November 30th - Ushuaia

We had to disembark after breakfast. We said goodbye to as many people as possible and exchanged addresses. We missed Jim from Manchester, but Jennifer will give us his address when we see her. We took a photo of Marty with the Captain.

We waved to the Lowrys and Peter and Pauline up on the top deck as we left Prince Albert II with our Abercrombie and Kent representative.

We left our luggage at the Lennox Hotel, but our room was not ready yet.

The Lennox Hotel was located on the Avenida San Martin in the centre of Ushuaia.

We could see the ship from the town and we kept taking photos of it. We were really sorry to leave and will miss many of our fellow passengers. We went for a walk and found Kaupe, the restaurant we had so enjoyed in 2001.

It was a lovely warm sunny morning and we walked to the quayside where the Ushuaia 'Fin del Mundo' sign is located. The sign brought back good as well as sad memories. Good, remembering how elated we were to have reached Ushuaia on the Inca Trail, but sadness at recalling the photos we took of Colin with us by the sign.

The Prince Albert II in the background.

We went into a chocolate shop for a coffee, but there was a power cut and they could only serve tea! We went back to the hotel for a cup of coffee in the foyer and then finally checked into our room at 12.30. We had toasted sandwiches in the hotel restaurant/bar and looked down to Prince Albert II in the port, with one of the giant cruise liners that visit Ushuaia, moored alongside her.

The view across Ushuaia from our room at the top of the Lennox Hotel.

We then rented a car, a Corsa, and went for a drive round Ushuaia. First, we went to see the hotel we stayed at with HERO in 2001, the Glaciar. It looked a bit run-down, but had lovely views down to the Beagle Channel.

We headed off to the National Park. At Lapataia Bay, the scenery was beautiful, but it was full of tourists.

We drove to Lake Roca, which was lovely and also very busy with tourists and many local families on a Sunday outing.

When we returned to the hotel, we went on to the terrace outside the bar area and watched Prince Albert II departing for the next cruise back to Antarctica. We felt very upset to see them leaving without us. I would have loved to go with them, even having to cross the Drake Passage once again.  In the evening we met Jennifer from Vermont, a young widow who had been on the cruise with us. We all had a very pleasant dinner at Chez Manu, next to the Hotel Glaciar.

It had been recommended by 2 Australians we had met in the morning on our walk round the town. The food and wine were excellent and there were lovely views from our table. We took Jennifer back to her hotel and went back for a good night's sleep before our last full day tomorrow.