At The End Of The World

Well my pantomime last night obviously didn't work. I stood out on the footpath with the others from my hotel bound for the airport at 6am, and their cars turned up, but nobody came for me. Eventually I just flagged down a taxi, and tried to work out a price by miming. I guess the driver must have been happy with the amount, as he smiled all the way to the airport.

Almost no English of course, which was entirely reasonable, but I did get the obligatory "Australia - Kangaroo" complete with actions from him.

This time, being a domestic flight, I was departing from the same terminal that the airline office was in, so I didn't have a hike like yesterday. After check in, which was a bit cruisy as I already had my boarding pass, I re-visited the office with my taxi receipt, and after a wait and a laborious process of watching paperwork being filled out, I was given a form and directed up the other end of the terminal to the cashier who took all of 10 seconds to hand me some crisp notes as a refund for my taxi fare - no questions asked. Should have taken a limo!

The domestic terminal is quite small, and a complete contrast to American airports. Security was a basic metal detector that most people set off. No screening or undressing this time. Guess nobody wants to blow up the remotest community in South America. We were loaded by rows onto buses, and driven the obligatory 3 metres across the road, where we all got out and climbed the stairs into the aerobridge to board the plane. Can't work out why we could climb the stairs into the aerobridge from our terminal, it was connected, but I'm sure that there is a reason.

Ushuaia might be remote, but it's popular. We were in an Airbus A340 with around 300 people on board, and another full Airbus had taken off a few minutes earlier, also bound for the same place with the same airline. With the afternoon and evening flight as well, there are a lot of people wanting to head down there.

OK, lets get the hard question out of the way first. How the heck do you pronounce Ushuaia? The locals pronounce it oos-wire, so that's good enough for me. It's the most southern town in the world, and pretty much depends on the airport to keep it alive. It's quite barren and remote, but pretty as well as there are snow capped mountains behind the town, and a harbour in front of it. If you've been to Iceland, think Reykjavik.

Our hotel is rather luxurious, perched on the side of the hill. The reviews said it was a fair walk down the hill into town. However, I walk lots so that didn't put me off, but they weren't kidding - it really is a long way to walk. Think Mt Buffalo Chalet and you'll get the idea. Being a nice sunny afternoon I walked anyway, and spent the afternoon wandering down the main street of the town looking for a late lunch. Everything is so expensive, but I guess they have to ship everything enormous distances, so you can't whinge.

Bit the bullet and paid for a taxi back up the hill in time for the evening pre-tour briefing at the hotel. Seems that there will be about 114 people on the cruise - many of them as you would expect from Australia. When the tour group got together and the question was asked "Where are you from?" the person was not asking about your country, but rather what Australian city are you from as there are that many of us. However, I am sharing with Roland from Germany which should be fun as his English is about as good as my German. Ate in the hotel to save another trip down town. Dreadful service really. The meals took an hour to come, orders got mixed up, and the bill was wrong. Ah well, it's all part of that wonderful adventure that you remember for years to come.

Still light at 11pm, and I watched the twilight fall as I got ready for bed.