Last summer we excitedly booked a 10 day cruise to Antarctica, departing from the port of Ushuaia on Dec. 11. Our deadline to arrive in Ushuaia was quickly approaching, and we didn’t want to be late for such a very important date, so we booked a last minute one way flight from Calafate.

Ushuaia is a city on the Argentina side of Tierra del Fuego, and the self-proclaimed “End of the World” (there are actually a few smaller towns farther south, but regardless Ushuaia holds tight to its motto). Of course, we had plans to go further south than the “End of the World,” but we had a few days to kill before leaving for Antarctica. Surprisingly, Ushuaia was a bigger city than anywhere we had been in the prior few weeks, with a lively tourism scene, and from what we heard, some favorable tax laws that encouraged Panasonic and some other large companies to manufacture and ship parts from there.

We visited a large museum in an old prison and spent time walking the tourist-filled streets lined with penguin souvenirs. It wasn’t easy resisting the urge to buy matching penguin hats. The weather was misty and cloudy, which is the norm there, but every now and then we caught a glimpse of the beautiful mountain range looming above town. It also seemed to never get dark. Official sunset was around 10:30 PM, but the sky never got fully dark, at least not when we were awake.

When we returned to Ushuaia after the cruise, we mostly ran errands, did laundry, caught up with family and friends, ate some fruit to ward off scurvy, and began the long process of editing down our Antarctica photos, which we are still working on now, a month later!

We have some amazing Antarctica photos and stories to share and we are close to having it all ready for the blog. But in the meantime, here is some Ushuaia fuego to keep things rolling.  (Click here to see our full Ushuaia album on Flicker)