The anticipation

The anticipation started building about a week before I was set to leave – at home reading information about the trip and it hit me – I am going to Antarctica and once I made this trip, I will have been all over the world and have been on all seven continents.Hearing horror stories about how cold it is down in the Southern Ice Box I bought and packed enough warm clothes to make the devil sweat. With my bundle in hand I flew to Buenos Aires,Argentina, and spent a day waiting for my flight to Ushuaia. Buenos Aires was a nice city and I was surprised at how clean and cosmopolitan it was. I did not do much but walk around and have a great steak dinner. Argentina is famous for their beef and my steak confirmed that fact. The next day I flew down to Ushuaia, located in the providence of Tierra Del Fugo (Land of Fire). Land of Fire my butt – I did not know how cold fire could be. When I stepped out of the airport I looked liked the Jamaican bobsled team (from the movie Cool Running) coming out of the airport in Calgary. It was very cold and I had not even left Ushuaia and I started to worry if I
brought enough warm clothes. Ushuaia is a quaint little city (nestled on the coast of the Beagle Channel and the foothills to the Patagonia Mountains) known as the last city at the end of the world.The area where Ushuaia is located at the bottom tip of the Continent of South America was heavily disputed between Chile and Argentina to the point where they were going to war for control of the area but war was averted by divine intervention. Each county being Catholic they appealed to the Pope for resolution. The Pope looked over the situation then took out a map anddrew a line straight down the middle of the disputed area and said “This side is Chile and this side is Argentina.” With a stroke of a pen war was averted and peace reigned throughout the land. Who said the pen is mightier than the sword? With their hat in hand the two countries went back home to stake out their
claims. Argentina made the first move by turning a sleepy little prison outpost (Ushuaia) into a big city and stated that this is the most Southerly city in the world. Not wanting to be outdone, Chile populated a small fishing outpost and turned it into a town and claimed to have the most Southerly Town in the world. You gotta love politicians.