Yikes - our alarm clock went off at 5:00 am. At 5:45 am Andrea arrived with a driver, to take us to the Buenos Aires domestic airport for the 7:15 -11:30 am flight to Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city. Since we left the hotel without eating, we enjoyed the ever popular medialunas (croissants) and coffee, served on the plane. When the plane parked at the gate area, we noticed a group of soldiers by the plane next to ours. We just missed President Cristina Kirchner arriving in Ushuaia for a computer assembly plant opening. (They need jobs down here, as the economy has tanked in recent years.) After picking up our luggage we were greeted by the very friendly and personable Augustine, one of the great bi-lingual guides from the Canal tour company in Ushuaia. Augustine drove us the short distance to the Hosteria Linares. The Linares is a quaint guest house, with very basic small rooms. It's up on a hill, above one end of the downtown area. The Linares has a very nice common sitting area / library. From the picture window is a great view of the town, the Beagle Channel and ice covered mountains. We were on our own the rest of the day to explore downtown Ushuaia. It was cool and windy, around 45°F. We walked down Maipu, the street by the channel. We had a nice lunch at Ramos Generales - El Almacen. It's a 100 year old general store, operated as a cafe, coffee house and bakery by a French couple. After lunch we walked to the pier, where a ship was being prepared for an Antarctic cruise. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering into various shops on San Martin. Ushuaia has grown to a population of over 60,000, with a decent downtown. Since we already had enough beef for a week, dinner was salads, chicken entrees and wine at the very popular Tanta Nina, at the other end of town. Each night in Ushuaia, Canal sent an email to the Linares with our pick up time for the next day.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
1 day ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.