USHUAIA - Starting point for Antarctic expeditions and penguin tours <3

Accommodation

Our accommodation was again on a budget. Pascal had overlooked the small information "No hot water" and it was also quite far away from the center. But then again hot water was flowing in the shower and young people, we are also good to walk ;) What irritated us a little bit: The shower was the toiled. So when you showered, the entire room was wet ;) Among other things, the water also reached the socket taped to the floor with sticky tape ;) Well, but you're reading this article right now, so you can assume that we survived :D And for the unbeatable price of an INCREDIBLE 14 euros per night, we can overlook that.

Sightseeing

At the water there's a lot to see. The Museo de la Ciudad, the Antigua Casa Beban, the Monumento a José Hernández and for Galicia en Ushuaia, the Plaza de la Memoria and Plaza San Martin including General San Martin. Then there's the Plaza Malvinas Argentinas (the Falkland Islands are claimed by Argentina) and the Plaza República del Perú. Besides the Mirador de la Bahia you can also see the Plaza Don Bosco and the Plaza Saint Cristopher including sunken ship. This was damaged during a salvage operation for another ship and is now listing in front of Ushuaia's bay. Last but not least there's the Plaza 25 de Mayo and the Feria de Artesanos, two Museos del Fin del Mundo, the Plaza Cívica, the Monumento Antiguos Pobladores and of course the sign with the inscription "Fin del Mundo" and the one with the "Ruta 40". And also outside the city there's a lot to discover. The penguin island Martillo with its donkey and Magellanic penguins is simply incomparable. We even got to see one of two king penguins who want to raise their young on this island each year. On board we also had a nice chat with two Koreans, whom I explained the Mate ritual to. From the ship we could also see Puerto Williams in Chile and the two Islas de Tierra del Fuego. When we landed on the island, the people went crazy. Even after some waiting time, people didn't want to give up their spot and defended it vehemently. Not an optimal starting situation for a 158 cm tall person. After a while I had enough and forced my way through the crowd. Yeah, that's despite the cruise attendant's request to rotate. It was somehow clear that this won't work. A hundred pictures are just not enough, no, it must be at least a thousand. Suddenly there was an announcement: We're not going back by boat. The lighthouse at the end of the world, the bird and also the seal island are therefore dropped. Too bad. But we get to see the Estancia Haberton, the oldest farm in this part of the world. First we were lured with "Entrance to the museum or the ranch is free", but then we were left on the ship for so long that there was no time for a visit. The buses also drove quite fast again and I felt sick again. Luckily I was then so tired from the sea air that I slept the rest of the drive. Back in Ushuaia we wanted to take care of a refund right away, but were then referred to the company's WhatsApp account. After some back and forth (we could have alternatively gotten the "small" boat trip to the missing sights for 35000 Pesos) there came yet the promise for a refund in cash amounting to 28000 Pesos per person.

We also took a hike to the Laguna Esmeralda. That was really really beautiful. And it wasn't particularly strenuous either ;) With the Uber, the approach was also really cheap (3150 Pesos for more than 20 minutes of driving). Alone I then still took a hike to the Glaciar or Martial Glacier. As we wanted to check out at 12 o'clock, it was quite stressful. With the Uber we went a bit up the hill to the ski lift station (2580 Pesos for about 15 minutes drive). In a quick gallop I tried to see as much as possible and then drove down the hill again by cab (3400 Pesos). The Cueva de Jumbo, Glaciar Vinciguerra and the trip with the Tren del Fin del Mundo (29000 Pesos) we unfortunately didn't get to see anymore.

Transportation

On foot or by taxi/Uber

Food and Drink

Since we had the refund from the boat trip, we treated ourselves to dinner in the restaurant "Barcleit 1912", a tip from Jorge (our host). I loved it, Pascal not so much. Afterwards, we went to "Tante Sara - Café und Bar" for hot chocolate. I ordered a "Submarino", a hot milk with a piece of chocolate that has to be sunk in it. With it, we had a piece of cake with Dulce de Leche or Maní. On the last day between checking out and the airport, we made another stop at "Ana & Juana", where we drank another Submarino and hot chocolate. With it we ate a big piece of carrot cake.

Cafés and Restaurants

Barcleit 1912, Tante Sara - Café und Bar, Ana & Juana

Plants and animals

Flecked hemlock, lovage and vegetable cabbage as natural plants or planted greenery; Magellanic, donkey and king penguins

Number of Germans in the City

1 (the cyclist who was with us at the campsite in Puerto Natales and we even saw him TWICE, once in the city and once at the lagoon)

Contact with locals

Jorge, our host

People we met

Tadeo, the most unreliable Uber driver in the world wrote us three out of three times that unfortunately he doesn't have a car that exact day. Maybe he's not an Uber driver at all ;)

Expenses

For the excursion to the penguin island Martillo we had to lay down a pretty big chunk of money. 60000 Pesos per person and then the port tax of 900 Pesos. So we were kind of lucky that half of the excursion didn't happen and we got 28000 Pesos back per person. With that money we then went out to eat twice.

Standard market offer

Penguin accessories (magnets, T-shirts) in the stores.

Laundry

We washed our laundry right next door in the laundry. The price was about 6700 Pesos.

Unsolved mysteries

What the demo we saw was probably about? (Against the libertarian government, organized by unions, LG Pascal)

Flight to Buenos Aires

The flight cost 155791 Pesos per person and brought us from 17:55 to 21:20 hrs (or a bit faster) to Buenos Aires. Our luggage weighed 9,4 and 12,65 kg. We didn't sit by the window, instead there was an elderly lady next to me, who I talked a bit with. She is driving with her four companions the day after the flight for 6 h by car to the region "Entre Rios" and is vacationing there. With our luggage everything went well and we were able to leave the airport promptly at 21:45 at 27°Celsius. Right in front of it, we were then offered a "taxi" for 16000 Pesos - shortly thereafter his colleague came and it suddenly only cost 8200 Pesos. Since that was too suspicious and expensive, we then called an Uber for under 5000 Pesos. The driver also told us quite a bit about Buenos Aires and at 22:15 we were already at our accommodation, where our host greeted us.

Post Scriptum

Pictures can be found again under https://hoenisch.eu/photo/mo/sharing/N1BF55e7B.