Day 10 – Disembarcadero

Beagle Channel, Argentina
Ushuaia, Argentina
14 Dec 2008

Very early wake up call today – 5:45AM. We’re already at the port, holding out for a berth to open. The Finns have an early flight, so the non-Finns are sequestered in our cabins with instructions to let the Finns breakfast, stage their bags, then disembark. While the Finns breakfast, we dock. After they’re off board (no-chance for me to say goodbye to the Finns I’m friendly with), we’re released to our own last breakfast, and our own luggage staging. As we sit in the dining hall, Delphine announces on the PA that the Finns are successfully off-board for their early flight. I’m a little embarrassed that a few Anglophones voice approval and clap derisively.

We linger on the concrete pier, saying goodbyes and blinking at the huge 2000-passenger Nordic Sun that is disgorging passengers. It makes the Professor Molchanov seem like a toy. I don’t think the passengers walking past us realize that we’re also disembarking from a cruise ship.

In 10 days, we’ve gotten used to not seeing many people or structures and it takes a few minutes for it to seem normal again. I’m standing on solid ground, but I’m not wearing neoprene shoes or Wellingtons.

Since we’re non-Finnish, we apparently all have to fly in the afternoon. It’s only 9AM. We’ve got a day to kill and we’re all burdened with big bags. A number of us agree to band together and take turns guarding our luggage out-of-doors as there is no facility for luggage storage open today (!) We gather up everyone who wants to participate, slowing the goodbyes. No one is in a hurry.

I shake hands with the staff, and exchange a warm goodbye with Anjali the tour guide. We both travel a lot, we say to each other: let’s keep in touch, and we’ll see each other again, maybe? It may be.