Return To The End Of The World

Our two days of voyaging from Antarctica were downright violent, but we eventually neared the coast of Cape Horn late afternoon of the 21st and finally sailed out of the reach of the Southern Ocean.

Our interim time suffering the Drake had been spent (among other things) in more spirited rounds of euchre (including further smackdowns of Bobby J & Aly as OG Matt G threw down bauer after bauer after bauer), as well as watching the Planet Earth DVD series, and participating in a round table discussion among the expedition staff and the “expeditioners” (like I said before, sue me!) on the reality and problems of global climate change, and what we can do about it.

Also difficult for me (which is entirely unexpected) is the fact that all my fellow expeditioners are heading “home”…for the first time, it’s really setting in that I have no home. The “road” is my home, and at least right now, I have some mixed emotions around that.

The final meal of our 2008 expedition was a celebratory “Farewell Dinner”, where I feasted on medium-rare filet mignon (very tasty!) and enjoyed the fantastic companionship of some now very good friends: Matt G, Stan & Betsy, Maggie, Bobby J & Aly and Koral.

The Farewell Dinner Crew: http://flickr.com/photos/timothyshoup/2313996341/in/set-72157603999841195/

After picking up a harbor pilot around 1am, we entered and at last docked at Puerto Ushuaia around 6am. Feeling a bit seasick the prior day, I waited to pack up my things (hurriedly, as it turned out) until after I groggily arose at 6:30am.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/timothyshoup/sets/72157603999841195/

Although I was definitely ready to disembark after almost 3 weeks of being drugged up on Scope Disks and Phenergan tabs, I was also dreading this moment. I had grown very addicted to the structured schedules, timely, prepared meals (complete with dessert at all lunches and dinners…very nice), lectures and presentations, but most of all to the community of people around me. I’ve met so many interesting persons from all walks of life and all age groups and it’s turning out to be tough to walk away from this…thinking about it gives me a lump in my throat. I will really miss having a group of people, friends at this point, to eat every meal with, attend every lecture with, experience every landing with, watch every movie with and have all sorts of excellent conversations with.

Also difficult for me (which is entirely unexpected) is the fact that all my fellow expeditioners are heading “home”…for the first time, it’s really setting in that I have no home. The “road” is my home, and at least right now, I have some mixed emotions around that. I expect that with some time these feelings will pass, but I’m struggling with them right now.

Back to logistics, a very funny thing (to me) is that we didn’t have to go through immigration and customs upon returning to Argentina. Even though our passports have been stamped in the Falklands and South Georgia (both officially British overseas territories), because Argentina disputes Britain’s “illegal occupation” of both islands, the government doesn’t consider us to have left Argentine soil…hence, we don’t need to go through immigration…this cracks me up, but is also prime evidence of the very deep cultural resentment that almost every Argentine citizen feels toward the U.K. over this very issue (I still haven’t figured out whom the Argentines dislike more: the U.K. or Chile).

After disembarking and dropping our bags off at the Nautico Restaurant for storage, I headed into town with Stan & Betsy, Maggie, Matt, Bobby J & Aly, and Koral (the exact same crew that I had my final departure dinner with the night before) to have breakfast at Café Tante Sara. Afterwards, Koral and I strolled around town for a couple hours before walking back to the Nautico (where we ran into Stan & Betsy). Koral headed off to the airport (with Stan & Betsy) for the very long trip back to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and I headed off alone to the nearest wifi-enabled restaurant and set about to work my way through (i.e. delete) the 230+ emails (newsletters, mostly) that had accumulated in my inbox over the duration of the expedition (I try to read the NY Times and Washington Post every day, and the Slate summary of the Wall Street Journal and LA Times front page news…but I’m not about to try and catch up on the past 3 weeks).

Exiting the restaurant, I immediately ran into Urs & Geeske and Sybille who were browsing about town after their early morning flight ended up delayed due to an airline strike…gotta love it. They suggested having lunch and we turned around and walked back into the same restaurant I just exited.

Heading out of the restaurant solo again around 2pm, first order of business was to find accommodations for the night…since I had neglected to do so before leaving for the trip. After finding FreeStyle to be full, I booked a room at Los Lupinos and headed back to the Nautico Restaurant to collect my bags. I ended up running into Urs & Geeske and Sybille again in town later that afternoon as I exited an ATM; we headed over to the Maritime Museum & Presidio, an excellent collection of maritime history exhibits housed in a building that served as a former prison for 700 inmates in 380 very small, concrete, icy cells (with no heat in the cells, winters must have been brutal).

The 3 of them left for the Ushuaia airport around 4:30pm to sort out the flight situation and I headed back to Los Lupinos only to have Bobby J stop by my room (I sent him an email earlier in the afternoon); he was on the same flight as Urs & Geeske and Sybille & Bill and had gotten confirmation that the plane wouldn’t depart until 8pm earliest.  We wandered about town for a bit before grabbing a frosty beverage and some empanadas at the Galway Irish Pub, chatting about life and watching the harbor, including the 5:45pm departure of the Professor Multanovskiy (they turn these ships quick) back out to do the same itinerary (and final trip of the season) in reverse. I remembered how I felt when we pulled out of harbor 3 weeks earlier and I was envious of how the expeditioners on this next trip must have felt at that moment…but I already had my time, and this was their time.

A text message from Urs to my cell phone (confirming the flight was actually en route from Buenos Aires and would be departing from Ushuaia today back to BA) got us out of our lounging. After a quick walk back to Los Lupinos to collect his bag (sitting in my room), Bobby J caught a taxi to the airport.

After so many goodbyes and re-encounters and subsequent good-byes, I was finally and felt very much alone…