Ushuaia is full of murals and the friendliest street dogs.

I was admittedly ignorant of how accepting and forward thinking Argentina is. The country was apparently tenth in the world to legalize gay marriage and as early as 2012, the country passed a law for individuals to change their legal gender without requiring surgery, hormone therapy, or judicial approval. Their approach to LGBTQ rights is one signal of many demonstrative of the country’s welcoming nature.

The love parents show their children and partners without shame or hesitation regardless of setting indicates a people who, despite the country’s political and economic challenges, prioritize the right things in life.

The week in Buenos Aires was good preparation for a Ushuaia arrival – both for getting comfortable with fumbling the Spanish language and mentally relaxing ahead of Antarctica. As the plane cruised above the clouds and Atlantic, it is a wonder how far all of the water below had traveled. When my temporary phase of life comes to an end, the majority of me, all this water, will return to its state before me. It’s my birthday so it’s only natural to be reminded of the imminent end.

When that end comes, I wonder if any of me return here as clouds or the sea? How much of the expanse was connected to life at one point? How much of me was tied to lives before mine? I recall an ex-boyfriend’s constant frustration with how often I answer questions that cannot be answered.

So there it all is – clouds of past and future lives above the sea and land filled with life today. What a beautiful world in which we are all shared and wholly connected.

In search for food near the hotel, I pull up a chair next to a woman from Yucatan, MX. Her shirt stained with drool, she slurs at me in Spanish to insist I help her eat the prawns she ordered. Hungry, I do succumb to the pressure and they are shockingly delicious. She eats the prawn tails I left on my plate. When my risotto comes, I return the favor insisting she eat half of it as her inebriated state indicated she needed to eat more than I did.

She explained that her husband died and they always wanted to go to Ushuaia together. When I acknowledged it was a kind gesture of her to do so in his honor, she began to cry and kissed my hand repeatedly. The staff recognized her sadness and treated her with kindness. I hope she can stabilize from her spiral. Before leaving, the woman began shouting, according to my phone’s live translate, “Many people are bad to me. This world is bad!” I seesaw on whether I agree with her.

I wandered the streets of Ushuaia to get comfortable with my XT-5, still relatively new to me. Bright colors of houses and playgrounds stand out against the imposing heights of the Andes on the backdrop. A dog wanders down the street to visit a friend who sniffs at him curiously through the gate, surely dumbfounded with the purpose of complicated barriers humans keep putting out to block others from wandering in or out.

Having consumed enough coffee to properly use the toilet (another mark of Argentina being the most civilized nations – bidets everywhere! Bless these wonderful people), I hear someone enter the hotel room. She explains through the bathroom door that her name is Kathleen, we must be roommates, but there is only one bed so she’ll go to the lobby for clarification. I head downstairs to find her afterward and confirm they will separate our bed. I have only just become comfortable with paying a stranger for a massage – I am not ready to share a bed with one. At reception, they are unfamiliar with who Kathleen is, but are able to immediately point her out in the lobby when I explain “we met through the bathroom door.”

Kathleen would be my roommate for the next 3 weeks, a retired schoolteacher who openly shared anecdotes, regardless of how dark they were. I appreciate that approach – trauma is common and when we treat it too delicately, we feed its strength. Her stories demonstrated her resilience and kindness to the world even when it took advantage. She is a good woman – an opinion that may or may not have been swayed by her buying me a steak birthday dinner.

For those of us that avoided travel woes, we enjoyed an evening of rest. Ohers arrived the next morning after numerous delays, somehow managing to rally some unknown energy to visit to Tierra Del Fuego’s National Park with practically no sleep.

The Andes remained as impressive as always in the park, but the real highlight is the absolute adorableness and goofiness of chimango caracaras. Silly inquisitive birds of prey looking intimidating until they begin their curious little head tilts, trying to determine what they might be able to steal from visitors. The same bad-acting aloofness was observed later on the trip with a striated caracara trying to steal penguin babies.

Today also provides the opportunity to meet more of our future shipmates for the next several weeks – like Danaë, named after the Greek mythological figure; Malani, named after an ancient Indian village in the Himalayas; and Helen… who may or may not have an interesting name origin story*. In any case, it is a good introduction to enjoying nature and gaining familiarity with local plants, animals, and the correct pronunciation of Ushuaia (yoo-SWY-uh; the h is silent). I enjoy a seafood lunch with Malani & Helen, a surgeon & attorney that came together. They like to share food, a trait only adopted by good people. Decisiveness is overrated where there are many delicious things to be tasted.

* To Helen’s credit, I later learned she was named by her grandparents after Helen of Troy so her name is in fact also cool.

Despite the long day, excitement was buzzing when we boarded “the little red ship” named Expedition. We were introduced to a crew that we would all grow to respect more day by day and headed out to the Drake Passage as we waved goodbye to Ushuaia.

In reference to Jan 11 – 12 2026