Day 76 Sunday 9th December : Finally heading North

Chris writes:

Our flight out of Ushuaia was early afternoon so we spent the time available to explore the town further.

A team breakfast fast was taken, guests Karen and Maureen,

Then we took a walk along the harbour front and then we found ourselves in prison!

 

This is was only a courtesy visit to the historic penal colony prison established at Ushuaia (now a museum) which really was the first major development of an otherwise small fishing village. The Argentinian Navy also established a base here from there would rule the Southern Ocean. All in all a good couple of hours learning more about Argentina and Ushuaia history

We were blessed with good weather on take off and we’re able to see for the first time from the air the land that we had driven through just a couple of days earlier.

So farewell to Tierra Del Fuego, the Lands of fire and the home for many native Indians.

Major thunderstorms around Buenos Aires buffeted the plane significantly as we dodged storm clouds and lightning strikes while landing at the domestic airport.

Argentinian union regulations do not allow planes to be unloaded during thunderstorms so there was a two-hour delay in getting our luggage.

We believe that the real reason was that handling staff where watching the second and final leg of the Copa Libertadores between local rivals River Plate and Boccaccio Juniors ( played in Madrid due to prior crowd trouble).

The airport was rather noisy as thousands of Argentinians crowded around any available TV screen and voiced their support for their team.

This obviously included all taxi drivers as the queue was massive once we had collected our luggage.

The win for River Plate seems popular amongst the discerning travellers.

The passing storm provided some more great photo opportunities as we finally left the Airport.

The very late arrival at the hotel, meant that the reunion with Lois was cancelled, Frankie headed out to meet a former colleague, so the remaining group dined locally and had a cleansing Ale near the hotel.

It was here that locals mistook Craig for a well-known Argentinian Soap star Ricardo Darin,

or maybe they had just partaken in too many craft beers. Craig enjoyed his five minutes of fame and the various comments made about his dress sense,or we may have misunderstood those and they were actually saying something else?

Craig or Ricardo ?

Tomorrow (Monday) we head separate ways but will close off with a final blog in the next day or so. In the meantime we thank everyone who has helped and supported us to achieve our objectives