January 7, 2008 - Ushuaia, Argentina
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I overslept and just made it in time for breakfast before it closed at 10 AM. Croissants were the only option and I had a few.
The Train ride at 9 AM was ruled out and I decided to try for the 12:30 PM train. As the Mobile Phone was not accepting the PIN information for the 20 Peso card, I headed to a nearby movistar office. The girl out there could not help me and she directed me to a client service centre at the other end of town. Those folks were clueless and they directed me to a helpline. I passed on the helpline offer as it would all be in Spanish and I would be clueless. I wonder why these folks even get paid if all they do is direct traffic! I am sure that Cingular or T-Mobile folks in the US will be equally useless in helping foreigners deal with their GSM Phone issues.
I got back to my Hotel and I explained my problem to the hotel receptionist who spoke decent English. He spent over an hour trying to resolve this by using the hotel phone and calling the Movistar client line. It finally boiled down to this:
I cannot use the Phone Card Purchased in Ushuaia (Argentina) to add money to my Mobile Number (which is Chilean). There is a possibility that I may be able to do it on-line. And this is with the same Phone Company!
I headed to a nearby Internet cafe and tried to add money to my Phone Number. No luck. I had lunch soon afterward. I had wasted over 3 hours on the Phone issue all because I needed to be ´contacted´! Talk about self-importance :)
I headed to the visitor centre and obtained a very good map of town. Those folks also stamp your passport with the "End of the World" stamps and provide a certificate of your visit to Ushuaia as well. The lady at the counter must have regretted agreeing to issue me a certificate as she had to write in my full 32-character name as it appears on my passport.
I had missed the 12:30 PM train as I was obsessed with the Mobile Phone issues. I headed to a nearby internet cafe and waster yet another hour trying to upload pictures. Both Mozilla and IE had issues at the cafe. I gave up and headed to the waterfront. I tried to get a bus to take me to the train station for the 3:30 PM train. I was told it was too late for the 3:30 PM train as it was already 3 PM and the bus ride is 20 minutes. Oh well, manana then.
As I wanted to get my clothes laundered before I set out on my Antarctica Cruise, I headed to a laundry. The first Laundromat would not be able to deliver my clothes until 7 PM on Wednesday (when I will be well on my way to Antarctica). I headed to a Second Laundromat a bit further away and they agreed to deliver my clothes by 5 PM Tuesday.
After dropping my clothes, I headed to the Museo del Fin del Mundo. It is a small museum and had exhibits showing the origins of Ushuaia right from the times of the Indigenous peoples to the arrival of the Europeans. It is a small museum and takes about 45 minutes to see fully. Well presented.
The weather is the best I have experienced thus far. It is not at all hot despite this being the Argentinean Summer and there is no mad wind like Puerto Natales or Punta Arenas. The weather alternated a bit between a light drizzle and bright sun for an hour or so. I wandered around town trying to find the hotel I was booked to stay in Ushuaia (for 2 days) after my return from Antarctica. It was located far away from the centre and did not look too great. By staying here as opposed to stay at my current hotel (located in the centre of town), I would be saving US$20 per night. As my current hotel had availability for Jan 22-23, I booked with them for those 2 days and sent a cancellation note to the other hotel.
I headed to an Internet cafe to ensure that my memory cards are all copied to my external hard drives. All internet cafe here have USB 1.1 although the operators of these cafes think they have USB 2.0! I finished my backup processes around 11 PM.
Restaurants in Ushuaia are open late. I headed to a nearby restaurant and had a pumpkin Ravioli. Nothing great as I have been having this for over 5 weeks now!
I check out of my current hotel tomorrow morning. I plan to take the 9:30 AM train to the Tierra del Fuego National park.
January 8, 2008 - Ushuaia, Argentina
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I had an early breakfast and checked out of my hotel. I left 2 of my bags in the hotel luggage locker. I went to the place where the shuttle service to the train station operated and found out that I was way too early today:) The first shuttle to the train station was at 8:30 AM. At 8:30 AM I was told that since I was the only person going to the train station it is not economical for them to run the shuttle and that they will wait until 9 AM to see if other folks show up to go to the train station. As it would be cutting it fine, I mumbled something about getting a "coffee" and started walking away - as I wanted to find a Taxi and get me to the train station ASAP.
After walking 50 metres or so, I heard quite a bit of hollering behind me. It turned out that 2 more passengers had showed up to go to the train station and all the drivers were hollering to get my attention - to say that we could leave for the train station right away! The price for the transfer to the station (and subsequent return back to the city centre) was 20 pesos. I will most probably miss the return pickup at 11:30 AM as I plan to do a bit of hiking in the park and will not be taking the immediate return train.
We reached the "Fin del Mundo" train station after 20 minutes. There were no first class train tickets available on the 9:30 AM train. I settled for a tourist class ticket for 70 pesos (US$23) and paid with my VISA card. The park entrance fees of 30 pesos (US$10) had to be paid in cash.
The train runs on a narrow gauge line and comprises of 6-8 small coaches. If the first class coaches are attached, I think the train will have 8 coaches. I had a window seat and sat on the left hand side as per the recommendation of my guide book. As there was no one seated in front of me, I removed the wooden table in between (and set it aside) so I could have more legroom. The train is pulled by a steam powered locomotive and was originally used to ferry prisoners to the park area so they could fell trees.
There is a stop at a place called Macarena Station for 15 minutes where one can walk to the top of Macarena falls and take pictures. The entire journey takes a bit less than an hour. There is a constant commentary in English, Spanish, French and German about the history of the train and the places we pass by. The slow chug-chug motion caused me to doze towards the end of the ride.
At the Nacional Parque Station, I asked the conductor for the timing of the next train. She told me that it would be at 1 PM and asked me to be at the Station 10 minutes earlier. Almost all folks on the train belonged to tour groups and they were picked up by buses at the Parque station and ferried away. A Japanese guy (Yasu) and I were the solo travellers. As he spoke English and also wanted to hike a bit before taking the 1 PM train back to "Fin del Mundo" station, we teamed up.
We set off on a short hike to a nearby lake. We reached the lake after 20 minutes. It was a good setting and I took a few pictures. We decided to return to the train station through a trail in the woods. The ground was quite wet and the trail did have some steep climbs. We both paused a few times to catch our breath. The trail hit a road heading back to the station and continued on. Yasu and I decided to take the road back to the station. We had sampled the trail and found it to be good!
Yasu used to be a patent engineer for Panasonic. He has quit his job and is travelling south America for 15-16 months. He speaks decent English and is 27. It has taken me an additional 16 years to do something similar:)
We got back to the Station and were waved to board a waiting train (even though it was not yet 1 PM). We sat in a different class this time where 6 people had their private entry and exit doors. I guess on the return no one bothers to check tickets or class seating. Fine by me. The train staff are all Uniformed and speak decent English. [Speaking English or being Bi-lingual may be a requirement to be part of the Train Staff].
I took some more pictures on the ride back and swapped E-mails with Yasu. Yasu was travelling to Antarctica as well (with a different company) and was planning to be in Rio for the Carnival. We may run into each other either at Antarctica or in Rio. We reached the fin del Mundo station. We decided to share a taxi and requested the station staff to call a taxi for us. The ride to the city centre cost 22 pesos (11 each - US$ 4 approx). Not bad.
I had lunch at a cafe and headed to an internet centre to copy my memory cards to my hard drive and synchronize my hard drives (ensuring that I have 2 copies of all my images at all times). As the copy speeds were slow - due to USB 1.1 - I wrote come post cards during the copying process! I headed to the post office to purchase postage for mailing the cards. The cost was 4 pesos per card. As I had 8 cards, it came to 32 pesos (US$ 11 approx) which I thought was a tad expensive.
I picked up my laundry and purchased an extra notebook and some pens as I was running out of paper and ink in writing these entries. I got back to the hotel and repacked my bag with the laundered clothes. As my Antarctica tour begins today, QUARK was to put me up in a hotel for tonight before I board the expedition ship tomorrow afternoon. I called the local QUARK agent and asked her if I could stay at my current hotel and whether Quark would pick up the tab. As the reservation had already been made at Los Nires Hotel, I would have to pay my way if I wanted to stay at my hotel for the night. I requested the hotel to call me a taxi to Los Nires Hotel. The hotel manager told me that Los Nires is a very nice hotel despite being located far away from the city centre. Good to know that QUARK is not being cheap and is putting us up for a night in good hotels.
I got to Los Nires Hotel and met the Quark representative there. I was given the keys to my room. I will be in a triple share room (at the hotel) and in a triple cabin (on board the expedition ship). I met Antti Vuorisalo, a Finn, and Mike Ayers, an Australian in my room. Antti was 15 years younger to me and Mike was 25 years older than me. I guess I bridge the gap rather well! Antti spoke good English and it seemed that he had been travelling for the past 3+ months and Antarctica would be his final trip before he headed back to Finland. Mike was starting a 3 Month trip and would travel across South America for 2+ months after returning to Antarctica. Good to know that I am going to be spending the next 14 days with like travellers.
Mike and I took a look at the hotel´s dinner menu and decided to take a taxi to the city centre. Despite the two taxi trips (to and from the city centre) and the dinner in the city, it turned out to be cheaper than eating at the hotel. Mike appeared to be quite an interesting and humorous gent. We returned to the hotel, repacked and went to bed.
It should be an interesting voyage.
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