Spinning Our Wheels

Seems like there was a fire sale on large white signs for Argentinian cities.

The blue Argentinian flag and the Ushuaia waterfront.

The whole railing was embroidered.

Old fishing ship.

Dolphin gulls with their red feet and bills.

Another Antarctic ship (in the background) at the harbour.

A monument to the Yaghan the local indigenous population of Tierra Del Fuego.

The local cemetery. The bodies are housed in above ground crypts, usually by family.

Thursday, November 14^th.

We had breakfast this morning before Signature Tours had us picked up and relocated to the Naranjos Hotel where we will spend the next few nights while doing the excursions we have booked here. Then we spent a couple of hours in the room. I was editing my blog posts while John was trying to fix his phone which seems to have packed it in. We had lunch at the Mercado Café which is right next door. I thought that maybe we could go for a hike in the National Park of Tierra Del Fuego for the afternoon, but I didn’t want to do the same hike that we are booked for tomorrow. So, I phoned the agency here and they told me which one we were doing and what he recommended. Then we needed to get some money as we are short of pesos and the park entrance is 560 Argentinian pesos.

So, we tried to find a bank. The maximum that any of the ATM’s would let us take out was 2000 pesos (there is about 60 pesos to a US$) and then they charged 367 pesos for the service, that is over 20%! We were frustrated because we took out 5000 the day we arrived here and couldn’t understand why we couldn’t do it again. We checked about 10 locations before we found one that would let us take out 5000 and then they charged 620 pesos (over $10US). Oh well.

Then we wanted to find a taxi to the park, and we found one at a taxi stand that was going to charge us 3900 pesos! We quickly got out of that. Turns out he wanted to take us there, wait three hours and then bring us back. So, we went to the tourist office and found there is a cheaper way by minivan, but we had missed all of the departures for the day. So, we gave up and went for a walk around the harbour for an hour or so and then headed back.

To make something of the day we headed back to Vulver for another excellent sea bass dinner with a bottle of white wine. Really outstanding fish and generous portion. Then we walked back through town to the hotel.