Antarctica: December 2022: Day 13: Arrival in Ushuaia

Antarctica

Day 13: Arrival in Ushuaia

Ship's bartender, Mickey, is also apparently an accompolished concert pianist.

Expedition Leader Stefano appreciates maps.

Naturalist Margit proves that Costa Ricans can survive in the arctic.

The journey of the National Geographic Endurance.

Switching from old fashioneds to whisky sours.

Mickey and the rest of the staff hard at work.

More of the staff at the final debrief.

The captain was superb.

The old National Geographic Explorer departing Ushuaia as the National Geographic Endurance pulls in.

Ship's flag bids go 100% towards the crew fund.

Swan Hellenic Cruise Ships' brand new (circa 2022) SH Vega.

ARA Bartolome Cordero, Gowind-class offshore patrol vessel.

$6,500 donation was the winning bid.

Borscht was terrible.

Fish was okay.

Dessert was not too sweet, but wasn't very good either.

Very much skippable.

Pulled in the same time National Geographic Resolution did. I thought our schedules were offset by a day?

Lamb spitted at a local restaurant.

So this is what life is like back on land. Art.

Art.

A few streets in from the harbor.

Forboding mountains tower over Ushuaia.

Hotels and SUVs and tourists.

Bigfoot and........?

After 9 days of not seeing any plants, it was nice to see green things again.

The morning was supposed to bring more calm seas compared to the night, but it turns out unusual 60 to 70 knot winds from the west (or was it the north?) kept things rough enough to delay breakfast for an hour.

Turns out one of the bartenders, Mickey, is an accompolished concert pianist back home; by audience request he put on an amazing performance that afternoon, right before the naturalists had a map/chart session. Pulling into the Beagle Channel and then finally into Ushuaia just before cocktail hour, the crew auctioned off the ship's flag as a fundraiser (100% to the crew), then once the 1%'ers were done spending their money, it was time for dinner.

After dinner there was time for a quick walk on shore. Having just spent the better part of nine days without any greenery or power lines in sight, it was both fun and a bit jarring to get back to civilization. Ushuaia may be a small city of only ~80,000 people, but it's butted up against the Martial Mountains and hence has a scenic backdrop to distract you from the power lines.