Ushuaia - Part 2

December 22, 2011

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA -- Greetings once again from the Hotel Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

This morning we got up and had one last breakfast on-board the M/S Expedition. We said goodbye to our staff and crew, and officially disembarked at 8:00am. We dropped our luggage off in town, and then spent the morning on the main drag of Ushuaia in a coffeehouse, and then later looking for Antarctica souvenirs.

While looking for Antarctica souvenirs, I realized that, to my huge surprise, there were virtually zero acceptable ones. Given that 95%+ of all travelers to Antarctica embark and disembark out of Ushuaia, I figured with near certainty that there would be some ability to buy souvenirs in Ushuaia after the trip, but quickly I summed three major flaws with the Antarctic souvenirs:

1) Political. Many of the souvenirs in Antarctica refer exclusively to Argentine Antarctica, referring to the universally ignored claim to a significant portion of the land by Argentina. All maps have Argentine Antarctica shaded in a different color and emphasized in some way. It's total bogus, but so the souvenirs said.

2) Language. While I am perfectly fine with a number of the souvenirs being in Spanish, given we were are in a Spanish-speaking country, it is ridiculous that you can't find a simple sweatshirt, or a keychain, or a magnet that doesn't say "Antartida." Remember those 95% of travelers to Antarctica who go through Ushuaia? I'd bet a lot that says over half of them speak English, and probably far more than that. But nope, no Antarctica sweatshirts, only Antartida.

3) Biological. Okay, so I can't find a magnet that doesn't contain a crummy politically-influenced map or Spanish, but surely there are magnets just of penguins, right? Well, that would be correct, but having spent the past week and a half studying and quickly identifying the various different species of penguins, it is incredibly clear that almost all souvenirs are photos or drawings of Emperor Penguins. That is all fine and dandy, except for one problem: virtually nobody gets to see them. If you read the blog updates, you'll know we spent the vast majority of our time around Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. We saw a Macaroni and Adelie Penguin, as well as a Magellanic Penguin colony too. That said, Emperor Penguins live much further south, and worse, they are inland. You need a ton of luck with ice conditions and then a helicopter excursion to get there, which is possible, but highly unlikely for the average tourist in Ushuaia. I am sure most people don't care so much, but I wasn't going to buy an overpriced magnet with a penguin on it that I never came remotely close to seeing.

So, entrepreneurs, if you are looking for an easy market to enter, I highly encourage you to create souvenirs to sell in Ushuaia that avoid the three problems noted above. They are all pretty weak, and you are sure to do well if you just take a logical approach to it. In a half-day searching, I managed to find one glass-etched penguin that was a Gentoo. That is it.

From our relatively unsuccessful souvenir shopping we hiked it back up to the Hotel Ushuaia, which has a fabulous view of the Beagle Channel, and we knew they had decent food and good, free internet. We all are finally online, with some more substantial status updates to share our experiences with the world. From here, we are off to the airport, and tonight fly up to Buenos Aires, for our first night of total darkness in about two weeks.