Lyd and Dwayne enjoying the gypsy life: Ushuaia - Day 3 now time to head North to warm up :)

Day 3 in Ushuaia is short. We saw most of the city yesterday. Today the temperature is suppose to get to 16C right now at 9am it’s only 5C. Yup time to head north to get warm! LOL!! So far we have put on 20,100kms travelling to Ushuaia from Cartagena, We probably have at least another 10,000kms to go before we finish at the end of May. South America is BIG!!! When we travelled thru Europe and Morroco for 9 months we put on 23,500kms. When we leave Ushuaia we’ll be leaving the mountains and glaciers behind as we travel north along the shores of the Atlantic.

We packed up our stuff and left the condo by 10AM- check out time, and the cleaning girl was there ready to clean and get it ready for the next visitor. I had asked after booking for 2 nights if I could book a third night, but Karina said she was all booked up. :( She has 3 units in this building that she rents out and they are all booked. Working at a travel agency I think helps get her units booked. I also think most of the units in this building are rented out on Airbnb because looking at the site again I found quite a few showing rooms here, and they were all booked up for most of March.

Anyways, after getting Vanna all packed we drive thru Ushuaia and up to towards the small Glacier L’Martial. There is suppose to be a chairlift here to get closer to the glacier but is't not operating at this time. So we just look around and enjoy the views of Beagle Channel and Ushuaia below. Then a drive thru town and then it's time to head north :) Our next exciting destination is Valdes Peninsula to see penguins, whales, elephant seals (those ugly ones with the big snout!) but that is about 1800kms away!! LOL!

One of the hotels going up to the glacier

Beagle Channel runs in front of Ushuaia between the islands further south - but no roads on them

Cute little cafe by the glacier

Ushuaia and Beagle Channel

Lots of colourful lupins are blooming now

Never seen red before

or yellow ones

And this pretty pink one has a busy bee on it

Daisies are always so nice and bright

Looking up to the glacier

Mountains behind Ushuaia

As we are driving thru Ushuaia not sure what is expected to be happening here but they are building many new apartment/condo buildings. Just can't figure out what kind of work is available here to keep people living here. Tierra Del Fuego is a tax free area in Argentina to try and promote companies to move here and supply job opportunities to the locals. There is a Mercedes Benz dealership here, so someone must be buying expensive cars??

Spotted 3 cute houses and this one had a really pretty garden

Cute little bird houses made from pop bottles - I know, kinda quirky 😁

This city was originally established as a place to keep convicts back when the prison was built in 1920 but closed in 1945. Then in 1950 a naval base was built here. There is also a very large container shipping compound just at the edge of the city. Not sure why so many containers. Seems strange to ship goods here and then move it north when there aren't that many cities north of here. But then again it may have something to do with the tax free advantage. We do see ALOT of semis driving the highway and waiting at the ferry crossing. So it might just be cheaper to ship to Ushuaia and truck it north.

Trying to get one more pic with 3 of us before we leave :)

Leaving Ushuaia we’re lucky because there is no wind making driving for Dwayne a little easier. But that lasts for only about 100km then the winds really pickup!! We end up just outside of Rio Grande for tonight’s stop - close to the beach but far enough away to get some shelter from the wind. I walk down to the beach to get a picture after the tide has gone out and I get a pretty good sand blasting! Have to turn my back and later I find sand in my hair! The tide here goes out 14m - that’s quite a distance for a tide change. I see people out there with a shovel so must be looking for clams. Need boots to go out since there is still some water left on the surface, even though the wind is doing a good job blowing it all south! Anyways, way to windy to stay out here so head back to Vanna and stay inside and just watch the wind whipping the water off the top of the waves.

You can hardly see the waves the tide is so far out

Zoomed in to a couple looking for clams

Another couple just going out

Lots of room on this beach!

Next day we get an early start since we have 2 border crossings and a ferry crossing to go through today. We want to be back in Argentina by tonight.

When we get to the border there is only one other couple before us so getting out of Argentina and into Chile goes quickly. We know the procedure now LOL!! Had a clean fridge, so no problems with customs :) Next stop leaving Chile and back into Argentina also went quick. Now good for another 90 days in Argentina, not that we will need that because we still have another 2.5 countries to see in the next 90 days! With all these stamps though not sure we will have enough blank pages to keep using these passports until they expire in Sept 2024 :)