Havant to Ushuaia March 11-14 2018
I got to Heathrow Terminal 5 in plenty of time for my flight to Buenos Aires. At the BA counter they checked me in without fuss but handed me a £10 voucher to use at any of the airport restaurants as the 10 pm flight was going to be delayed till 12 am. I wasn’t particularly hungry so after clearing security I took my time deciding where to eat. I was still feeling a little deflated from the previous day when my choir, Get Vocal, Chichester failed to retain the cup we had won in a singing competition in 2017. In fact were weren’t even runners-up. I have some suggestions for Jo, our leader for next year’s competition. Furthermore, a Gaelic song, one of three we had sung kept repeating itself on me as it was to throughout my Antarctica holiday. I settled on a Giraffe restaurant in the airport departure lounge. I have only recently noticed Giraffe restaurants at airports. Anyway I liked whatever I ate and drank at the restaurant and before long it was time to board BA245 to Buenos Aires. A very pretty robot lady was able to tell us in six languages which train to catch and which stop to get off at to reach the departure gate. I was glad of my aisle seat. Aisle seats allow you to get up as many times as you like without making anybody else get up. I had decided on a recent BA flight to India that I liked BA’s Spanish wines and they are quite generous with them over dinner. Well I had a taste of those on the nearly 14-hour flight to Buenos Aires and they were almost as good as they had been on my Indian flight.
At Buenos Aires airport two young ladies received me and others to help transport us to our hotels. In my case this was the N H Crillon, Avenida Santa Fe. At the hotel I rested for a bit and then went out to get lunch. Turning left along Santa Fe I found myself near a Subway restaurant before long. Approaching a young chap at the bar I had the following conversation:
Me: ¿Puedo pagar con mi tarjeta?
Him: Oh yes we take everything except American Express. Are you from London?
Me: No I live south of London
Him: Ah yes Manchester!
Me: No Manchester is to the north of London. I live near Portsmouth (I knew Havant would be hopeless)
Him: Port?
Anyway I enjoyed my toasted sandwich. Exiting the restaurant I turned back towards the hotel. Approaching it I noticed a band playing music at a monument near the hotel. The monument is a statue of San Martin. I watched as in turn three important-looking men came and laid wreaths at the statue. They turned out to be the ambassadors of South Korea, Italy and Peru. I understand that 12th March is “Shield Day” in Argentina and is celebrated all over the country. José Francisco de San Martín was the commander of the armed forces of Argentina, Chile and Peru and helped all three countries achieve independence from Spain. His statue would be an appropriate place to mark the day.
The Crillon hotel is in an attractive and I think very central part of Buenos Aires – I didn’t like the very heavy traffic on Avenida Santa Fe, though. I’ll have to dig up my photos from the year 2000 when I was last in Argentina to see whether I have been to this spot before. I did take pictures of a tree with very pretty pink flowers and of a British-built tower, Torre Monumental – formerly Torre de Los Ingles. There was a flock of parakeets squawking in a little park near the statue. I have seen parakeets in abundance in India but noticed them in England for the first time in the 1980s or 1990s – in Esher. I suppose they had escaped from an aviary or zoo. Since then they have spread and are probably accepted , along with egrets as native British birds.
Strolling around in the neighbourhood it struck me that Buenos Aires is ethnically very European, indeed more so than many European capitals. I don’t remember seeing any people of African, Arab, or Asian origin, though I am told there are lots of Chinese-owned shops in the capital. Looking at the demographics less then 3 % of Argentinians are pure descendants of the indigenous inhabitants. This is so different from Peru and Bolivia where the Quechua and Aymara are everywhere.
I ate at the Dandy restaurant opposite the hotel that evening. The tables on the kerb outside were tempting as it was like a cool summer evening in England but then there were fumes from heavy traffic as well. I went in and found a vacant table, ordered a meal and a glass of wine. A woman possibly in her 50s came over to talk. All I could say was “Perdón Senora” The gist of her response was “it looks as though we won’t be able to communicate”. She approached another man who was on his own. I think they were able to communicate better because I saw him grinning as she left the restaurant. I wonder what the discussion was about!
Early the next morning a taxi took me to the domestic airport for the flight to Ushuaia. I like trying new aircraft types and so I thought the Brazilian Embraer 190 belonging to Aerolineas Argentinas made a nice change from European Airbuses and American Boeings. However they had crammed a few more seats into the aircraft than they should have done for I didn’t find too much leg room when I was seated – and I am not a big man! Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina is 1475 miles from Buenos Aires but only 621 miles from the Antarctic Peninsula. There are no towns of a similar size as far south. No wonder the locals call it Fin del Mundo – end of the world. The flight took about three and a half hours. I tried sleeping, listening to music and reading P G Wodehouse’s “The Mating Season”. I managed a bit of everything. That is how I know that Bertie Wooster’s aunt Agatha chews broken glass and kills rats with her teeth.
I seem to remember a very smooth landing for which I congratulated the crew. I had managed a few of those myself when I had flying lessons many years ago but I was in a Cessna 152 and I gave up for lack of progress. Ushuaia nestles among the Martial Mountains which the locals refer to as the Southern Andes. The airport is picturesque with plenty of snow-covered mountain peaks nearby – yes I took pictures. The organisers of the cruise which was to follow received me and others and transported us to our hotels, mine was the Albatros (no not Albatross) Hotel.
At the hotel there was a briefing, in fact several briefings about what was to happen in the next 24 hours. We were going to be free most of the next day as our cruise was to start in the evening. Would we like to go into the National Park of Tierra del Fuego? While we were doing it would we also like to use a mini train operating in part of the park, the End-of-the-World Train? Later that day I met Sebastian from Böhl-Iggelheim in Germany, not far from the French border. I was already regretting that, to save about £2000 I had agreed to share a two-person cabin on the ship because the sharing was to begin at the Albatros hotel. Sebastian aged 21 is a pleasant enough chap but I didn’t like the idea of sharing a cabin; I was to regret it even more later. I bought a ticket for the national park trip as did Sebastian but in addition I paid for the train ride as well.
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