Return to Ushuaia - final farewells to the other passengers - then off on the next part of my adventures!!

The Las Palmas and the Lubylov Orlova (she was a Russian film star of the 40's) side by side in Ushuaia.
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I was awake long before Caras last early morning call to us and dressed quietly to go up on deck and see our progress back to Ushuaia. We were well up the Beagle Channel and the pilot for the port must have been with us. A grey morning, no spectacular sunrise, kind of reflecting the way I was feeling.  Ending this part of my travels made me think how it had all started with Dominique's insistence that I should see Antarctica, and came into being with the help of Rachel, my booking agent from 'Discover the World' in Surrey who had done the same cruise the previous year and was so very helpful and encouraging.  Lack of finances meant I nearly didn't do this, but Rachels insistence that I would regret missing it had been spot on.

The BEST chocolate crepes ever in this shop - and in Ushuaia of all places!
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Then it was breakfast and goodbyes and final disembarkation and there, moored opposite the Orlova was the Las Palmas that had rescued us at Deception Island! So then we walked up the jetty through customs to collect baggage and Mick helped me get my bag to the hostel, which was just a few minutes walk straight up the hill from the harbour, in the centre of town this time.  My room had a wonderful view of the jetty and all the ships in port.

The hostel was fantastic in so many ways – Costa Serinnos, family run again I think, extremely good value with pastries and coffee and cakes available all day, not a hostel that appears in any of the web hostel sites and fantastic value!! Also it was right opposite the Argentinean Airline office so I could get my bag easily. And there was a BATH! So I had a relaxing afternoon – I was so TIRED I just slept, then collected the bag and set off round town again. Too late in the day to go to the museum as I had planned so I just met up with some of the other passengers, not yet travelling onwards, in an Irish bar – The Dublin - in the evening.

The smaller jetty in Ushuaia where I got the zodiac to take me to Chile.
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The next morning I had to find out when my boat would go to Puerto Williams and on to Punta Arenas and meet up with others of the passengers who hadn’t made it last night for a final goodbye at the BEST chocolate café I’ve ever been to – those chocolate crepes! YUM!

Couldn’t find Boating Ushuaia at first and when I did the man I’d spoken to before was out boating and the girl there seemed very vague about whether or not anything had been booked for me! Eventually, after several calls to him on his mobile, she told me to be at the small jetty for 9 the next morning – I still hadn’t paid anything or got a ticket, this was certainly a different approach to the cruise organisation - but as before I just went with the flow.

The Yamanas graveyard outside Puerto Willliams.
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Still dog tired, so I’m afraid my touristy trips in Ushuaia never happened – I was asleep all afternoon again. Then I went out for a meal (one of the very few meals out I’ve had in all the trip) by the waterside with Jen. It was a lovely sunset. She came back to the hostel for a coffee after and we ended up talking to some English guys, one from Tasmania, that were off to Antarctica the next day. We felt like veteran travellers giving advice to them!

Up early the next morning and walked in the sunshine to the other jetty to the east of the town. Couldn’t find anyone at first, then I met a young couple who were going on the same boat, Gemma and Ed, who were on a year long honeymoon which had started in Alaska in July, they’d now travelled the length of the Americas and next stop Africa! Of course I told them about Melissa and Ben who were in Africa at that moment!

The 'Yacht Club' that always seemed closed!
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Then another passenger turned up, Ben who was doing research/pre-production for a BBC adventure programme. The fifth passenger “(he only takes 5 at a time I think) was just doing the return trip. The rest of us were to transfer across country (down a dirt track) to Puerto Williams some kilometres from where we landed.

So we all were whizzed off across the narrowest part of the water to the makeshift customs shed on the Chilean side of the Beagle Channel. It felt remote and when we arrived was deserted, but two official looking types arrived and then a four wheel drive with a small family group – the passengers for the return journey.

Boarding the cargo ferry - the pullman seats and cabins are in the section to the right of the car!
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I learnt later that the grandmother with them was the oldest surviving Yamanas – the Tierra del Fuegan Indian tribe – and I had been tempted to take a photo, but felt it wasn’t appropriate – then later I learnt she would charge US$200 for an interview, so god knows what a photo would have cost - maybe it was good I didn’t! Later I saw her picture on various books about the Indians and also the hut where she had grown up. On the way to Puerto Williams we passed a graveyard, where the Indians are traditionally buried.

The arrow points at my window in the Costa Serinnos Hostel.
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Then to the hostel – very comfortable – with a visiting pussy cat, which kept me very happy! After another much needed sleep, I set off to explore and followed the road out of town to the east – then up into the hills a bit, heading for the most southerly point if I could. It wound up and up and then at a fork I took the turn back to the town and ended up at a land fill site! It was a dead end – but one side was a naval installation and I was able to get back to the road by going along the outside fence of this.

This is the view I had from my hostel window of the Orlova leaving later 0on the day we returned!
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Puerto Williams is primarily a naval base, with the newer looking buildings being the naval quarters, the rest being somewhat of a shanty town, much corrugated iron, as there is in Ushuaia – I guess this was one of the lightest building materials to transport here in the earliest settlement days.  It had a very run down feel to it, the streets (the few streets there were) were not very busy, but everyone I met was friendly, smiled and said 'hola' to me.

So back to town and in search of food I found the ‘Yacht Club’ an old ship moored at the west of town – Ben had said it would be good there but it was deserted! So I went off to find somewhere else to eat – and bumped into Gemma and Ed and Ben again with another couple, Helen and Andrew who were staying at my hostel and we all had a lovely evening in the Angelus Café which was run by a very friendly and generous Chilean lady.

...and the view from my hostel window at night.
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The ferry, Transbordadora Austral Broom,wasn’t leaving until the day after – so I had a full day in Puerto Williams! What does one do in a one three-legged-horse town? This really DID feel like the end of the world! I went in search of the museum, which was closed, and then around the shops – all of these were shack-like single storey houses, looking like charity shops the amount and variety of stuff they would cram in the windows! ‘HOW do they survive?’ I thought.

With some of the other passengers in the 'Dublin'
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So I did my bit for local industry by getting postcards and stamps and ended up back at the same café as last night writing them and the other ‘travellers’ called in too – Helen and Andrew are going on the ferry in the morning too. We went to the Yacht club again and it was still closed! So then to another ‘downtown’ pub, the ‘Albatross’ with another English guy, Hugh, from our hostel. This was a real locals bar, I was the only woman in there, it was all naval folk and fishermen it seemed.

Jen at the bar of the 'Dublin'.
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Then onto the ferry the next morning – I used my mobile as an alarm for the first time and whenever I set the alarm to the same tune it takes me back to that morning – cold, drizzly and a wet walk down to the boat dragging my wheely rucksack along the dirt road onto the very functional but bizarre cargo ferry - but such an AMAZING thrill in my bones to be going on an adventure into the great unknown in so many ways! When I’d seen the boat come into the jetty the day before I couldn’t for the life of me work out where the cabins or the seats might be for one thing!