Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), Argentina

Friday February 23

We have spent several days here before as well, so we had nothing planned except to wing it when we got there. We’ve hiked Tierra del Fuego National Park and taken the train to the end of the world. Did the HOHO and visited the Prison Museum and the Maritime Museum and just wandered the town. Ate in many great restaurants. We started and ended our 23 day Quark expedition cruise to Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica. If the weather was good we planned to hike a bit at Martial Glacier.

The weather was predicted to be cool and windy here today, but it actually was quite nice out. We walked to the main area of town and found our favorite chocolate store Leguna Negra, to get their wonderfuf hot chocolate. We skipped breakfast and went straight into town. They really didn't have any great pastries that I remembered from last time, but we had an apple tart that was more spice than apple and a jam pie that was like eating a tart jam from the jar with a spoon. The hot chocolates were as good as we remembered. We planned to return at the end of the day to buy some chocolates to bring back on board.

 sail in

 walk to town

 Giant Petrel

We went to where the shuttles gathered people to go to the National Park and other areas and looked for the one that went to Martial Glacier. We had an hour to kill before the van left at noon, so we wandered around the waterfront and went to the Albatross Hotel where we stayed last time we were here to use their restrooms, before boarding the van. It was less than 15 minutes to get there. I was starving so we stopped at the restaurant that was open (the Tea House is where I wanted to go, but it didn't open until 1:00 and we had a 2:00 return. We had toasted ham & cheese sandwiches at Refugio de Montana Cafe that were really good and then hit the trail. There is a chairlift that has not operated in years, so you have to hike to where it would normally let you off and then the glacier trail is above that. It's a steep climb and we only had time to go as far as the chairlift. We still got great views of the glacier and the town below. Beautiful views from up there! It was windier and cooler than in town. It was a bit of an exhausting hike, but worth the effort.

 lunch

The driver of the van was to return at 2:00 and he was half an hour late. If we had known we could have grabbed a hot chocolate at the now open Casa de Te.

He dropped us in the center of town which saved us a walk from where we started. We wandered the main street and saw that they now had a Hard Rock Cafe that was not there last time we were here in 2015. Looked kind of out of place really.....

I saw the little penguin carving that I wanted last time and didn't get it, so went in and bought it and a magnet for Cape Horn and Ushuaia with Patagonia and penguins on it. Then, we went in search of where we would eat dinner since we were in town until 7:30. Unfortunately, the steak place (and most restaurants) closed at 3:00 and didn't open again until 7:30. We did find a place that said they would be open all day so we planned to go back at dinner time.

We went back and bought a few chocolates from the chocolate store and since it was now sunny and hot in town (for how we were dressed), so we went back to the ship and dropped off my binoculars and stripped off a few layers of clothing. I called dad at the Care Center and talked to one of the nurses that filled me in on his condition. She asked me to call back later as they couldn't find the mobil phone.

So, we went back to town and grabbed dinner at the restaurant and we both had the King Crab Provencal. (garlic & wine sauce) Huge chunks of crab and it was very tasty. Glad we tried it.

 

We then made our way back to the ship and I called Dad again and this time I got to talk to him. The nurse said he will be there at least 5 weeks as he has quite an infection after his gallbladder surgery.

 sail away

 hand waving on the bridge

The entertainment was Gary DeLena ..... the same music/comic dude. 

Tomorrow we have a much needed sea day!

***internet continues to be awful.... I'm in Chacabuco, Chile on March 1 and again, I'm tethered to my phone while in port to use our personal plan as it is faster than Princess. I have tried several times on sea days to upload and I can't. So, this is slow, but it's working. Photos are impossible to upload to the web albums. If I find a "hotspot" on the ship I'll try to get a few more albums uploaded. I have all photos through day 2 of Rio ready to go.

Ushuaia, Argentina https://photos.app.goo.gl/sX875oDrIU1QnHMy2