After visiting the end of the world sign and checking off that tourist box it was down to work. The real reason I was here was to find a last minute cruise deal to Antartica, if I was gonna complete 7 in 7 (7 continents in 7 months) then Antartica had to be figured out. I woke up early, ate breakfast and set off to find every tourist office and cruise company office in Ushuaia. After A few hours in I realized this is not as easy as poeople make it out to sound, and that it cost much more then I could imagine. The cheapest deal I found was around 6,500 plus flights to Punta Arenas and Insurance. I decided to try my hand at online research which was not working out well either. I found one affordable cruise for around 2000 a person but I would need to book it with someone else because I wasn't shelling out 4000. I then decided to head strait down to the port and start wandering around from boat to boat, asking if they were going to Antartica and if they had space for one more person. I started with a very large cruise ship because I had asked someone who works on it in the grocery store if it had space and they did however it wasn't going to Antartica, from there I started talking to the dock hands and cargo ships who informed me in Spanish that "a cargo ship is no place for a woman". I almost accidentally ended going on a cruise because there was a French yacht that was going to Antartica, however I got there just as they were getting ready to leave the port. They let me board to talk to them about buying a room but not until the safety drill was over, however while the final drill was going on they were untieing from the dock, it ended up being too late for me to buy a room and had to get a special ladder to get me down from the yacht as they pulled away. Returning defeated to my hostel whose name now mocked my failure.
I decided that this would be a sign and I should start planning the rest of my trip because I had no plans for the next 4 weeks in South America. I booked flights from Lima Peru to Rio De Janero, picked the hike in Machu Pichu that I wanted to do, found a bus from Iguazu to the Salt Flats of Bolivia planned how I would get to Vinacuna the Rainbow Mountina. Yet nothing was lining up exactly. I couldn't book the bus/flight/hostel/tour I wanted every time it was one day off or too expensive for the time I wanted. Today was not my day for planning, deciding to put lots of things on hold and come back to pay the next morning when my head would be clearer and able to solve all these problems.
While in Torres Del Paine I met 3 Isreali travelers while we were all trapped on the bus for hours who had told me that in Ushuaia I had to do hike number 4. So I decided that since Antartica planning didn't go well yesterday I could at least do the hike and clear my head. As I sat down to eat my toast and absolutely wretched coffee I was discussing the national park with a Brazilian woman who was headed there today as well, but the bus she booked was very expensive. Next thing I knew two guys tapped me on the shoulder and asked how my Antartica planning had gone. They had heard me talking on the phone the day before in the Hostel. I explained to them that I didn't find anything except this one cruise that would take two weeks, but would have to do it with someone else because of the price.
Next thing I knew I was sitting there selling this cruise to Roeland and Stephane and then we found out we were all going to go to the National Park today and they had wanted to do hike number 4 too. We did some quick mental math and realized it would be much cheaper to share a taxi there and then just hitch hike back. Well that would be the case if the hike was near the start of the park. Our taxi was much much cheaper then the bus but it dropped us off at the start of the National Park and then we had to pay the entrance fee which left us 3 with less then 500 pesos together. The hike started 8 kilometers from where we were. We asked the buses in the park if we could get a ride just to the start of the hike but they were going to charge us 300 pesos each, because we were just sitting ducks and they knew we didn't have another option other then to pay. That price was ridiculous for a 10 minute ride, and we didn't even have enough money. So we decided to walk the 8 kilometers to the start and then do the hardest hike in the whole park. Along the road we put our thumbs out to hitch hike with hope that someone would be headed in that direction and would pick us up, but finding someone willing to pick up hitch hikers is hard and with 3 seats available, the boys decided to put me up front because they thought it would be easier for the girl to get a ride. When there's a Will, there's a Way. That was the motto for my Ushuaia trip because abut 20 minutes into walking an Argentinean couple stopped for me, and they had 3 seats open in the back, Juan and Mariana may just be my favorite Argentineans in the whole world. They were actually going to do hike #4 as well, plus go to a water fall, a beautiful beach/bay and another little waterfall hike. The five of us also visited the most southern corner of all of Argentina main land. They gave us a full tour of the whole park, so many things we wouldn't have seen on our own, they took us to hike #4 and brought us all the way back to Ushuaia just a block from our Hostel. The hike itself was crazy, it was the muddiest coldest and windiest hike of my life, I lost a show in the Pete bogs, almost fell off a cliff from the hail and wind and by the time we got near the top it was so cloudy I couldn't even see the view. But the five of us had the best time, and Roeland and I decided to book the cruise to Antartica. So when we got back to the hostel we immediately sat down and organized it all. Stephane got the wine and we got to work, we also told them that it was our Anniversary on board meaning that they sent us free wine, champagne, chocolate covered strawberries to our room. Where there's a Will there's a Way, all those trip details not working out the day before was just a sign that I would be finding a way to go to Antartica, this did mean though that my trip was now much different, I wouldn't be able to see Boliva, Paraguy, Peru, Brazil or much of Uruguay. However that just means I will have to come back.
Climbing out over a waterfall in Tierra Del Fuego National Park
Roeland and Stephan left the next day for Buenos Aires and I said my goodbyes and told them I'd be seeing them in a week for ANTARTICA.
Australia Day (Jessica and I)
Jessica teaching Yoga to one of the other travelers in our Hostel (he was from Austria and 68)
The rest of Ushuaia was spent rearranging flights that I did have booked and trying to get some money back on the bus tickets that I had organized while in Puerto Natales. I also had a bit of organizing that I had to do to for my volunteer work in Victoria Falls. I met a fellow American (Jessica) in my new hostel in Ushuaia and we spent the next few days exploring around Ushuaia. We were there for Austrialia day and ended up going to the Dublin Bar (the only real bar in Ushuaia) to celebrate where we found tons and tons of Australians. After Ushuiaia I flew to El Calafate to see Perito Moreno and the glaciers.
