Taxi to the airport was smooth as silk – no traffic because of the holiday – we are there in no time (with over 2 hours to kill!). Went to the wrong terminal, so had to walk to the correct one – got a little exercise to walk off dinner. Then checked in (yay – no extra weight bag fees!) and, well, 2 hours to wait! Cappuccino and water…free internet..the flight was finally called.
Easy flight – only 3 1/2 hours – right over the mountains! We didn’t have our cameras out though – so no pix. Bummer! Will have to remember that on the return flight though. Landed, whisked through agricultural control (consisted of a table with 2 people making you open you carry on bags – right next to the baggage claim belt). Grabbed our bags and headed to Hertz for the car. Won’t go into that ordeal – but we do have a car and we will see how the bill is processed before contacting Hertz about their brand and reputation perception. Ahem.
Finally free of the car rental, it only takes us 5 minute to the hotel. The directions are great – although there is one set of lights that are now a roundabout. Fortunately we turned – even though it looked like a mistake. And – the beverage gods were smiling upon us – right in front of us is a grocery store! Thank you! A quick pit stop for room beer and wine – and we are at the hotel in a snap.
Greeted at the front door by Enzo who takes us inside and gets us settled. The Leyendas is everything it is advertised to be. On a hillock looking over the Beagle, Channel we are given a room with a view. It is decorated wonderfully, wood beamed ceiling, tile bathroom, with the hotel logo on everything – classically! As in burned into the wooden furniture, on the sheets and towels, even etched into the sink. It is just beautiful. We get settled then come back down to the lobby for Enzo to give us an orientation – about the hotel, the town, things to do. Excellent recommendations, viewpoints and service.
We decide to just wander around downtown for a while since we know we are having dinner at the hotel later. Since we’ve been here before, we just reacquainted ourselves with the town. It’s totally touristy – so we were just looking for restaurants for Saturday night. We did park down at the port and look at the expedition ships in port. Our sister ship, L’Boreal, is docked there, and I’m extremely happy – our ship is WAY bigger than I expected. It’s still not huge, obviously, only 200 people, but it’s BIG. Especially compared to all the other LITTLE expedition ships out there. It still could be awful – but you know – it’s not going to be as awful as on those smaller ships!!
We end up on the main street and stop at Tante Sara – a great little pub type place, for a beer and wine. With a fabulous slogan: Date el gusto, es el fin de mundo! Translated means: Enjoy yourself, it is the end of the world!
Then we explore the area for restaurant possibilities and check out all the parillas. There are a couple of options that look good once we check them out on the web. But, we’ll report on those tomorrow after we go! We stop at the little confiteria that Enzo recommended – all old historical 
replicas of cafe items from way back. Ed had a submarino – basically hot chocolate that you make yourself – you get hot milk with hot whipped cream on top, then you “submerge” (get the name?) a couple of pieces of chocolate into the milk, and voila! A submarino – or hot chocolate! In addition to that lovely treat, they also had – of all things – meringue penguins!!! No, we didn’t get one, they were way too cute to eat!
So – back to the hotel, glass of wine and beer on the deck 
overlooking the Beagle Channel, then we preview the DVD’s available (6 HUGE portfolios of DVDs in English and Spanish) and choose Tree of Life (which I’ve read about in the NYT) for later. Showered and refreshed, we head downstairs to eat. So intimate – there is no one but us in the dining room. Enzo serves us – scrumptious bread to begin with pate, beer, wine (of course), Ed orders the mussels and I order the Lamb bruschetta (with brie and sweet tomatoes) for starters. Both are delicious!
Sebas (owner and chef) came out to greet us and chatted for a while about the expansion to the hotel (2 additional rooms for a total of 7) . then he went back to create his magic, and magic it is: Ed has Parmesan king crab – Enzo describes it as a “soup”, but it’s more like a crab “chili”. Thick with parmesan cream sauce, tons of crab, it is rich and delicious. I have the Lamb Brochette – and I only wish I ran back up to the room for my camera. Besides being incredibly tasty, the presentation was fantastic! Two succulent brochettes arrived on skewers hung on a wooden “hangman’s cross” sort of structure. It was on top of a thick wooden plank, that was laden with thick diced vegetables and lamb ribs (presumably from which the brochette chunks had been cut). There was also an incredible Malbec dipping sauce. Top notch.
No dessert for us (how unusual) – we just head back up to the room to hang out, watch the movie and relax. Unfortunately, the movie is a bust. Highly not recommended. We didn’t even get through an hour. So much for the NYT reviews….oh well.
We ended up reading and then making sure the curtains were shut tight – this might not be the land of the midnight sun, but it’s darn close. The sun doesn’t set until well after 11pm and it rises around 4am. It gets pretty bright in our room around 6 – so those black out curtains are a must!
Off to sleep we go – tomorrow we explore the interior mountains and lakes surrounding Ushuaia.
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