January 9, 2009 - Ushuaia, Argentina
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I woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was time to get up! It was 3:45 AM. I slept for a few more before getting up at 5:45 AM. Being a triple shared room, one has to take the initiative to be the first. It was quite fine by me. I tried to be as quiet as possible while going about my preparation. I was all done by 6:30 AM.
Antti (the finn) was up next. I tried to pack up my bags without waking up Mike. We were all ready by 7:30 or so and headed for breakfast. Although for a Vegetarian like myself it did not make much of a difference, the meat eaters found it to be an excellent breakfast (a 5-star quality buffet).
We had free internet access at the hotel and needless to say it was SLOW. I checked e-mail and moved by bags to the lobby. The bags would be taken directly to the ship. We would head out on a tour of the Tierra del Fuego park (second time in 2 days for me) courtesy of Quark, followed by an Argentine Lunch (I dread to think of the options) and some free time in the city centre before we embark on the ship around 4 PM.
I wandered around the Hotel and took a few pictures. The Hotel is located on top of a hill and does have good views of the Beagle Channel and Isla Navarino (Chile). The tour bus arrived at 9:20 AM. There were 2 buses and they belonged to Rumbo-Sur (a local company) and were presumably chartered by Quark to shuttle us for the day.
We had an Argentinean guide who spoke fluent English give us some History and background about Ushuaia as we headed towards Tierra del Fuego Nacional Park. He was good.
We reached the park entrance within 30 minutes and headed to Lago Roca for some Photo taking opportunities. It was a great day with brilliant sunshine. There were lots of clouds though. We headed to a few more locations within the park including a short trek. All of these locations were different from the places I visited yesterday. I took a number of pictures.
We stopped for Lunch at a restaurant outside the city. Turns out that Quark had chartered 2 buses for the day. The Ship to Antarctic has a 48-PASSENGER capacity. No wonder there were so few on our bus! The meat eaters had a field day at the restaurant. I had Pasta :(
We were dropped at the city centre by 2:20 PM and were given 90 minutes (until 3:50 PM) to wander around.. Mike and I headed to a local wine shop. Some of the wines, recommended in my Guidebook (Hugh Johnson) and selected by me, turned out to be quite expensive (300+ pesos). We settled on 4 bottles for 130 pesos (US$43). Wines on board the ship were said to be expensive and we wanted to smuggle our own and save some $$. We hit the local grocery store next to get some curry sauces. While we did not have any luck finding Curry (as in Indian) sauces, we did find some good hot sauces - that were NOT TABASCO! I bought 2 small bottles for 8 pesos to make my repeated PASTA dining experience a bit palatable!
January 9, 2008 - On board Professor Multanovskiy
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We got back on the bus. The bus drove past the port security and dropped us in front of the ship. There were no issues is us being able to take the 4 bottles to our cabin. We did hide the bottles under our jackets though! I had a bit of anxiety as my bags were not in my room while Mike and Antti had theirs. This should not be a surprise as I had NO name TAGS on any of them. I wandered around and finally spotted them on another deck. They were apparently dumped in the hallway by a passenger who decided that these were not his (or hers). While Mike and Antti had their Antarctic Parkas in the Cabin, there was NO parka for me. I told the expedition crew and was promptly provided with a medium sized jacket.
We sat around the dining room table and chatted with a few other passengers. As it was close to 5 PM, there were Tea, Coffee and cakes provided. As there were 5 ships sailing out of Ushuaia this evening, there was a bit of delay in getting our ship cleared for departure.
We finally set sail around 6:30 PM. The winds were so strong that they started pushing our ship towards another vessel in Port. It was a sister ship of Multanovskiy. As both crews were Russian, they realized what was happening and communicated to one another from deck to deck. Crew Members from both ships threw a line of inflatable buoys on the side of their ships to prevent any serious damage to either ship. Passengers from both ships were on the top deck watching all this frenetic activity! We finally managed to pull away and set sail on the Beagle Channel leaving Ushuaia behind.
We had a quick orientation by the expedition crew and this was followed by a full blown emergency exercise where we had to don life vests and get into the rather cramped emergency boats. They shut the port holes and a Russian crew member read out a butchered version of the safety procedures.
We had dinner at 8:30 PM and the Vegetarians on board had a decent vegetarian meal (READ: No Pasta or its derivatives!) I met the 2 other vegetarians on board (One a young Canadian and the other a old Australian). I went up to the outside deck after dinner to take some pictures. There was still a lot of light around but the wind was quite strong as well. Did not stay out for too long. I have decided not to take the Sea Sickness pills recommended for the crossing of the Drake Passage. There is a Ship doctor (an American from Louisville, Kentucky) and he has promised to be available 24x7 during the expedition. So will seek his help if needed later on.
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