Cabs to Crabs

Our last day in Buenos Aires started with a quick run to the local launderette.

We'd done this on our first day so were professionals by now! The Savoy had its own laundry service but, as you can imagine, it's pricey to say the least. To wash one pair of socks cost the equivalent of £5.30 hence we opted to take our full bag of washing, twice, to the local launderette where they washed and dried THE LOT for just £2.59!

We dropped our clothes off and made our way to the bank to collect some pesos. 

The bank messed us around for 2 hours and after 3 taxi rides and 2 visits to different banks, we checked out of our lovely room, collected our laundry, had some lunch and headed to the airport to catch our flight to the southern most city in the world; Ushuaia. 

Fortunately our last day in BA had been cooler (around 20 degrees) so we were already getting used to a drop in temperature as we were expecting around 5 degrees when we landed. 

Ushuia's known as "The World's End" as it's so far south, the next stop is Antarctica. Even though we were expecting cold when we arrived, we weren't expecting these sights as we flew in:

When we exited the airport we were greeted with gale force, freezing winds that literally blew us across the pavement with our rucksacks on! Just as well we had our winter gear on! 

We ran for the nearest taxi and headed for our guesthouse. 

It was such a change for us! Yesterday we were sat in a cab asking the driver to turn up the air conditioning. Today we were sitting in a cab with the heaters on full blast!

Our guesthouse owner met us at the door, greeted us in Spanish & showed us to our very basic room with shared bathroom (which cost about the same as The Savoy!). She spoke no English so we got the essentials (We hope!) and then headed out for some food.

The amazing thing about being so far south is how long the days are. The sun rises around 5:30am and sets around 9:30pm!

This picture was taken outside our guesthouse around 9pm:

We'd been on Trip Advisor and found a restaurant we wanted to try so headed for La Cantina Fueguina De Freddy for some seafood.

This place is known for its king crabs so We thought it'd be rude not to try it!

After a seafood soup (very warning on a cold night) Lauren was taken to the tank to choose our crab.

Now, those of you that know me will be aware that I would never be able to choose the fate of an animal I'm about to eat. I'm very happy to eat it, but just feel ill at the thought of picking which animal is going to lose its life in order that my stomach should be filled.

It's ridiculous, I know, but it's real to me nonetheless. So, when Lauren returned with the restaurant owner and introduced me to our (still alive) dinner which she'd chosen to call John (who said Lauren wasn't creative?!), I was none too pleased!!

I soon got over my irrational fear when 'John' was delivered to our table with garlic butter and Lemon wedges:

We donned our special bibs and got stuck in, cutting through the spiky legs with special scissors to release kilos of the most AMAZING crab meat we've ever tasted. We are huge seafood fans and this was out of this world!

In her eagerness to release the juicy crab meat, Lauren got herself a few 'war wounds' from John's spiky shell but she said it was well worth the pain!

The aftermath. Poor old John didn't stand a chance!

After the meal we walked back to our guesthouse up the steep mountainside streets and headed to bed to dream about what the next few, cold days might have in store for us.