It was our last morning in the most southern city in the world and we weren’t up to much. We took our time over breakfast and then spent the remainder of the morning doing stuff online while we waited to go to the airport. Our taxi arrived on time at 11:30 and quickly whisked us through the streets to the airport for only 60 pesos (about $6).

We had given ourselves plenty of time at the airport just in case Aerolineas Argentinas strictly enforced their baggage limits. It wasn’t like we would have to make decisions about what to leave behind, it would just be a redistribution and repacking exercise. Being so early, the airport was still relatively quiet and we breezed through check in without any baggage issues. Next stop was the Tax Office – there is a special, additional departure tax when leaving Ushuaia airport. Tax paid, 28 pesos each, we were off to the Tourist Information office for David to get his passport stamped for being at “Fin del Mundo”, the end of the world.

The airport soon became very busy with a big group of Asians so we moved through from the main departure hall to the gate area. Not much after we were called for our 1:30pm flight to Buenos Aires with Aerolineas Argentinas. It was the longest flight we’d taken in South America, just over 4 hours, but we still only got the usual small snack and soft drink/coffee on board.

Buenos Aires has two airports, one actually inside the city, very close to the centre which serves mainly domestic flights, and Ezeiza, the airport on the outskirts of the city serving international and domestic. After collecting our bags we paid for the shuttle/remise, 450 pesos including tolls, and were told to go outside and just around the corner where we would find a kiosk. We couldn’t find the remise kiosk outside and after asking couple of airport staff and the airport information desk, we were told to go to another terminal - not happy! After walking the entire length of the airport from domestics to international, we still found no one and on asking again, were told to go inside the baggage hall (through the ‘no entry’ doors) to the kiosk. We were getting a bit irked by now and when the girl seemed disinterested in our plight, voices began to rise. She quickly got on the radio to the previous guy and arranged for the driver to come and meet us where we stood – she slunk off while we waited. The guy soon arrived and took us to a car parked in the car park. There would have been no way to know which one was the right car if we had not been escorted to it, it was just an ordinary car without any signs to indicate it was a commercial vehicle.

The traffic was bad from the airport to the microcentro and it took almost an hour to travel the 40km. Once we entered the downtown we were surprised by the size of the streets, some were enormous 6 plus lane wide while others were narrow, single lane roads. Our hotel, El Conquistador, was on one of the narrow, but popular streets in the area. The lobby looked quite fancy and street outside looked clean and safe. We were given a map and some information on the surrounding area before being pointed to the lifts to take us to our 5th floor room. We were a bit surprised because we had paid a cheap price for a room that was going to be on the second or third floor. We weren’t complaining, being higher meant we were away from the street noise. It was a standard room, a bit outdated, but very functional and enough space to spread out for 6 nights.

Before venturing out, we asked at reception about changing money and they told us that they would exchange at 12 to 1, a good rate especially in the safety of the hotel and not having to deal with shady characters on the street. We were starving so we decided to walk to a nearby mall, Galerias Pacifico, which had a food court for a quick bite to eat. The burgers came from a local chain and were nothing special although the meat in the pattie was good and they did offer an upgrade from soft drink to beer, which pleased David. It was a beautiful building with a nice roof with art painted on the ceiling. There was a huge Christmas tree in the atrium reaching up towards the ceiling four stories above. It was entertaining watching people being photographed with the tree – the usual selfies and some normal shots of couples taking each other. There was a couple of ‘nice’ boys seemingly doing a full on photo shoot including effeminate poses much to the amusement of everyone who saw them. The shops were very expensive, which was probably a combination of the currency exchange rate and a desire for the mall to appeal to the more affluent in the city. We didn’t buy anything, just window shopped for a bit before walking back to our hotel on the pedestrian Florida Street.