The City at the end of the world.

We have arrived at the most southerly city in the world, Ushuaia. The airport and, more importantly, the runway lies on a narrow strip of flat land between the Beagle Channel and the mountains of Tierra del Fuego. A landing that feels rather tight as you look sideways out of the window!
As befitting such a southerly location, it is cold and windy outside. The mountains are snow capped with a thick forest up to the tree line. Below, overlooking the Beagle Channel lies Ushuaia. The water of the Beagle Channel is dark and foreboding. To us, it looks choppy but this is only relative. It is actually a safe haven from the nototiously stormy seas of Cape Horn and the Drake Passage.
The town itself is pretty much how you would expect such an outpost to be. Think of a wild west town from a cowboy film, maybe Dodge City. Now replace the horses with cars and the dirt roads with tarmac and you have Ushuaia.
It is a port, mainly for the cruise ships that ply their trade to Antarctica, but also the home of an Argentinian Naval Base and the merchant ships that bring the goods to this harsh land.
Tierra del Fuega is a massive National Park at the very southern tip of Argentina which includes many hiking trails in the forests as well as a small winter ski resort. But it really does feel like "The End of the World".
Our hotel sits on a hill overlooking the city and the Beagle Channel with magnificent views of both with an infinity pool overlooking the bay.
There are a couple of forest trails from the hotel that we use to pass the time walking in the mountains and the forest.
On our last night there is a live band in the bar playing "Argentine Tango" style music. We sit back in one of the plush sofas at the back of the room to listen and a charmimg elderly Argentinian couple begin to dance a tango right in front of us. The kicks and flicks may have lost some of their sharpness but you can see the memories of their younger days flicker across the smiles as they look into each other eyes and play out the drama of the dance. We warmly applaud them at the end as they bow to their appreciative audience.
After this a young English pair, a tall woman with streaked blue hair and a bearded man attempt their version. It goes crazily wrong, but we all appreciate the effort and laugh along with them as they keep trying. Afterwards I tell her jokingly "Your dancing is rubbish, don't give up your day job". This will come back to haunt me. Stick with me,  she will appear again later in this story.
Tomorrow we board our ship, the Island Sky, and head off on the big adventure - Antarctica.

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