Back to Ushuaia- We Finish Our Antarctica Adventure

The next morning we awoke to find us sailing through the Beagle Channel, arriving at Ushuaia around 0900. After docking and breakfast, we were offered the opportunity to go ashore.

Enjoying Tierra del Fuego N.P.

It was cold, raining, windy, and since Jane still didn’t feel peachy, we elected to stay aboard. We would venture out in the afternoon to tour the national park.

Our bus tour of the national park proved to be worth the minimal effort of boarding the bus.

Windswept tree

We were given a lot of historical background information about Tierra del Fuego and the surrounding area prior to entering the park.

At one of the visitor's centers

Once we were in the park we made a number of stops at visitor’s centers, where we viewed the exhibits, or special points of interest.

The park's post office

It was all interesting until the tour guide talked about the Argentinean claim over the Falkland Islands.

Goofing off at the lake

This sort of turned us off and made us think that the Argentineans live in LaLa land. We don’t see any possibility that the Falklands will ever be returned to Argentina and are amazed at the tunnel vision these people have about this issue.

Capt. Larry, Jane & Cynthia

We also visited the park's post office where, for two dollars, you can get you passport stamped with the cancellation stamp.

George takes a selfie!

We stood in line for 20 minutes, but some of the Chinese delegation had a large wad of passports awaiting the stamp.

The foxes in the park

Since we only had one-half hour at this stop, it was obvious that many of us were not going to get the stamp because of the inconsideration of a few, so we headed back to the bus. At our next stop, we gathered on the shore of a lake and had fun taking pictures of each other.

Time for Weight Watchers

As we headed to the visitor's center, we encountered some antarctic foxes that are endemic to the area. We returned to the ship and had a wonderful dinner and hooked up with our friends in the piano bar for our last night aboard.

Joking over dessert

The next morning we headed for the airport and received a bus tour of Ushuaia. While Ushuaia is located in an absolutely beautiful setting, the natural beauty is tempered by the man-made squalor that exists in the residential areas that we toured.

Working on those Rusty Nails

Why we were shown some of these run down areas, we will never know, but we guess it emphasizes the differences in the value systems among various countries when one travels afar. We finally made it to the airport and were checked in for our 28-hour in-flight or airport-layover marathon   before we made it home. We were whipped, but very happy to be home. This trip was a really big event in our lives.

The mountains around Ushuaia

 

Harbor view of Ushuaia