Ushuaia
31 december 2000
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 ģend of the worldī.
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
