We are now in the most southern tip of the world, or as the locals call it “Fin del Mundo” the end of the world. We get a ride into town from the airport by a friendly local helicopter pilot and decide to do some sightseeing in this unique town. The people have a native Indian look about then with dark eyes and dark eyes. The local people seem totally intrigued by Chris and I, the children especially look at Chris with awe because of his 6’7 height and me because I appear to be the only black person in town. On our first night we just order room service and crash out, we try to catch up with our emails as the Falklands internet was unbelievably slow and expensive.  We find this is also a huge problem in Ushuaia, but then we are at the end of the world. The local helicopter pilot who gave us a ride to town told us in order to fly to Cape Horn our last stop for our mission a few miles south, we need to apply for a permit as the rock is “officially Chilean” Chris sends emails applying for a permit to fly to the rock and so we can take some pictures and while we await a response we do our sightseeing.
We decide to hire a car which is both incredibly expensive and REALLY slow! The whole process took two and a half hours despite having the hotel call the night before to book it for us!! We venture to the old jail which is now a museum and a can kind of an Argentine Alcatraz. The conditions in which the prisoners lived in were barbaric with concrete floors and no heating. The prisoners were used as a kind of slave labour to build local buildings, including the local rail network. We also went to another museum to learn about the most earliest and primitive local Indians called Yamana Indians. They lived a wild nomadic life in which they lived off shellfish and wild vegetation, they also wore no clothes. Unfortunately just like many native inhabitants in history who have interacted with the western white man. Missionaries came and “civilized them” and unfamiliar with wearing clothes they picked up germs and infections and eventually the Yamana tribe was wiped out.
The next day we drove around in the National park which was picturesque, with huge mountains and great lookout points for scenic views. The park had huge lush green trees, alpine forests, lakes, streams and rivers. We saw a native red fox and many interesting birds. Camping seemed popular in this park as it seemed ideal for those who like to hike and climb mountains, in fact we saw many people just doing that. We found a little old steam train in which the network and rails as mentioned in the museum was built by the prisoners many years old. We decide to take an hour ride in this train and as we felt like treating ourselves for an extra $20 we also got a lunch which entailed a tasty crab meat sandwich, a glass of champagne, a local chocolate cake (alfajor) and muffin. All was going well and we was enjoying the views from this this charming little First Class carriage which we shared with another four people. The food was delicious and on the way down Chris mumbles something to me about not feeling well. He was suddenly very quiet so I asked him what was wrong and he refused to answer me. All of sudden I knew what was wrong as his face went bright red and started to look swollen. There must have been peanuts which he is highly allergic to the cake! Of course we didn’t have his Epipen with us; it was of course back in our hotel room which was about a 30 minute drive away. Chris’s face continued to get redder and redder and as we neared the town, I suggested that we should find a farmacia (pharmacy). I looked at Chris and I knew it was getting really serious when he said “no I think I need a hospital”. Now I was really scared, I knew that he may go into full blown anaphylactic shock any minute and he was telling me that he was having trouble breathing!!We looked for signs for a hospital, and frantically looked on our ipad for map for a hospital sign. Suddenly we saw a red cross, and then a hospital sign which we aimed straight for. This was one my worst nightmare realized; in a hospital, in a foreign country trying to tell the doctors that Chris is sick! I frantically tried to explain to the receptionist that Chris was allergic to peanuts and he may go into anaphylactic shock any minute as he was now making a choking sound! Luckily after us both shouting” allergic! allergic!” several times, a wonderful angel appeared and “said I work for the Red Cross and speak English can I help you?” The lovely lady was Eloisa Dougherty who had unfortunately hurt her shoulder and was there to get a pain shot. Thankfully for us she was able to translate the importance of Chris seeing someone immediately and within seconds we were ushered to a room where the doctor and the nurse sprang into action. The doctor gave Chris a hydrocortisone shot and the nurse put a mask on his face and gave him oxygen!! We waited for 2-3 hours as Chris began to start breathing normally and look less red. The delightful Eloisa with excellent English stayed with us the whole time, amusing us with funny stories and just hanging out with us. We left the hospital after the doctors gave Chris the green light to go and paid the minute bill of 70 pesos which is about 12-15 dollars (10 pounds).After facing my huge fear of taking Chris to foreign hospital being realized it all worked out in the end! We drove Eloisa home, got a takeaway meal from the resturant next door to our hotel and crawled into bed.




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