I have fallen completely and utterly, head-over-heels, no if's, and's, or but's about it, IN LOVE with Ushuaia. I can seriously envision myself living here. If I lived here, this is how my average day would go:
I´d wake up around 9 am, like most Argentines, and have breakfast. Now, Argentine breakfast usually only consists of bread and dulce de leche, or bread and jam, and maybe some tea (usually mate). To get this breakfast, I would bundle up in long pants and a sweater (maybe a hat and scarf in winter), and step outside of my cute little brightly-colored bungalow to find the nearest panaderia.
As soon as I stepped outside, I would start smiling, because all around me, in every direction, there would be stunning mindboggling beauty. Rugged awe-inspiring peaks for 180 degrees behind town, and white-capped ocean backed by more rugged mountain ranges for 180 degrees in front of town.
The panaderia might be just a few steps away on the corner, or maybe it would be two blocks downhill. No matter what, it will be close by. Ushuaia is like San Francisco on a smaller scale, with steep hills everywhere. And in Ushuaia there are no stopsigns at any of the 4-way intersections. I'm still a little foggy on how it works, and why I don't see car crashes every day.
At the panaderia I would buy fresh-baked bread, and maybe some medialunas dulces, and I would eat them while staring out over the bay and sipping mate.
As for the rest of the day? Well, my fantasy doesn't include work, so I'll just skip that. Maybe I would go hiking, seeing as the Andes are in my back yard. Or maybe I would take a boat and go visit the penguin colonies, or take a tour around Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego. One day, of course, I would hop a boat to Antarctica, a mere 1000 km to the south over the frigid southern seas.
In the evenings I would hang out with my Argentine friends, who are so fun and charming and friendly they could melt icebergs with the mere glow of their personalities. We would eat dinner at the Argentine dinner hour (around 10 pm, when the sun is beginning to set), and then drink Beagle Stout and mate until the early hours of the morning. Of course, all conversation would be in Spanish (which I speak quite fluently after three cervezas!)
And, to add to the fantasy, I would adopt one of the many local street dogs and give it a good home. I have one in particular in mind: I saw a Husky-German Shepherd mix the other day that was simply perfect. Of course, I could also get a dalmation-terrier mix, or a dingo-poodle mix, or maybe a cocker spaniel-doberman mix. I swear, I've seen them!
Ah, Ushuaia. How can you not love a place that makes you smile every single time you look out the window? Of course, I might not feel so warmly about it in the winter, when the days shorten from 18 hours to just 7. But there's fantastic skiing here in the winter, and dogsledding too. The persistent wind and low temperatures year-round might get me down. But I would be living at the End of the World, and there's something to be said for that!
Maybe someday in the future my address will read, "Sarah Sparrow-Hawk Sch..., Avenida Roca 123, Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina...El Fin del Mundo".
Anything is possible...
