Update from the uttermost part of the world

A continuation of queueing and flying that commenced at 4.30am saw us arrive in Ushuaia fondly referred to by locals as the end of the world. Due to the misadventures of our boat we were expecting to have to stay in Ush a couple of days longer than planned and that turned out to be the case. We spent the remainder of the day dodging tourists doing the shopping thing and then doing the bar thing followed by a great asado meal. We all collapsed into bed early feeling the effects of travel and lack of sleep.
Our boat was expected in about 6 am but after a welcomed sleep in we got up to realize the boat was not in. Attempts to contact the boat on their satellite phone failed. From our hotel we could see the marina and suddenly during breakfast Chris spotted a new yatch rafted up alongside the others. Shared eyesight and a quick reference to a photo we had of the boat identified it as Spirit. Ross set off at a steady jog to make contact and the rest of us ambled down a short time later. It was great to at last meet up with Cath, Darrel and Ben and to hear about their excitement off the Fauklands. It was obvious that they were going to require more time to clean out, repair and re-provision Spirit and our departure date was set back a further day and a half to Monday evening. We left them to get on with it and took off for the nearby national park for a walk.
It was unfortunate that our two taxi drivers decided to try and con us into seriously overpaying for the ride. We eventually compromised and walked off a bit put out by the experience. The weather alternated between snow and sunshine, warmth and a chilly breeze but we had a very pleasant lunch on the beach, boiled the billy and then strolled along the foreshore for 8 km enjoying the views of mountains, the sea and wildlife. Just as we neared the end 3 of us turned off onto the road and sat down to wait for the rest but we didn’t see them and continued along the track. When we finally got to the road we were offered a ride by a taxi van which we decided to
accept but then had to drive around looking for the 3 amigos. Just as we thought we would abandon them they turned up and we had another overpriced trip back to town in the van now overfilled with some passengers having to stand.
We had a very nice dinner with Ben during which we consumed an interesting amount of alcohol sampling all the local beers. Ben brought us up to date with progress and it was agreed that we would descend upon the boat with all our gear midmorning. At last we felt that the trip was really about to start.