We had to learn the hard way that this was only Day 1 in the technical sense. Although our journey begins today in Ushuia, our ship, M.V. Sea Spirit, does not leave until tomorrow. On top of which we have been on the ground in Ushuia for a week already, since the preceding Friday. This confusion about our actual departure date nearly had negative consequences as it left us with a one-night gap in our hotel reservations and no place to stay. But, as tends to happen to us, this worked out to our advantage. The nation of Argentina had planned a general strike for this day…

which resulted in many of the flights being canceled. With many people unable to leave the hotel, management offered stays for half-price that night. A deal we were also able to take advantage of even though ours was a problem of having nowhere to go, not the one of being unable to get where we were going. It was against the backdrop of this mishap, and with an additional day of relaxation that our booked journey actually began. And it began with our popping down to the check-in desk for our expedition outfitters, Poseidon Expeditions. There we were provided with tags for our luggage so they could be taken…

to the ship for us. Due to our early arrival, this left us with a solid 30 hours to kill. We did so by putting the finishing touches on some work and then heading downstairs to the beautiful indoor/outdoor pool offered by our hotel. For dinner, we returned to Kaupé which had become our favorite restaurant in Ushuia, and one of my favorite in the world. It was against this backdrop of adversity that we moved on to…