February 5, 2006
Day 130

I made it a point to watch the Super Bowl tonight. I hadn't watched any football in months, but I still didn't want to miss the big one. I knew I'd have my work cut out for me though due to a worldwide apathy toward the game. When I told John of my plans, he thought I wanted to watch a basketball game. I asked a Dutch guy if he was interested in checking it out and he said, "Sure, that's baseball, right?"

Craig, an Australian friend of John's who would be on the cruise with us, didn't know anything about the game, but he was willing to learn. We walked around town to a few places before finding an Irish bar that was willing to play it. More Americans were in the bar than I had seen on my entire trip. I could tell they hadn't been traveling for very long. "Oh my God, it is in Spanish!" exclaimed one of them. Isn't that usually how it is when you're in a Spanish-speaking country?

I thought the game was boring, but I still had a few laughs with the old American cruisers. Even though we were from the same country and spoke the same language, I still had a hard time explaining to them how I could travel for so long without being filthy rich. I think it was a wise decision not to tell them that I haven't even spent as much money in four months on the road than they did for their two-week cruise.

February 4, 2006
Day 129

I felt a little better today, so I decided to go for a little walk. I took a look at a map of the area and noticed that the "Lighthouse at the End of the World" was happily hanging out near the shore a short distance from town. Not wanting to miss out on seeing any of the "End of the World" stuff that seems to cover the entire town of Ushuaia, I went to have a look.

Ushuaia is a lot bigger than it appears at first sight. I walked over an hour before I was finally on the outskirts of town. After another hour of walking around the Beagle Channel, the road ended. I kept looking for the lighthouse along the way, but I couldn't see it. At the end of the road, I scoped out the surrounding area, and at last spotted what I believed to be the lighthouse, but it was so far away that I could barely see it. I guess you need to take a boat into the channel to see it up close. Yet another reason to ask about stuff before going off on my own.

It was raining the rest of the afternoon, which I have found out over the last week is typical Ushuaia weather. Not wanting to risk bringing my illness back, I didn't do much the rest of the day other than relax and think about my upcoming Antarctic excursion.

February 3, 2006
Day 128

Ushuaia at night.

I wanted to make sure I was healthy before heading to Antarctica, so today I just chilled out for the most part. I had breakfast at my hostel for about three hours, napped for a few more, and spent most of the rest of the day on the Internet. The only productive thing I did was to practice my nighttime photography a bit. It's too bad I still felt sick today because it was the first warm, sunny day without wind that I've experienced in Ushuaia. Assuming that I feel better tomorrow, I'll probably do some sort of day walk around the area.

February 2, 2006
Day 127

I woke up this morning to the pitter-patter of a downpour splashing against the tent. None of us wanted to take down camp while it was raining so hard, so we waited for an hour or so for it to pass. Luckily, the rain completely stopped for half an hour, and we were still somewhat dry when we left.

We walked for a few hours, but the weather only got worse. At the top of the pass we had to cross, it was cold, windy and snowy. When we dropped down below the tree line, the rain and wind subsided, but the ground got extremely muddy. I don't have proper boots for trekking, so my shoes quickly became waterlogged. When we reached the highway where we planned to hitch a ride to another part of the national park, I decided to call it quits. I was feeling run-down and thought I might be getting a cold, exactly what I didn't want on my trip to Antarctica, so I walked back to Ushuaia.

My decision to go back turned out to be a wise one. After taking a nice shower, I slept all afternoon. I got up for a few hours for dinner, then went to bed early. A cold was definitely coming on, and sleeping in a cold, windy, muddy tent would only have made it worse. In the next few days, I might do some walks around town if I feel better, but otherwise I'll just plan to relax and meet John and Craig on Sunday night or Monday morning back at the hostel.

February 1, 2006
Day 126

We enter the national park.

We still had a few days before our cruise to Antarctica, so John, Craig, an Australian who has done some treks with John before, and I decided to go on a multi-day trek in the area. We walked for several hours today through the national park near Ushuaia. The terrain was somewhat muddy, but of course beautiful. We camped near a lagoon where there were absolutely no other tourists. It was a little cold at night, but not too bad.

My only plan for the next few days is to get back to Ushuaia for the Super Bowl. "What's that, some kind of basketball game?" John questioned me when I told him of my plans. I don't think he was kidding. I guess that tells you how popular American football is in the rest of the world.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 31, 2006
Day 125

Ahoy matey, welcome to Ushuaia!

Today I went to the Maritime Museum in Ushuaia. Built out of an old prison, there was an atrium at the center with around five wings jutting out from the sides. Each cell contained its own exhibit.

One wing was dedicated to the old prison. I learned about criminals such as the Short Man With Big Ears, who killed dozens of children and set fire to numerous buildings. He spent some time in prison for the killings, but the authorities figured he was just a lunatic and let him go. When the killings started soon thereafter, they put him away for good at Ushuaia.

Another wing was dedicated to the old ships of the area. They had models of the first ships to sail through the Straights of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and Cape Horn, all of which near Tierra del Fuego. Magellan's voyage was the most impressive to me. He set sail in 1520 with 265 men to look for a passage to Asia. He had no idea what type of terrain he would encounter, but eventually Magellan's crew became the first to sail all the way around the world. Magellan himself was killed during the voyage and only 18 of his men made it back to Portugal alive.

Another section was appropriately all about Antarctica. It included exhibits about the first men to make it to the south pole successively. There was also an exhibit about Shackleton's voyage. His crew got stranded in the ice during a terrible storm in the Antarctic Sea. He left with a few of his men in a tiny boat to make the 800 mile journey to the closest inhabited island. After they got to the island, they spent six months traversing the brutal terrain until they reached civilization. Amazingly, the people who were left behind in Antarctica for the winter all survived.

The final wing I walked through was for Salvador Dali, the famous surrealist. He was most famous for his paintings of melting watches, but he made a lot of other crazy works, too. The main exhibit on display was two paintings of Jesus that were places against mirrors such that when you looked at them from a short distance, Jesus appeared to be three-dimensional. Another painting was of his wife walking away naked, but when looked at from a distance of ten meters, it looked like Abraham Lincoln. Dali confirmed his strangeness when he said, "The only difference between myself and a lunatic is that I'm not a lunatic."

The museum was easily one of the best ones I've visited in South America. It was brilliantly laid out in the old prison, and the explanation for every exhibit was written in both Spanish and English. I spent six hours there until they rudely decided to close at 8:00.

My other big news today is that I'm for sure going to Antarctica. I just paid for it today. It was pretty funny when the tour agent warned me about the cruise. She told me that they have some formal dinners, so I'll have to bring my suit along. I hope my mud-stained t-shirt and zipper-off pants count or I might be relegated to playing the banjo at the bottom of the ship like on Titanic.

The cruise will go from Ushuaia to a few Antarctic islands, then to the Antarctic peninsula, followed by the Falkland Islands, one of the remotest, least visited places on Earth. Afterward, I'll have two days to "relax and reflect on my adventure" before being dropped off in Buenos Aires. I wasn't planning to go to Buenos Aires yet, but it's a small sacrifice to get to see Antarctica.

Don't worry, the offer to visit me in Buenos Aires still stands. I'll probably just stay there for a few days and start heading south again. I'll stay in the Argentina-ish region for a couple months before heading back to Buenos Aires in April.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 30, 2006
Day 124

This afternoon, after a morning of relaxation, I took a nap. Suddenly, John shook me awake. "We're going!" he exclaimed. "Come on, we only have half an hour." I knew what he meant right away: Antarctica. Earlier he had told me that he was going to search for tickets, but I didn't expect much.

There are only two ways to go Antarctica as a tourist: On a cruise or on an expedition. Going on an expedition requires you to be rich and crazy, and I'm not rich, so a cruise was my only option. I've never been on a cruise before, and they're probably not my favorite way to travel, but I figured it was worth a shot to try to get a last minute cruise deal as long as I was in Ushuaia.

It turned out that John had gone to ten different tour agencies in town, and the cheapest offer he could find was for nearly $4000. Frustrated, he was about to give up when he poked his head into one last tour agency. They had some cancellations, making a few places available for the cruise that leaves in a week, and they were offering a great deal for people who were already in Ushuaia. We ran to the office so they could enter my name into the computer in time. Now all I have to do is wait until tomorrow for a confirmation from the US and I'll be all set. While I was at the tour agency, I met a few other backpackers who signed up, so it should be a lot of fun if I can go.

January 29, 2006
Day 123

Last night I stayed in a really bad hostel. It was just some guy's house, and he threw a bunch of beds into a few of the rooms to make dorms. The owner told me I could use the Internet last night. A few people were waiting to use it before me, so I waited patiently for over an hour. Before I had a chance to use the computer, the owner quickly turned it off and then got mad at me for wanting to use it! As much as I tried, I just couldn't understand why he would do such a thing.

The hostel owner was in a bad mood all night, so today, John and I packed up and left at 1:00. When we paid for our room, the owner got mad again and told us that checkout was 10:00. John doesn't understand much Spanish, so he thought the owner was asking for 10 more pesos. When John looked confused and didn't say anything, the owner said in Spanish "You understood me." I've probably stayed at fifty different places on this trip, and they all have different checkout times. It's not at all unusual for me to leave a hostel late in the afternoon. If the owner wants us to leave at a certain time, it would be helpful to know what that time is beforehand.

I've noticed a trend in this region. Tourism is growing rapidly here, and the locals want to get some of the tourists' money. They turn their house into a hostel, but they don't care about anything other than making a few extra bucks. Then they get mad at the people staying there for breaking the rules which have never been written down or even verbally communicated to anyone. I would think it would be common sense that if you want to open a hostel, you should at least have some desire to meet people from other countries, and have some social skills. Anyway, I found a much better place to stay with a pleasant staff and clearly communicated rules, so hopefully I won't have to deal with these problems for the rest of my stay here.

I didn't get much done today because of the late night last night. It's Sunday, so almost everything in town is closed anyway. Tomorrow, I'll probably go on a trek of some sort with John and possibly Kevin from New Jersey, who I met on the bus yesterday. There is a lot to do in this area, so I may stay here for awhile.

January 28, 2006
Day 122

Me at the Straights of Magellan.

The bus to Ushuaia left at 8:00 this morning. After a few hours, we crossed the Straights of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego on a ferry. When I got off the ferry, I got a quick picture by the sign welcoming me to the island. I stared walking back to the bus, but it was already leaving! I ran after it and frantically waved my hands to get the bus driver's attention. I thought I would have to hitchhike into Ushuaia and search for my backpack later in the day, but the bus finally stopped for me. I guess a bunch of people noticed the empty seat and were shouting at the driver. I think he just wanted to play a cruel trick on me.

Once we got to Tierra del Fuego, we saw a lot of nothing. We had to cross the border back into Argentina, and we passed through a few small cities, but otherwise the bus ride lasted twelve long, boring hours.

Ushuaia is a nice little city. It's only about four blocks wide, but it seems like it is 100 blocks long, stretching itself out along the Beagle Chanel. The ubiquitous Andes mountains are in still in the background. For almost my entire trip so far, the Andes have always been nearby. Now that I've reached the end of the line, they have gotten much shorter before taking their last plunge into the ocean.

The city is very touristy, but also fun. Every little store seems to sport a sign proclaiming that it is at the end of the world. Tonight I went out to one of the clubs in town with some people I met on my bus. You'll be happy to know that the famous Argentine nightlife does extend all the way to the far southern regions. The "night" scene was still going strong when I left at 6:30 AM, long after the sun had risen.

The photo album for this entry is here.