12th – Going south

We were picked up at 0700 at the hotel – due to last night’s dinner I chose to skip an early breakfast. The drive to the domestic airport was short at things were easy when we found the correct sport to hand in our luggage. And things were made easier by the fact that we had already been checked in.

In spite of the airline’s reputation we took off on schedule and 3½ hours later we arrived in Ushuaia. We arrived in 8°C and while it wasn’t unexpected it was a bit of a change from Buenos Aires’ more than 25°C. My checked-in backpack made it too, which was nice. The flight bag in which my backpack had been put in didn’t. It was gone. The backpack had the luggage tag on as if the flight bag never existed. I don’t think I have ever been this weirded out before.

We arrived at 1230 on schedule and an hour later we were checking in at our hotel for the night. My roommate and I had a walk around the town but apart from the main street there wasn’t much to see. To my big surprise none of the equipment shops had or knew what a flight bag was so I didn’t manage to retrieve a replacement for my lost one.

Dolphin gull.

Direct translation of the sign at the entrance at the port; "Forbidden mooring of English pirate ships". I assume that if you arrive in a French pirate ship it's fine.

Read it and laugh. The English name for the islands is, as people know, The Falklands, but no matter where you look in Argentina, even when written in English the Spanish name, the Malvinas, is used. This is an official sign. What they are actually saying is the same as if when entering Copenhagen you would see signs saying "Skåne [southern Sweden] is included in the jurisdiction of Copenhagen. At the same time we should remember Skåne since 1719 has been under the illegal occupation of Sweden".

Basically the Argentinians are butthurt over the fact that they have no control over The Falklands but that it is, in fact, British. And that they got their asses handed to them in 1982.

We had lunch, walked some more, met with some of the others we had transferred from the airport with but decided to go separate ways for dinner. Roommate and I went and had king crab (with cheese and as a paella. I was tempted to have just the crab whole, but the amount and price put me off) before heading back to the hotel near 2200 and settled in for the day.

We will have to hand over our bags at 0900 tomorrow to have them sent to the ship, check out at 1000, kill time until we meet at 1430 to get our access cards for the ship and in the and gather at 1530 to finally go to the ship and board. I am so excited!

Memorial for the soldiers fallen in the Falkland war.