Ushuaia

The first shower in Ushuaia after 11 days on Spirit was simply fabulous – we all took our time and finally managed to feel clean - its not the Spirit doesn’t have a shower – it does but it’s a very small space and involves wetting the body, then soaping it and then rinsing it off, all individual steps remembering that fresh hot water is at a premium and only available when the hot water circuit is operational.

A couple of days R&R just looking around the city, the museums (finally saw a beaver - a stuffed one), a farewell dinner with Darryl and Craig from Spirit, sorting laundry, arranging a rental car and a trip to the penguins and Estancia Harberton and catching up on some sleep. Just having a large spacious room was a welcome treat. Brett and my berth on Spirit was next to the bathroom which did lead to a rather broken sleep. The weather continued to be fine and the light was great for our own postcard shots.

The early history museums are fascinating in a very traditional museum way – The early colonists and missionaries did not do these people much of a favour – the clothing and education destroyed their heritage and the introduced diseases ravaged the population.

The local municipal workers staged a wage protest – a large BBQ in 44 gallon drums in the middle of the main street outside the information center for most of the day – detours were set up and sausages were for all.

We also got to experience a short sharp wind storm that the region is famous for. Brett and I were arranging the rental car while Shelene was returning charts that we’d borrowed to copy to Spirit. The sky became increasingly dark and then a strong wind sprang up (100km) out of no where accompanied by heavy rain. Shelene watched a couple of kayakers down on the harbour hug the yacht wharf posts for dear life before being rescued. It was an offshore wind that lasted for about half an hour so the next stop would have been someway distant if they hadn’t grabbed the wharf.