Little Toe of the World

Ushuaia, Argentina

I woke up early the next morning. Luckily, the hangover from the night before hadn’t hit yet. I made

Two characters: Tom (left) and Neil (right)

bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and mixed champagne and OJ for mimosas. This definitely seemed to make up for the shit dinner from last night and everybody seemed appreciative.

C

After breky, we all jump on Doris and take off for Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. Once again I sprawl out across the last row and sleep most of the way. About an hour and a half outside of Ushuaia, the scenery finally starts to change and the pax finally have some mountains, trees and lakes to look at. We stop at a gas station where my favorite dog in S.A. lives. He’s a huge cross between a St. Bernard and I think a Newfoundland. Anyway, the dog is like 140 pounds and only 7 months old. It’s a bit scary, especially since last time I started playing a little rough with him and his little puppy bite went through my sweatshirt and broke skin. So this time I’m a little bit more careful.

In Ushuaia we stay at the Rugby Club campground. It’s called that because there’s a rugby club next door with a couple of fields that have very large men pummeling each other and chasing around a funny-shaped white ball.

Typically, Ushuaia is kind of a place of rest for me. My two trips previous I had come to Ushuaia directly from Torres del Paine where the passengers hike nearly every day. So by the time they get to Ushuaia, they’re pretty much worn out. This time is different. They’ve all been cooped up on the truck for the last few days and are keen to do some hiking and activities, especially Kristy and Damon. They are our go to bed early (not all the time) get up early and do some exercise passengers.

Once we get there, the pax get on putting the cook tent up and our crates of food out and I go and talk to who I call Mama. She and her husband run the camp and have an absolutely lovely family. There have three giant sons who help run the camp when they’re not playing rugby or studying in Buenos Aires and there always seems to be at least one grandchild around. This time it’s Faustio, an absolute chunk of a baby. He’s eight months old and weighs about as much as the St. Bernard at the gas station. I think that they’re trying to field their own rugby team.

After everything is out of Doris and we establish who is camping and who is staying in the two dorm rooms available (Steve and I have the third), I go shopping with Neal and Rachel. When I first met the couple I instantly liked Neal. Now Rachel is starting to grow on me as well. She’s a fiery Irish girl and at first, I was a little intimidated. Anyway, off we go to the supermarket and Neal and Rachel have had an excellent idea for dinner. It’s not often that we have an oven, like there is in the kitchen of the campground, so they suggest making pizzas, which I think is a grand idea. I don’t think that they realize how much work it’ll be (as I, ahem, was a trained professional at Godfathers Pizza no exactly how much work it’ll be) but whatever it’ll still be fun.

Afterwards, I head into town to the tourist office to check out some activities. There is a boat tour of the beagle channel, but I did it last time and wasn’t that impressed. Everything that they see there they have already seen on the Valdez Peninsula tour. So, I find a couple of hikes and a gondola tour up to see a glacier for them. That’ll give them some exercise.

That night after the outstanding pizzas (they were a bit of work), I take some of the boys out to the Irish bars. Everybody else is pretty tired and as the next night is Friday night they’re all waiting for then. There are two Irish bars and they are the two most southern Irish bars in the world (oooohh, ahhhh). At least at these Irish bars they try a little harder. They have the appropriate artwork and they sell really expensive Guinness. The only remarkable thing that happens tonight is that Martin and I beat Andy and Leigh at pool 4 games to 2.