Day 18 snapshots

Just before we called for a taxi to the airport, I sat on the bench of the front porch of Hotel Los Ñires to check my email and send any last minute messages. The summer weather, the fresh air, the view and the imminent departure weighed heavily. This was the view as I sat on the bench.

After the six minute ride to the airport, the clouds cleared from Mount Olivia to the northeast, easily the highest and most treacherous looking peak in view from Ushuaia. At 1470 meters, its peak is about the same altitude where we live in Colorado. The staff of our expedition is able to spend a few days now and then in Ushuaia and we discovered that our expedition leader Laurie Dexter and Naturalist Emily Schindler scaled this peak not long ago. They also skied on an expedition from the Soviet Union to Canada, crossing the North Pole. I don't think that we will be signing up for either of those excursions soon.

The airport departure area of the Malvinas Islas Aeropuerto. This load of tourists was on the way out, headed north. North is kind of the only direction to fly out of here. Our flight would not leave for another three hours. At the airport, we were lucky enough to run into another member of our Antarctic excursion. Mabel, a young woman from Hong Kong, was on her way to Chile where she was planning of doing some touring and climbing. After that she was going to continue trekking around some South American countries for another month or so. She was young and fearless and full of energy.

The plane took off to the west, into the prevailing wind and then turned around to the east before heading north. From the air, the picture out the window gives a fair overview of Ushuaia, the bays, and airport. The dock is just above the airport and it may be yesterday's cruise ship still at dock.

Larger view of Ushuaia picture (This picture is 1200x900 pixels and 416KB)

Our hotel was somewhat near the very center of the picture, toward the shore where you can see a neighborhood laid out in an open grid. The downtown area is near the dock, about 3 kilometers distant.