honeymoon dia 40 – buenos aires

today was a tweener day. we needed to be at the ushuaia airport at 4:00p for our flight to buenos aires, but wanted to be a little active as well. carrie’s IT band didn’t like her too much, and my feet still could use a break, so we did some walks around town.

first, we hit up a lagoon in town. en route, we pulled out our map and looked to see which way to go. a friendly local came over and asked where we were going. we respond: a la laguna del diablo. he pauses, shakes his head, and says “no hay nada,” meaning, there’s nothing there. still, after laughing, he pointed us in the direction carrie was intending to go anyway, and we parted.

at the laguna, we spotted the rare, beautiful cerveza dolphin. several of them actually.


then, we headed up a trail not too far from the laguna, hoping to find a viewpoint of the town. up and up. no obvious spot. so, we head out, walk down the road, and come across a potential viewpoint. good enough we guess. 3 minutes later, a tour bus pulls up, lets out 20 passengers, and they glance at us and then look out over the viewpoint. i guess we found it. too funny.



walked back into town. photographed some lupines. played on a highly metalize swingset with swings that make you feel like a geriatric, and pressed on. my hip was hurting quite a bit, so we stopped for a bit and carrie worked on me. then, off to museum of a former prison. too pricey for the time we had remaining in the day, so we decided to call it good, grab our stuff, and head to the airport.



the waiting area at the airport was confusing. eventually we found the right line to stand in and were on our way. adios 5am – 11pm daylight hours found here at 55* south latitude.

instead of taking the 2+ hour bus into buenos aires from the airport, we opted to get a taxi since it was 11pm. our driver = nuts. i’ll try to paint the picture, but it will never do our ride justice.

the taxi driver is a mid 40s argentine male, with shoulder length blondish hair. seems low key enough. music playing is 80’s american soft rock. no seat belts. the second we close our doors, the race begins. he’s just hammering. easily double the speed of all other traffic on the road. 7-lane wide roads simply means he doesn’t have to turn as sharply on corners; nah, just cut through all 7 of them. and when the slow driver in front of us is doing the same thing, just gun it and take him on the outside! best yet is accelerating from 120kmh, cutting lanes, all while all the traffic in front of you is braking because of the red light 100ft away.

half the time, it looked like the driver was falling asleep whenever i’d catch his eye in the mirror. we arrived at the hostel without a scratch. i told him “Ud. viaje muy rapido, no?” he smiled, laughed, and said something i didn’t understand before taking off. somehow, i wasn’t nervous during this drive. in a way, i knew that he was tuned into every one of his surrounding elements, much like a cyclist needs to be when biking through a city.

average costs:
laguna del diablo: free
viewpoint hike: free
all photographs: https://picasaweb.google.com/mlh4480/HoneymoonDia40