My bus to Ushuaia was at 4:30am on New Year´s Eve, the morning after hiking Torres del Paine. I knew the bus was sold out, so I panicked when I got to the bus office and it was locked up and no other passengers were waiting outside. I had 15 minutes until the bus was coming, so I quickly walked back down the main street to look for the other passengers. Nothing.
There was a drunk old Chilean man sitting beneath a bus shelter. He was the only person around, so I showed him by bus ticket and asked if he knew where I was supposed to go. I was a little scared of him at first, but he was awesome. He walked me back to the bus office and we chatted. He waited with me until 4:30 when, sure enough, a minivan pulled up to pick me up. This was the bus to Ushuaia, where I was going to spend the next 14 hours??? Yikes! I manged to fall asleep and, at 6:30, the van pulls over to the side of a middle of nowhere road. After about an hour, a regular bus pulls over and we board it and continue on to Ushuaia.
After a couple of hours, we stop for what I think is a bathroom break. I get out of the bus and see a sign that says "Welcome to the Straits of Magellan." The road ends in the water and I realize that we need to cross the straits on a boat. Awesome! I remember learning about the Straits of Magellan in fourth grade when we had our "explorers" lesson and I´m excited to follow in Magellan´s footsteps. As we cross on the ferry, groups of Commerson´s dolphins are swimming around the boat, jumping around the water. Already it´s a good New Year´s Eve.
We arrive in Ushuaia later in the afternoon. Ushuaia is located along the Beagle Channel (Darwin country) on the island of Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire), separated from continental South America by the Straits. It´s the southernmost town in Argentina and they like to hype it as the end of the world, which isn´t exactly true. Puerto Williams in Chile is actually the southernmost town in the world. They really like to put the label "end of the world" on everything, but I just find it annoying since it´s not really true.
Anyway, I don´t have any plans for New Year´s Eve. The hostel owners tell me about a big party where all the hostels in town are getting together, but I´m not feeling super sociable so I decide to just strike out on my own. I´m hoping to find a nice restaurant where I can have a quiet dinner and not be forced to "party." Not a problem as I walk down to the main street in town and it´s deadsville. No loud, drunk people, nothing open, no people at all. Eventually I do find a few open restaurants, but they´ll crowded, loud and packed with a mostly tourist crowd. I think the Argentine New Year´s is a quieter affair than in other countries, spent eating with the family.
I walk down to the harbor and decide to ring in the New Year there. No one else is around, just a few gulls and some boats docked. At the stroke of midnight, all the boats start blowing their horns in an atonal symphony (it´s like listening to free jazz). It´s 2010 and I sit there and stare off into the blackness.
