A 02-30 alarm was the sign to wake-up for our flight to Ushuaia.
At the bar in the hotel lobby we were eventually offered coffee, tea, cakes and fruit were there for our breakfast. Our suitcases were all in the lobby along with those for the later charter flight.
We had to lug them out to the coach and by after 03-30 we were on our way to the other airport in Buenos Aires.
Our expedition voyage on Hurtigruten’s MS Fram would take us from Ushuaia to Antarctica, to South Georgia, around the Falklands and then onto Montevideo.
On Friday 24th February we flew in the night from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia where we would board MS Fram.
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery was only a short ride from the hotel and with no demonstrations the roads were all clear. It seemed that almost everyone else for the flight had arrived before us as the queue for check-in stretched almost out of the terminal. From the departure board we were on the second plane that day to Ushuaia.
We were getting the hang of catching planes on this trip and we joined the queue at the boarding gate before the flight was called. Our LAN Airbus A320 was away from the terminal so we had a bus ride out to the plane.
The LAN flight down to Ushuaia
As the plane flew South we were treated to a glorious sunrise.
and then clouds below us.
The plane had quite a few empty seats and I took advantage of this and managed to catch some more sleep curled up across three seats at the rear of the plane.
After about 3 hours the plane landed at Calafate.
In the hectic Spanish announcements we all missed the fact that wasn’t Ushuaia and we were all getting up to leave. We guessed something was amiss as there was no sea! We had been told that the flight was about ‘four hours’ at the Hurtigruten briefing. After a quick check with the cabin crew, we all sat down to see what what was happening. No-one had told us that it was a ‘stopping’ flight!
The plane sat on the tarmac as passengers de-planed and then began to fill up with passengers for Ushuaia and Buenos Aires. This explained the empty seats. At 09:35 we took off again for Ushuaia.
The morning was glorious and we had great views of Patagonia as we continued South.
Then we came to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia – Malvinas Argentinas International Airport
The plane landed at 10:40. Once we’d reclaimed our luggage we went land-side and met the Hurtigruten representative. Our suitcases were taken and put in a panel van to be taken to a ship. We climbed onto the coach to receive the free tour of the town and to be given some free time there.
Leaving the airport we passed a billboard declaring Ushuaia as the capital of the Malvinas. The town itself was quite close and we passed the rugby field where Argentina’s team were practising ready for their international with the Brazilians the next day. We received lots of information about the newest province of Argentina that Ushuaia was the capital of. The central government has given lots of tax incentives so now there were lots of entrepreneurial type business there. Even Samsung smartphones are assembled there and are shipped all over South America.
We were driven up the one way main street that ran parallel with the road along the coast. We had the best shops and restaurants pointed out to us before reaching the naval base at the end of the street. Interestingly we were not told that the town had been originally founded by the British who had brought pre-fabricated houses from the Falklands. Argentina only formally claiming it and the peninsula after an agreement with Chile.
As Argentina settled the peninsula, a prison was built for re-offenders and later used for political prisoners. This building is now in the naval base. At the naval base the coach turned right and came back along the coast road towards the port and the visitor’s centre. Then we had until 14:45 to look around the town to shop and to eat.