OnManeuvers: Buses and post-apocalyptic playgrounds

Ooof, this morning came early.

We had to be up early to catch the 7 o'clock bus back to Punta Arenas to then catch the bus south to Ushuaia, el fin del mundo or the end of the world.

A quick breakfast followed by a quick repacking and we were off towards the bus depot.

Red skies in morning.....

I caught a dog pooping on the street corner below in this beautiful sunrise picture.

The bathroom that tried to kill us. One of a couple in fact that tried during the trip.

See, there's the dog.

We sleepily boarded the bus in Puerto Natales and most of us dozed off for the two and a half hour trip back to Punta Arenas. Or so we thought. Well before Punta Arenas, the bus suddenly slowed and pulled off the road. We were told, time to get off the bus. ?????
Uh, what?
So, we gringos got off the bus perplexed and then looked around. Across the street was the typical roadside bus stop shelter we had seen around the countryside, but the bus conductor told us that wasn't for us, just wait on this side of the road. Well, "this side of the road" meant the abandoned looking playground and dusty road side.
We nicknamed it the "post apocalyptic playground bus top". At first I think we were a little puzzled but the others that got off the bus with us didn't seem concerned and in fact, the connecting bus arrive about five minutes after we were dropped off. Looking back on it, we think they were in contact with each other over the radio, so it really wasn't a big deal. At the time it was half hilarious and half concerning.

The gringos with the post-apocalyptic playground in the background.

Back on the next bus we settled in for the next leg, several hours before the Argentina border. We settled in and set up the iPads with movies.

This bus was fancier than most in that they offered coffee and snacks.

We continued south until Punta Delgada where we got off the bus to wait for the ferry across the Strait of Magellan.

Armored car.

Old lighthouse, now a maritime museum. Unfortunately not open.

Cool looking tug.

Cool ferry, but not for us. Looked to be for fuel tankers.

The ferry terminal buildings reminded me of the ferries in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Chilean Carabineri.

Chile!

This is actually a faded aerial photo of the Strait of Magellan. We were at the narrow point there in the photo.

We had to walk on to the ferry before they loaded the cars and buses.

Puppy hanging around the ferry terminal.

JD "That must take a giant Phillips Head screwdriver"!

Buses were a tight fit.

Tough getting the Bus Sur off.

Heavy Duty looking Mercedes tractor trailer.

A wagon full of sheep.

Once off the ferry we were officially on the island or La Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego.

Uggh, how much further Dad?

Trucks waiting for the boarder crossing.

At the Chilean border crossing point in San Sebastian we had to get off the bus and get our passports exit stamped. The snack bar there only had beef empenadas, so I'm glad I only got the fries/papas fritas. Others didn't fair so well after eating the empenadas.

Ahh, good old grease.

Now, to get in to Argentina.

This expedition prepped Defender was quickly spotted and I went to investigate. The couple seemed to be in a hurry so I didn't get a chance to chat with them, but I'll check out their website.

Another dusty outpost. We all had to turn away any time a truck or bus pulled up.

The side of the Defender has stickers of all of the countries they've visited. That's a lot of countries!

Nice decals of their travels!

On the other side of the border, I saw this other expo prepped Defender.

We were dubious but it was decent!

We pulled in to Rio Grande, the next big town south of the border in Argentina to switch from Buses Pacheco to Buses Lider, a smaller Sprinter van like bus.

We had to go through a couple of checkpoints. At this one the driver suddenly got out and headed to the porta john. When you gotta go, you gotta go!

We stopped in another town, Tolhuin to drop off passengers before continuing south and over a mountain range to Ushuaia.

Ushuaia is a pretty large sized port town with a bustling commercial port and a older down town section.

Ushuaia actually started as a penal colony, but later blossomed in to a port city. It serves 90% of the tourist traffic to Antarctica.

More expo campers.

The bus dropped us off at the bus stop down by the cruise boat port area. In retrospect, we should have given the driver extra cash to take us up to the B&B we were staying at. It was several blocks straight uphill and we finally arrived sweat soaked at Galeazzi where Alejandro welcomed us. We cleaned up and rested for a bit before heading back out to a restaurant that Alejandro recommended.