I never imagined such an adventure as this growing up or, indeed, even in my adulthood until this past year. Here I am at the southern most city in the world and, tomorrow, the southern most point of the Americas…if the weather permits. After a hugely abysmal career move in 2020 that coincided with the COVID pandemic and then some health issues (not least of which was the emergency back surgery January 2022) I finally realize an opportunity of a lifetime. Such a long way from humble beginnings on an Alberta farm to an invitation as a visiting scholar in Brazil - a very circuitous and “scenic” path it has been! And more lies ahead…I haven’t reached Brazil yet!
Before reaching Ushuaia there was the treat of many glaciers along the passage. Similar to the fjords we saw over the past few days there were steep cliffs and mountains with scant vegetation on both sides of the ship. Some of the glaciers rivaled those on the BC - Alaska route, spilling down to the passage edge. Sadly, this view was only visible to the few of us up between 4 - 5:00 a.m. 🙈
Ushuaia has had an interesting history, similar to Punta Arenas - visited by many European explorers the city eventually became home to a military prison and penal colony for repeat criminal offenders. Charles Darwin came through here on the HMS Beagle for which the Beagle Channel is named, and then other European immigrants came to settle in the area including numerous Germans, as evidenced by the architecture.
I have to say that this is probably my most favourite stop thus far on the Pacific leg of my cruise. The city was impeccably clean and walkable with a really nice malecon along the harbour front. The main shopping street had all kinds of shops and restaurants - at almost every other storefront there was the aroma of Argentinian BBQ. Some restaurants had line ups outside since, in addition to local inhabitants, there were three cruise ships of passengers and crew. The lucky crew members who got ashore today were able to benefit from non-ship cuisine (I can only imagine what it must be like for some of them on 7-month contracts). One fun aspect of the stop was intense winds blowing from over the mountains that made walking quite interesting; some of the gusts were around 80 km/hr.
On our walk along the malecon we came across the memorial to the military members who lost their lives in the fight for the Malvinas, more commonly known as the Falkland Islands. The cruiser, General Belgrano, sailed from here as part of the Argentinian naval force to support the invasion of the Falkland Islands and had been ordered to intercept the British task force heading south to retake the islands. Although not within the 200 km exclusion zone, the General Belgrano was deemed a threat (even her skipper who survived the attack would later confirm the orders he had received) and was torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine with significant loss of life. Similar to what we see in the world today, the war was completely unnecessary and basically the posturing of a military junta - end result was needless loss of lives, ships, and power.
After a nice walk around Ushuaia and purchase of obligatory fridge magnets it was back to the ship for a bit of unwinding and then supper. Once again, as the ship pulled away from the quay, we had a view of another beautiful sky with unique cloud formations and brilliant rays of light shimmering on Beagle Channel. Off we go to the next memory and the last day of 2023.
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