UshuaiaMapMarch 23–24, 2015 Argentina’s great and all, but flying there takes forever (almost 24 hours from Moscow). It’s like going to Australia.  Ushuaia’s situated even further, in the very south of the country—as far away from Europe as possible.  There’s absolutely nothing to do here, although some of the surrounding scenery is nice.  The city is entirely seasonal. People come here from all over Argentina to work stints as waiters or sports equipment salesmen. One hundred percent of visitors stay for a night or two only while waiting for a ship/guide to get them out of here. In the off-season, the city looks like an empty movie set.  A taxi stand.  A pedestrian traffic light.  The only cool idea in the entire city: geographical coordinates at every intersection.  Another local feature: paired towers at the top of some buildings.  Violet dumpsters.  Some of the street furniture is finished with sleek wood planks, which is nice.  But the bus stops couldn’t be any uglier.  A trendy post box.  A US-style post box designed for dropping off mail from a car window.  Every food service establishment has a QR code posted up with a link to its tax information. The same link also lets you file a complaint in case they didn’t give you a receipt or something.  Buying a hat to replace the one you forgot, dinner and sleep—that’s all Ushuaia is good for.  A great month-long voyage across the entire Atlantic from south to north awaits us, aboard a ship that’s called Ortelius but whose original name, still visible in painted-over metal letters on the hull, is Marina Tsvetaeva.  |
