Ushuaia, Argentina: "The City at the End of the World"

This morning we bid farewell to our captain and crew as our cruise ends in Ushuaia, the "City at the End of the World."  It is a busy port with the snowcapped Andes rising on one side of the town and the Beagle Channel on the other side.

There is a Princess cruise ship docked here.  We learned that it stayed overnight in Ushuaia because the Drake Passage had become too rough for it to pass by Cape Horn yesterday evening....that would be AFTER we left Cape Horn.  Again, we were very lucky!  There is a saying:  the Drake Shake or the Drake Lake....we were lucky and had the Drake Lake.

We had a city tour, stopping by the Malvinas Memorial Park. 

Our local guide was Gabre.  The memorial commemorates the 649 Argentine servicemen who were killed in the war for the Islas Malvinas (or as the British call it, the Falkland Islands) in 1982.

There is the statue of the Falklands map and the memorials with the names of the dead and an eternal flame.

We then met a veteran of the 1982 war between Argentina and Great Britain over the disputed islands.  Nelson, our Trip Leader, translated his speech for us.

The war was a very short one and lasted only 74 days; still 649 Argentineans and 255 British lost their lives.  Still some 35 years later, the memories are very vivid for the veterans.

Next we drove out of the city a short distance to the Gauchito shrine.

Throughout Argentina, there are red shrines on the side of the road with red flags flying around them. These are shrines to Gaucho Gil.

Although Gaucho Gil is not an official saint in the church, he is revered throughout the country of Argentina and is a "defacto saint".  Gaucho was a deserter of the military who evaded capture for quite some time. During that time, he was a sort of "Robin Hood" figure, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Now, Argentineans have built shrines throughout the country to honor the memory of Gaucho Gil.

 Nelson offered 2 beers to the saint for safe travel for our OAT group.

Then it was time for another home-hosted meal.  We went to have lunch with a family who have 3 daughters.  The daughters were home as it is summer vacation from school.  They were eager to practice their English with us.

They have a very nice home filled with treasures from travels around the world.

The dad was in charge of the cooking.

And the meal was excellent.

Before leaving, we took a group photo of all of us with Gaby and her family.  Again, it was a wonderful and memorable experience to visit with a local family about what their life is like at "the end of the world".

Ushuaia is a former penal colony and that afternoon we went on a tour of the prison museum.

Built in 1896, it was once the most southerly prison in the world.   Despite having a total of 380 single cells, the prison came to house up to 800 inmates, from serial criminals to political prisoners.  On a guided tour we learned a bit about the prison.

It was interesting to visit the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia, in one of the wings of the prison. It features a scale replica of the ships that belonged to the first expedition as well as photos, videos and objects relating to the history of Tierra del Fuego.

Dinner that evening was king crab at Freddy's,  THE place to go for its famous king crab dinners.

Nelson held up one of the menu items...

 Very good....

And with a stop for gelato for dessert, we ended our visit to Ushuaia and Patagonia.  Tomorrow we fly back to Buenos Aires for one more look there before starting our post-trip to Santiago and Easter Island.

To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled:  Back to Buenos Aires for a little Tango and a boat ride in the Parana Delta