We had a restless night because we couldn't figure out how to get the heater to work and were just slightly too cold to sleep comfortably.
We had a great view of the late sunrise over the mountains and harbour before meeting up with our tour guide and bus for today. We were taken to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego. The first stop was at the train station to take a ride on the Southernmost Train in the World. This is the old train that was used to transport prisoners to jail when Ushuaia province was still mainly a penal colony. The train has only recently been remodeled as a tourism destination.
The train trip was through the quiet heavily snowed upon forests of the area. It was mucho-romantic. We didn't take many photos but spent a lot of time staring out of the window at the white scenery. We also saw some shaggy horses trudging through the snowy paths as well as a wood pecker.
After the train ride, we drove further into the park and took a look at the frozen lakes. We could see some of the mountains on the other side, which is the Chile side of Tierra del Fuego. (we were like 1km over the water from another new country)
After an awesome homemade style mug of hot chocolate and a browse through teh gift shop, we turned the bus around and left the park. We must commend the bus driver for navigating the rather large bus safely and carefully along the snowy roads. He drove like a man writing calligraphy with a brick - with surprising precision for such a large device.
We were dropped off downtown near the port and the taxi stand and were given directions to the museum district for the afternoon. We walked to the museums but the entrance fee was 70 Pesos so we decided to not go in and save some money.
We saw a nice looking pizza pasta restaurant and went in. Despite the dual language menu on the wall outside, the waitress would only give s the Spanish menus. We ordered drinks and went outside to decide what we wanted to order to eat. The Manager came out after 5 minutes and poured a flurry of angry spanish words on us because the kitchen was supposed to close in a short while. Her angry outburst was so unexpected that I was about to respond in my own tongue and storm off to a place with better manners. An english speaking waiter intervened (as well as Eben) and we were soon seated again and ordering some empanadas and king crab ravioli.
Despite the flippen rude lady, i am glad we stuck around. The food was really really delicious and for once we did not feel like we had been ripped off.
We then took a post lunch stroll across the downtown before taking a taxi back to the hotel. We are now relaxing in our warm room doing some surreptitious laundry to dry on the heated towel rack and enjoy the views of the city in the remaining daylight.
According to the weather report, Ushuaia is about the same temperatures as Calafate. But as it is a still dry cold, it settles into your bones and remains there until you sit in front of a fire or a heater. Still no great wild winds yet. Maybe it is too cold at this time of year for the wind to get the energy to blow about. After Calafate and Ushuaia, I think it is safe to say that Eben and I have had our lust for snowy weather satisfied for a long time.
Tomorrow we will be taking a boat ride across the Beagle Channel - i expect it will be sitting-in-the-freezer cold, again, but we are hoping it is another great adventure.
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