Waking up on Christmas morning to the now no longer glowing tiny plastic Christmas tree was sort of surreal after 47 pretty similar Christmases in the past. We didn’t have any gifts to open or family tradition meals to cook. So, in that sense, it felt like just another day.
We did, however, have plans to dress up like wild, crazy people and venture into Ushuaia and take the train to the end of the world! To make it even more fun, we agreed to meet in Vines, our favorite wine bar off the piazza, first for Pismo Sours (the local, popular drink in Peru and Chile) and to take pictures with Santa Claus.
We all wore our fabulous and one-of-a-kind t-shirts that we got for $4 because they spelled Ushuaia wrong. HA! Ginny brought us all scarves with balls. Diana and Sue brought antlers for the gals and Santa hats for the dudes, and I rounded it out with festive glasses. Needless to say, where ever we went, we drew plenty of attention. One time, we walked by someone who said, “who are you guys? You look great!” And Ginny said, without missing a beat, “They call us the Malbec Gang.” Hahahah! So funny.
We hopped on the tour bus to ride to the train station. The little town of Ushuaia is so cute. It’s summer here and everyone thought it was such a hot day at right around 50 degrees. We were pleased that it was this warm, too! Families camped out along the running river through town to lie in the sun and enjoy the sunshine. The houses were simple but tidy. The town was clean with wide streets. In the wintertime, they only have 5 hours of sunshine a day. So, I’ve ruled out moving here. There are something like 85,000 residents which is very large compared to San Miguel, or even Paso Robles. Our tour guide said everyone here is working age because it’s too hard to live here when you get older. As people retire, they move away. So interesting.
Now, it was Christmas Day which was a bit of a bummer because not everything was open. We were impressed that anything was open, actually! Plenty of cranky people asked why we’d come here on a global holiday but pipe down, people. You don’t always get what you want. Anyway, we got to the train station and were given tickets to our cute little steam engine #13. Before long, we were crammed into the train and took off chugging along through the most beautiful countryside. We were still technically in the greater Patagonia area and WOW. So pretty. Wild horses grazed along the flowing river. Tons of lupines of various colors dotted the side of the tracks.
We heard some great stories - including about the original, old penal colony that stood for many years in the area. The prisoners worked the land- mostly falling trees and clearing land. They sent the worst offenders, as they often to do remote, wild places. We heard of a serial killer who murdered his whole family. This was quite a serious story until they revealed his name to be… The big eared midget. Excuse me. The notorious big earned midget. Striking fear into the hearts of all. They didn’t say how he killed his family. Maybe smothered them with his giant ears.
The prison conditions and the treatment of the inmates was awful and thankfully the whole thing was eventually shut down.
We really enjoyed the train ride though the seats were pretty small. We make bigger booties these days, ya know?
We got to stop at the Beagle Channel on the way home and see where the Pacific meets the Atlantic. The water was crystal clear and lovely. I bent down to touch it and sure enough, it was cold. Just checking. We saw this tiny little post office- sadly closed for Christmas Day but how cute is this thing?
Jason and I chose to hop off the bus outside the port and walk through the city a bit before getting back to the ship. Most things were closed but we still enjoyed the walk and found it hilarious that 80s and 90s rock was playing in the city center. Should I Stay or Should I Go was on as we walked up. You just never know what you’ll hear!
We meandered through the port back to the ship. I was a bit bummed because I would have liked to have bought something in Patagonia and it just wasn’t in the cards. That’s ok, of course.
We had dinner plans in the Concerto dining room with the Malbec Gang so we headed to the room to clean up. We had just enough time to get our favorite large wine glasses (with wine) from Vines before walking together to dinner. After dinner, we all went back to Vines to grab a night cap but we took ours to go. We were pooped! A beautiful day of a completely different sort. Happy to spend it with sweet friends but thinking about our families back home. We enjoyed the few moments here and there with good enough WiFi to see pictures and video clips.
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