A street in downtown Ushuaia
A street in downtown Ushuaia
We found a restaurant called "Restaurant Mustacchio", which had several local people dining there. We both had tenderloin steak with mushrooms, and it was fantastic! Some of the best beef I've ever eaten, I'm sure. Argentinian beef is definitely not to be missed. The Argentinian peso is tied to the value of the dollar now, so we were able to use American money with no exchange. I paid with my MasterCard just in case... No one there spoke English, but we managed to communicate the necessities anyway.
After that, we went to a photographic shop (one that was mentioned by Nigel Sitwell yesterday morning) that had film (which I stocked up on) and tons of photographic postcards of Ushuaia and Argentina. I didn't get any postcards, but I did buy enough stamps to mail my postcards from Punta Arenas. Again, no English-speakers, but we were able to communicate our needs and prices without any trouble.
I returned to the ship then, and Marty went off to see the museum. I decided that I wasn't that interested in the museum after all, so I came back to mail the postcards and flesh out these notes.
On my way from the ship to the post office with the postcards, I dropped them all, and had to go running around the pier catching them. One flew off the pier and fell into the water, unrecoverably. I believe that it was the one for Grandpa Homer, so I'll have to make sure I mail him one at McMurdo Station or Christchurch. (I'm mailing Mike one from Christchurch as well.) I just remembered that I never finished Grandma and Grandpa Liming's address either before I mailed it. Shoot! That may mean two unsent postcards instead of one. Again, I'll have to mail them later in the trip. I expect to send mail to everyone from McMurdo, and maybe some from Christchurch also.
Grandma has taken the afternoon bus tour instead of the extra catamaran tour, so she won't be back until this evening.
This is it! We're on our way to Antarctica proper now. Our next port of call will be in the Antarctic Peninsula, and there's no avoiding it, short of a near-death experience that requires the helicopter. The excitement is definitely building again now.
When we left dock, I watched Ushuaia slip into the distance, and I felt a small pang of something like regret or loss, as if just the one day there had caused me to grow slightly attached to the place. It was like leaving behind a new friend, even though I didn't really make any friends from there. I guess it was just that we were leaving a place I'd just begun to get to know, and I would have liked a little longer to enjoy it. But that's the way trips like these are, I guess. Especially when the ultimate destination is still yet to come.
Just before we left, a beautiful full-arch rainbow appeared toward the entrance to the bay (over the channel). I take this as an excellent omen for the rest of our trip.
Rainbow over Ushuaia Bay