheese, tomato, strawberries, olives and ham. We also had bought a baguette that I thought had gone too hard but I think it was sour dough, and some crackers. 

We then spent the next few hours literally sitting, standing, wading in the pool drinking champagne with strawberries and eating delicious melty cheese. At the time of writing I’m about to have a siesta because - when in Argentina….!

Soon after I woke it was time to Skype Dan’s parents. We had a lovely chat with them - their Christmas was also quite quiet. Not long after, we chatted with my brother and family in Adelaide - another lovely chat, and their Christmas was also quite quiet due to the family getting Covid! Thankfully no one had it too badly, but they were thankful that this year they weren’t hosting anyone so it was easy to stay isolated. Seems quiet Christmases are the go for 2022!

Dan and I have organised to head to the Tigre Delta tomorrow morning by scenic train (which costs more, but when train travel is about 45c it’s quite acceptable for us). 

It’s been a lovely Christmas. Talking about all and everything with Dan, doing our laundry, drinking yum dulce bubbly wine with strawberries, eating cheese, listening to inappropriate Christmas songs (ie, Mr Hanky and other South Park delights) while wading back and forth in the pool, our giggles likely annoying the neighbours. A nap, very important. Chatting with our wonderful families and sending and receiving lovely messages from our friends. What a day!

Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas!