More excitement today. Somehow I make the 6.30am bus back to El Calafate for my connecting flight to Ushuaia. As I´m scrutinising my flight details I notice it says ´status - cancelled´. Herein the panic begins and when I arrive in El Calafate I walk around town trying to find a travel agent but they´re all shut (it´s Sunday). Even the airline is not answering the phone so I need to hope all is well at the airport. Thankfully it is, although I am held up for having a fork in my hand luggage.
The flight to Ushuaia takes an hour and predictably my transfer hasn´t shown up so I take a taxi to my ´hotel´which is actually a residential place called ´Alba´s House´. On arrival Alba sits me down with a cup of tea, plants a town map in front of me and proceeds to mark big crosses all over it, where there are places of interest in Ushuaia. This takes half an hour. Alba is a force of nature and I´m slightly afraid of her so I listen intently.
I like Ushuaia immediately. It´s hilly, colourful and picturesque, surrounded by snow-capped mountains on one side and the Beagle Channel on the other. It´s also the southernmost city in the world (Puerto Williams is the most southern town) and the gateway to Antarctica.
After Alba´s recommendations I walk to the hotel where I´m staying tomorrow night to pick up my Antarctica documents but of course they aren´t there and they have no record of my name to boot. They tell me to come back tomorrow. I´m past caring at this stage. I´ve made it to Ushuaia and I´ll be on the boat to Antarctica come hell or high water.
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