January 8th Day 20 Disembarkation in Ushuaia and fly to Buenos Aires

Sadly time to say goodbye to the Ocean Endeavour and a quick hello and then goodbye to a very cold and wet Ushuaia.

And then hello to a dry and hot Buenos Aires.

Firstly, and remembering I am still coughing better than any fur seal and feeling even worse, our driver was not waiting for us at the airport. I was too ill to look properly at my organisational sheet and remember that it was a Peregrine driver and that I had a phone number for them, so I asked the Quark people to ring the hotel who didn’t know anything about a driver – for obvious reasons.

So the lovely Quark people suggested we take a taxi to the hotel. They also told us not to go outside to the black and white cabs, (who charge what they please and often double the official rate), but to queue within the terminal for an official taxi.

Long story short it took almost two and a half hours to get out of the airport. Then we had the cab driver from hell who scared us both and me particularly when he drove close to the concrete road dividers that take me back to the “elephant incident” of 1999.

Finally we arrived at our very quirky hotel – the Tango de Mayo Hotel. Yes it is all about colour and the tango.

Sadly I was way too exhausted and sick to appreciate it and just collapsed into bed for the next day and a half until we were ready to fly home (apart from a trip to a local chemist, who had little English but who leapt into action when she heard my cough providing cough mixture and lozenges).

Sadly the hotel was not well sound proofed and was on a very busy road, so is not one we would recommend.

We had a day trip booked for the next day and Garrie went but much of it was to places we had been pre the cruise and he did not take a camera. He also skipped the tango evening which didn’t start until late and we had an early morning flight, via Santiago to Sydney.

So I was “that” passenger. You know the one you hear as you board and hope they are not sitting anywhere near you. The one with the horrible cough, that gets worse the more you try to suppress it, and the dripping nose you hope will go no where near the toilet you might want to use mid flight. Next time you board a flight and hear “that person”, maybe think a wee bit more kindly about them. I know I will.

Our plane landed in Sydney after the last flight to Coffs had left so we stayed at Rydges at the airport for one final night before heading home the next morning. I was simply too sick to take more photos or to take other notes.

So all that is left now is the wrap-up, however wait for it as it will include photos of us taken by others, some more animal pics and a few other maps and bits and pieces that finish off this very unique trip.