Karl and Kara in Antarctica (really)

Boarding day breakfast was spent staring down admiringly at our little ship, dwarfed by a giant cruise ship beside it at the dock. We had a few hours to kill around town so we wandered among the piles of very obvious tourists off the big boat playing "Guess who's on our boat". This game was easily adapted to the Bar Ideal over a very long lunch (there's only so much wandering you can do in Ushuaia) with an added "Guess who's going to come in here for lunch". Accuracy rates were low by the way. And then it was time to meet the boat! MV Ortelius. After pretty lax and disorganised dock security (if anyone's in trouble with the law and looking to stow away, this is your port) we got aboard, found our lovely cabin, unpacked and settled in. Our home for a month. Most exciting is our three windows – one pointing forward, one pointing to port and the en-suite window (unexpected bonus) also to port. So we don't have to fight over the vie...

Getting closer..........got to the airport in Buenos Aires on time (leaving your hotel in Buenos Aires at 3am really does pose the question of whether that's getting up early or staying up late), got through the very long check-in queue (even though we had already checked in online this did not seem to confer any advantage) on time, had the luxury of a very nice coffee at the gate, the flight left "on time" (at least that's what was announced as we were invited to board at around the time we should have been taking off), the flight made it to Ushuaia, and landed, we survived blasting polar winds in the taxi queue (waiting for the five local taxis to loop around again while ferrying a full planeload of passengers into town) and we have made it to the cruise departure point! Our part of the deal is complete. Now we wait for the ship. Well Ushuaia is just a lovely little town to pass some time in. Snowy mountain views, a bay, ships and fishing boats coming and goi...

More strolling, more chilling and more attention to taking photos.....without much success on the photo front I'm afraid. We had a day re-exploring Palermo for a spot of solid middle class Buenos Aires instead of the San Telmo working class/arty bum/"bohemian" vibe. Strolled the streets, strolled the park and very much enjoyed seeing that planes were regularly taking off from the airport (notice the obsession with getting to Antarctica this time?). Back in San Telmo we are confident that we have identified the best drinking street in the barrio, possibly in the whole of Buenos Aires. Calle Bolivar. Conveniently our hotel is on Bolivar, it's the Hotel Bolivar. That's me at the door, completely sober. Sometime since we were last here the brew-pub/craft beer concept has taken off and there are now very welcome alternatives to good (or not so good) old Quilmes. Antares has been here (in swanky Palermo and swankier Puerto Madero) since our last time around b...

En route to Antarctica (fingers crossed) finally and a brand new blog - yes, I know it would be easier if we kept all our blogs in one place but think of it as more exciting this way. This is Kara again by the way. So back to Buenos Aires for a few days. It feels very strange because it doesn't feel strange at all. Eight years ago we flew in here as our first experience of South America and everything was exotic. Now everything feels familiar. We have enough Spanish to gossip with the taxi driver on the way into town, we know exactly where we're going, we wander through San Telmo and notice which bars and restaurants are new (and put them on the "to try" list), we recognise every crack in the footpath and know instinctively to cross to the shady side of the street, the smell outside our old apartment building (a mix of very old wood and slightly smelly street) provokes instant time-travel. It feels  like going to Newstead/Sydney/Galway for a weekend and thinking ...