Me Llamo Justin!: The End of the World

Ushuaia, also known as, "The End of the World"

After a few (12) hour delay and an airport change (30 miles and $40 cab ride away) I finally caught my flight to Ushuaia from Buenos Aires. After landing much later than expected, I checked into my hostel and decided to walk around the freezing cold streets before sunset. Ushuaia, like most cities in Patagonia, is meager in size and abundant with scenes of devastating beauty. The clichés are all here people: soaring peaks, tumbling waterfalls, sparkling bodies of water, quaint rural houses and of course, numerous cows grazing contently in their Patagonian meadows. Not too many buildings are higher than 4 stories. However, a new ritzy hotel in the city center offers a 12th floor view of Ushuaia’s panoramic. I convinced the ladies at the front desk that I was interested in staying but conditionally wanted to take a look at the view from the top floor balcony. They politely escorted me to the top, and I politely enjoyed the view and snapped a photo for the memory.

“Gracias senora, pero pienso que este hotel es demasiado carro.” translates to “Thanks, but I think this hotel is too expensive for me.” My 30 peso/night ($10 USD) hostel was pretty hard to beat. But in the end, when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, or in this case an icebox. My room was about 2 clicks above freezing. After reading for several minutes and realizing that I was not going to get a wink of sleep in my freezer, I decided to take a sleeping pill (Doc prescribed me a few before the trip for flights, jetlag and freezing cold hostels). Just then I heard something outside my door. Slightly freaked out, I approached my door and slowly opened it… and a white cat scampered in. I am ashamed to admit that I literally screamed like a little girl. The mysterious white cat skipped out on the formalities and fell asleep on my belly after I revisited my book… 6 hours later, we were rudely awoken by my noisy alarm. Apparently, while on sleeping pills I make a good mattress – the white cat had not moved a muscle since I apparently passed out while reading. The only souls awake, my new friend watched as I scarfed my breakfast before heading to the Tierra del Fuego National Park and finishing the day with a boat ride through the Beagle Channel.