People in Argentina have a very different schedule.
Dinner in most restaurants doesn't begin until 10 pm.
The bars don't close until 6 am and the 2 guys, Tyler
and Shay, have a lot more staying power than I do.
Tyler's friends, Brian and Niara, arrived in Ushuaia
on the 18th and the 4 of them, at times with Christian
as well as Guillermo and Erika, have been having a
nightlife. (I confess. I'm a lightweight.)
On our first full day in Ushuaia, we drove down to the
end of Highway 3, the end of the road. I've seen
other people's pictures of this place, usually
standing in front of the sign and we, of course, took
the required pictures of the 3 vans, with us standing
in front of them. I didn't realize, though, that the
place is really beautiful. The mountains surrounding
Ushuaia and the end of the road are very jagged, rocky
peaks and are snow-covered. (Alba, Christian's
mother, tells me this is very unusual for this time of
year. Normally, there is only snow during the winter.
I feel very lucky, actually, to see the snow here.
It's an awesome sight.) Also, it's been raining for
the last 3 months, literally. It's rained every day
with brief periods of sunshine. The streams running
into the Beagle Channel are bursting, the soil very
damp, the mosquitoes prolific, the flowers blooming.
All in all, it was a wonderful day for the end of the
road. We walked as far down the path as we could. I
thought that, if my intention was to run away, I've
gone as far as possible. Now we'll be getting closer
to home every day. But we still have an enormously
long distance to go. It's a very nostalgic feeling,
knowing that now we head north instead of south.
We all spent Christmas together and had nice dinners
in restaurants Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The
day after Christmas, Guillermo and Erika left us, as
they want to cover a lot more territory before their
vacations are over. Another sad farewell.
The day after Christmas the whole group went for a
ride on 4 wheelers after which Shay and I investigated
other roads leading out of Ushuaia. The end of
Highway 3 goes southwest from Ushuaia. To the east,
we found a newly graded road following the coastline
for about 5 miles. At the end is a path, which has
obviously been used by motorcycles but is too narrow
for the Syncro, though I wished I could use it. I
think this road actually ends farther south than the
nominal �end of the world�.
The same night, the rest of Tyler's group arrived:
his sister, Wini, his girlfriend, Stephanie, and
another friend, Karen. They brought us Christmas
gifts: new CDs from my daughter and a complete
mosquito suit for me from Tyler and another new CD for
Shay from Tyler. We spent a quiet day today, me
writing and Shay with his headset on enjoying his new
CDs. Since the mosquitoes are pretty fierce here,
I'll soon try out my mosquito suit. Ah, those pesky
mosquitoes do love me.
Jeanne
