The nearest international airport is just south of Edmonton, however my family booked flights out of Calgary so on December 10, 2010 I began the 6 hour drive south. I stayed a couple days in Edmonton where I visited my grandparents and boyfriend, and arrived home in Calgary on December 12, 2010 just in time for my dad’s birthday where we celebrated by going for all-you-can-eat sushi. On December 13, I went snow-shoeing with my parents at Chester Lake, and had dinner with Calgary friends. December 14 was spent in preparation for travel.
December 15 at 5:00 AM
we all headed to the Calgary airport. Janna and I would make the journey on our own and our parents on a separate path due to how our cabins on the ship were booked. Janna and I first flew to Dallas, Tx where we had a 7 hour stop-over which is enough time to eat at a gourmet Mexican restaurant, take photos of all of the art in the terminal and also walk to terminals A, B, and C (we couldn’t figure out how to walk to E).
That evening we boarded an over-night flight to Buenos Aires “the big apple”, Argentina. When we arrived in Argentina we paid our $70 US reciprocation fee per person (apparently Canada, the US and Australia charge Argentine visitors coming into the country so they have also decided to reciprocate), retrieved our bags and soon realized that our parents were not landing in the same terminal. Luckily their terminal was only about a block away. We waited for about another hour for them to come out of the secured area in which I practiced my horrible Spanish skills with random
strangers.
Re-united again (it was a relief!) we caught a non-scam least-suspicious-looking taxi (in Argentina there are “fake taxis” so you must go to the booths inside the airport and order a taxi from there) to Bohemia Buenos Aires Hotel in the suburbs. We are now 4 hours time difference from MST.
At 2 PM we caught a city bus tour and saw the most gigantic avenue ever! It’s called Avenida de 9 Mayo I believe and is at least 16 lands wide with 3 boulevards. We also so the parks, a giant metal flower sculpture, many of the embassies, cathedrals, the soccer field, the Pink House (President’s House) and a poor but culturally rich neighborhood called La Boca (or “the mouth” – of the river). Talk about a lot to see right after stepping of an airplane!
For dinner we found a nice authentic restaurant. It was funny because the waiter was also foreign and spoke more English than Spanish! So I didn’t get to put my “skills” to use. In Argentina, the proportions are monstrous, especially with meat. I can’t even describe how much meat they serve! It’s ridiculous. If you like meat, eat in Argentina.
The next day we were woken by a 5 AM alarm once again where we caught a non-suspicious taxi to the municipal airport, Jorge Newberry (Jorge is the Spanish equivalent of the name George) for our flight to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina (54° 47', South and 68° 20', West).
As the plane began to come in for the landing my sister and I awkwardly stared out the window from our non-window seats at the water and the mountains – and just until the very last moment we nearly though we were landing IN the water. Land appeared out of no where and the wheels of the plane touched down. The airport was small, yet crowded as both our flight and my parents flight had come in at the same time.
The town Ushuaia has a large military presence as most politically strategic places in the world do (there were border disputes with Chile in the past). The mountains soar out of the ocean and the city is made up of many tiny and bright coloured buildings. It doesn’t feel like the South America that I had experienced in my day in Buenos Aires.
We had a short bus tour around then were let lose. King crab is a huge thing there – king crab burgers, pizza and of course pasta. I had king crab filled pasta with king crab sauce. You can never have too much king crab. For the rest of the afternoon we wandered up and down the streets and also spent a large portion of time in the old jail, which is now a
museum. At first the museum seemed tiny but then we realized that no, it actually goes in forever and ever!! At some point we realized we were running out of time in Ushuaia and started “speed touring”, which is what I call it when you don’t actually stop while you’re walking but you’re madly trying to see everything as you pass by/when you’re walking and take photos without actually stopping <- you’ll never see a professional photographer do this! Anyway it was a good afternoon and it’s always nice to be re-united with family after a flight to some unknown place.
At 4 PM we arrived at the docks and boarded the MV Fram, a 240 Antarctic passenger (or 400
passengers in international waters) ship with a 1B ice breaker rating built in 2007 by a company in Cincinnati, Italy based on Norwegian design. Fram I, II, and III had also been explorer ships – the first two to the Arctic and the third to Antarctica. A few other ships were also docked, including the Clelia II which got caught in bad weather and the passengers all had to be rescued. No one died. Another ship wreck also decorated the beach.
We had dinner then watched the boat leave shore.
The next day we spent at sea, on Gravol. My mom being a pharmacist arranged for us to have a myriad of drugs, but in the end it seemed like Gravol just worked the best with the only side-effect of dopey-ness. Drugs man, drugs!
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