Ushuaia, Argentina... Getting close to finding our Emperor Penguin...

Friday 19^th to Monday 21^st November 2010

We say "our" Emperor Penguin because we have an adopted one - Coreena's work colleagues arranged this through WWF (World Wildlife Fund) as a 40th birthday present for her.

Very soon we will be on the "Ocean Nova" sailing the Antarctic waters via Islas Malvinas or Falkland Islands (depending on if your Argentinean or English), South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.  We'll see many species of animals including penguins but the Emperor Penguin is only found in Antarctica so we'll need to wait until then to find ours.  We have a picture so we hope to make a correct identification.

We have arrived at “Del Fin del Mundo” (The End of the World) to much colder weather than we have experienced during our trip so far.  Having come from Buenos Aires we only had one jacket each to meet with the strong, cold wind that greeted us as we exited the airport (brrrrrr!)

Ushuaia, Argentina, is the southernmost city in the world and is the closest gateway to reach Antarctica - it's only 1000kms across the Drake Passage (known as the roughest water crossing, so we are armed with many & varied sea-sickness tablets).  Ushuaia is on the coast of the Beagle Channel with an inland surround of mountains. 

Weatherwise, this place changes by the minute - from sunlight to overcast, sleet to rain, warm to cold and even freezing.  Currently the daytime temperature seems to be between 9 & 15 degrees Celsius; the night is around 0 or 2 degrees.  Wherever we go inside is a balmy warm temperature – sometimes a sauna!

The winter clothing has well & truly made its appearance out of our suitcases - at least making our luggage a little lighter.  We discovered that we each will need an extra pair of gloves (waterproof) and thick socks.  The city has a population of 70,000 people and a continuous flow of tourists, so fortunately Ushuaia is packed full of shops, including outdoor gear for those cold wintery days.  

The first 2 nights here we stayed at La Casa de Tere (Tere’s house) B&B.  It’s not too far from the city centre (the Lonely Planet travel guide says it’s a steep walk but it’s not so bad) so we’ve been able to walk everywhere, except when we had to change accommodation to Los Ñires Hotel in preparation for embarkation of the “Ocean Nova”.  This hotel is 4-5kms from town but at least they provide complimentary shuttle bus transfers to/from the city centre.

Los Nires Hotel

We’ve eaten at a variety of eateries from basic cafes with toasted sandwiches to an “Asado” restaurant where it was “all you can eat” that mainly consisted of “Fuegian”  lamb (roast lamb off the indoor Asado – like a campfire but with the lamb spreadeagled around the edge of the fire on racks).  There are so many chocolate shops here but we haven’t been game to enter one yet – that’s where we’ll buy our expedition supplies before we board the ship.  We should mention the delicious pastries we’ve found in the bakeries!!

Asado in "La Estancia" Restaurant - where we could have "all you can eat" for AR (Argentinean Peso) $85

The museums are small but interesting and we managed to spend a couple of hours between 2 separate ones… “Museo del Fin del Mundo” (Museum of the end of the world) and Ushuaia Government house (historic)… taking in the history of native inhabitants (all now extinct), European settlement, display of the extensive birdlife of the region, shipwreck history and so much more.

Taking in the interesting facts in "Museo del Fin del Mundo"

One of the many displays in the historic Government House of Ushuaia

How Government House looked years ago, surrounded by snow

City of Ushuaia including the historic Government House

So off we go, 18 days & 18 nights aboard the Ocean Nova in search of "our" Emperor Penguin.   We have been dreaming of this trip for such a long time and now it's here we simply cannot wait to get on board and get sailing.

Our next blog will be around 3 weeks away … but stay tuned for all the goss and of course some of our photographs. 

Ocean Nova - picture from internet

Ocean Nova in Antarctic waters - picture from internet

Buenos Aires, Argentina

15th to 19th November 2010

We flew to Buenos Aires from Calama, Chile via Santiago.  During the Santiago to Buenos Aires leg we flew over the Andes Mountains - flying at 10-11,000 metres we looked out the window and felt like we could reach out and touch the mountain tops.  The mountains were snowcapped and seemed to be endless until we'd reached the eastern side into Argentina and flew over country farming landscape.  

Arriving in Buenos Aires we had an easy and quick entry through passport control and customs - although we did have to pay US$100 each to enter Argentina via the Buenos Aires international airport.  On our way out of the secure area we were handed a leaflet "Cuidado" - a warning to "not contract services verbally, go to the booths in the airport"... this is to protect travellers from taking an unauthorised taxi from the airport (who knows what could happen).  We had read about this situation but to be handed a leaflet by an official airport person just made it more real.  Fortunately, because we were flying in later in the evening (9.00pm) we had a transfer booked via our accommodation so that made it a little easier - well, at least we thought that until our booking seemed not to be there.  More of our spanish vocab came in handy were used (and more was developed with the assistance of the phrasebook of course) and eventually we were in a private taxi car and on our way to our accommodation.

Quite a drive from the airport - about 45mins - our driver didn't speak very much English, in fact only a few words so it was a pretty quiet trip... us just observing the traffic and the night lights of the city.  During this trip Coreena managed one very short conversation with the driver... something along the lines of "Buenos Aires es grande ciudad! (BA is a large city)" the driver answered in Spanish and surprisingly the both of us understood his answer that we were only in the provincial area at the time.

Buenos Aires – a city that thrives on late morning starts and late night dining & entertainment.  Not much opens before 11.00am, including tourist attractions so no point being the early bird in this city.  It’s certainly a vibrant city, restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8.30pm (cafes will serve light snacks until then) and live shows don’t generally start until 10.00pm.

We’ve spent 3 full days in Buenos Aires and after an afternoon bus tour on our first day to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the city we were able to get ourselves around on public transport for the rest of the time.  Apart from walking (which we did so much of the time) we travelled mainly on the train - extremely cheap… it costs $1.10 Argentinean Peso, around 28c each, to travel on any one journey (doesn’t matter how far on the one service, can change trains as well).

The bus tour included a stop at La Boca, a colourful suburb that is well set up for the tourist with Tango inspired eateries, entertainment and markets.  We quite liked it here but apparently it’s not the place to be at night time.  Also stopping at  “Plaza de Mayo”, the main central area of the city – where “La Casa del Rosa” (The Pink House) – this is Government House where Eva Peron said her goodbye to the Argentinean people back in 1952 before she died of cancer at the young age of 33.

“Plaza de Mayo” is also a site of many protests – everyday there is a protest about something, banners everywhere.

La Boca

La Boca street

Plaza de Mayo and protest signs

La Casa del Rosa - Government house

While wandering around in our own time we visited so many things including “Museo Evita” where we learned more about Eva Peron, her childhood (as Eva Duarte), her work with charitable causes and for those in need (for which people loved her for), her drive for the women’s vote in Argentina and so much more.  She is laid to rest in Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.  

Evita bust

Evita dresses

Evita mausoleum

The Recoleta cemetery is full of incredibly ornate mausoleums, no headstones.  It is no longer possible to purchase a plot in this cemetery, only the families with existing mausoleums are able to lay their loved ones to rest here.  You’ll just have to look at the photos to see what we mean.  Caskets could be seen all over whether through windows or broken doors – all mausoleums are maintained by the family so a variation on appearance of each one was seen.  Many of the mausoleums tell a story of the persons laid to rest… such as a statue of a mother trying to save her daughter from falling from a balcony or a 19yo girl who had apparently been placed in her casket while still actually alive (her mausoleum has her trying to open a locked door).  There’s even one of a woman whose husband refused to pay her debts after which she refused to speak to him ever again – unable to divorce (it was illegal at the time) she insisted that when they were laid to rest that she had her back to her husband, not together.  So many stories – we were lucky enough that a volunteer guide spent some time with us to show us the main “attractions” – we were sure to provide her with a tip for her efforts.

Recoleta Cemetary

Broken tomb doors

Mother and baby statue inside a mausoleum

The wife who refused to speak to her husband - even in death!

While in BA, we (yes that is both of us, including Roy) took a cooking class… a home style cooking lesson showing us how to make Argentinean empanadas (like a small pastie).  We then ate our masterpieces followed by “Asado” (Argentinean BBQ) that comprises mainly meat but did include some salad items too.

Armed with the recipe and the basic training and experience of making the empanada pastry we’ll be sure to make these tasty treats for ourselves (and anyone else that dares) at home.  This was Roy’s first ever cooking lesson - he did extremely well – in fact with his attention to detail and patience his empanada pastry rolling was at times better than Coreena’s (they turned out more circular rather than odd shaped).  All very yummy but at the end of the day our tummies were saying no more after eating so much that we thought we’d have to roll back to our accommodation.  We add that we ate, or at least tasted, some unique meat treats that is customary in Argentina – blood sausage, heart muscle, intestines amongst the variety – not really to our taste but at least we tried.

Preparing the empanada dough

Our first empanadas ready for the oven

Empanadas ready to eat

Roy mixing the salsa for the Asado

When we first arrived in Buenos Aires, we were strongly discouraged from taking our camera bags & SLR cameras anywhere in the city for safety reasons… we took heed of these warnings and didn’t take our cameras with us, relying only on the iPhone camera for some snapshots. 

There were certainly times we missed our cameras but in the most we survived quite well.  We weren’t feeling too unsafe, the warnings we got are obviously genuine but also possibly similar ones that everyone should be aware of anywhere in the world, any city and anywhere with large crowds of people in small spaces.  By the 3^rd day we braved the perceived “danger” and took one of the cameras with us allowing us to get a wider variety of shots of the city sights.  We had no issues at all but we were also using caution to avoid any possible threat of “snatch & grab”.

Buenos Aires is a very lively city, the traffic is incredible – there is one avenue that is more than 100 metres wide with at least 7 lanes of traffic going each way.  We really had to watch out while crossing at zebra lines – drivers don’t seem to bother looking out for pedestrians (they just go around you).  Thankfully we weren’t driving around trying to figure out the one-way street system too.

Giant Metal flower which closes at dusk

City Rose Garden