Street sign in Ushuaia
Once again our private driver showed up, right on time this morning, and took us to the El Calafate airport. This is a very modern airport, but doesn’t look as if it has a lot of traffic. Since it is a private airport you must pay an exit tax of 38 Argentine pesos per person in order to use it.
The flight to Ushuaia took a little over an hour. When we arrived our ride was waiting to take us to the Hosteria del Recodo. It is a very nice small hotel, and our room is probably the largest we have had on this trip, so it doesn’t feel crowded.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. It is not very large, a population of about 50,000 and it looks almost like every outpost city that we have ever been in. It reminds you very much of places like Inuvik in the North West Territories, or St. Anthony in Newfoundland. The buildings are painted in many bright colors. However, unlike either of these two cities, Ushuaia is bordered by very tall mountains, open only on the south to the Beagle Channel.
Strictly speaking it isn’t all that far south. It’s latitude is at 54.8 degrees south, almost exactly the same as La Ronge, Saskatchewan which is 55.1 degrees north. Home in Prince Albert is 53.2 degrees north. However, the weather here is definitely different. When we arrived today it was cool at 7C. We would definitely consider that a very cool July day (the equivalent date here in the southern hemisphere) at home.
Shore of the Beagle Channel
We went for a walk down to the ocean after we arrived. We wore our fleece and rain coats to cut the wind, and our toques and gloves. We walked to the mouth of a small river, the Rio Pipo where it enters the ocean. We also went to the city cemetary. We were struck by the number of graves of young children, far, far more than we would see in Canada.