About a month earlier I had spend an afternoon in Ushuaia as my mother and I embarked on a thrilling rail journey to the end of the world…

Now I was back and about to board a ship to the real end of the world. Antarctica.

But I had a day in the city before I headed to the far South and I decided to explore the city this time round.

Ushuaia is extremely charming in an overpriced tourist-crowded way. The streets are colourful and the snow-capped backdrop is spectacular. The weather was gloomier than the month before but I checked into y nice hotel room at Hotel Albatros (the starting point for my upcoming Antarctica expedition). Dropped off my bag, chatted to a cool Canadian girl in the hotel reception (who would soon become my best friend in Antarctica) and started wandering.

The city had definitely cooled down in the past month and winter was definitely approaching.  I decided to make the most of the bad weather as an excuse to have a museum day. The notorious Ushuaia Prison is now the Museo Maritimo de Ushuaia and I had heard good things.

I walked through town until I reached the museum and lined up for my ticket. It was the weekend so I hadn’t been able to withdraw any cash (it is not rare for ATM’s to run out of money in this city). I was 10 pesos short of the ticket price… 10 pesos is about 1 dollar. I was $1 too poor to educate myself.

Usually this is the kind of situation where the kindness of strangers occurs. Not that day.

I don’t know whether it was a language barrier or mean tourists but no one offered to pitch in my 10 pesos so I sadly returned to the streets.

What a disappointing prison visit…

I ended up strolling along the coast. Sometimes bad luck can result in something wonderful and as I admired the gorgeous reflections along the horizon I was suddenly extremely happy to be outside in this beautiful corner at the end of the world.

I watched the smaller fishing and tour boats compete for space alongside the larger ships bound for Antarctica. I admired the famous shipwreck by the shore and I become friends with many stray dogs.

And I must admit it was hard to be disappointed when I was destined to sail to Antartica the following day…