#177 OMG!
17.May.23 – Buenos Aires
MAJOR UPDATE! See below after Usuhuaia.
Well, I went to Ushuaia over the weekend. I will tell the truth, I didn't really want to go. However, I had made the bookings, and they weren't refundable, so I went ahead. Ushuaia is a 3 1/2 hour plane flight from Buenos Aires, and it went well. My back held up, even though I had a little bit of anxiety about traveling again.
I think I will let the pictures do the talking here. Ushuaia is utterly beautiful.
I tried to go on a tour with the train at the End Of The World, but when I arrived I was about to get on the train and I realized they had no bathroom facilities in the cars. It is just a small unheated carriage, almost like a toy train, and I would have been trapped inside for at least an hour both ways. I'm afraid that did not work for me, so I exited the station post haste. I went back to the hotel and sat in the beautiful lobby looking out at the beautiful Beagle Straits, and enjoyed that with a cup of coffee instead.
I did in fact go and take a small hike up the mountainside behind the resort. It wasn't exactly a rough hike but it was not a trail either. I only went about 15 minutes in, then I decided that I should probably not stress my back anymore, and I returned to the hotel. However, to my great surprise, although I felt I had pushed my back, I was still OK.
Much of the time while I was there, I wasn't exactly sick, but I felt like I had a bad cold, but I suspect it may have been hay fever of some description or other.
Ushuaia is a small town, with a population of about 80,000 people. It is the only city of any import within the province. As it is the southernmost city in the world, it is one of the five that is used regularly as a jumping off point for Antarctic expeditions during the summer. There is a small Chilean settlement (Pt. Williams, pop. 3,000) about 20km further south I believe. I did find it somewhat amusing that everywhere you turn in Ushuaia, one sees signs saying that Las Malvinas (Falklands) are part of the Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province. Pointless spat. Pointless pride.
54°48′26″S 68°18′16″W are the coordinates of the town.
But honestly, I was glad to get back.
On the Monday of my return, I got some very good news from my lawyer. My application has been approved by the prosecutor’s office and is now at its final stopping place with the judge who will do the final approval. As I have said many times before, I am desperately trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, but my lawyer, from what I understood of his voice message, was expecting that possibly in two to three weeks, we may get the approval so that he can schedule me for my swearing in ceremony. I started this process in late 2016. So, it is over six years. I cannot express how much I am looking forward to this being over. Granted that COVID put a three-year hiatus into the middle of this, and no one could have foreseen that, but I will be ecstatic if this finally comes through.
STOP PRESS!!!!!!!!
This morning at 05:45 AM local time in Buenos Aires [18th of May, 2023] after getting up and lying on the couch to review my messages, the first thing I saw was a document and a comment from my lawyer saying “Congrats. Citizenship approved.” Quite laconic. 😊 Wow! I am, as I write this, still stunned. I have been working towards this for so long, and I had done a very good job of refusing to get my hopes up, and this essentially happened just four days after the documents went to the judge. I am waiting for word from my lawyer about when they will accomplish the swearing in. Once I have been sworn in as a citizen, they apply for my DNI, which is the national identity card, which takes 10 days to arrive by mail. Apparently, once armed with the DNI, i just have to go to one of the numerous kiosks scattered around the city to apply for a passport. I'm told that if I apply in the morning, I can usually pick the passport up in the afternoon. By contrast the United States takes 6 to 8 weeks. What the hell is that all about? Of course, Argentina has 1000% inflation. So obviously one cannot have everything . 😊
But truly, I am sitting here dithering. I'm not stupid. I do know basically what my plans are going to be. But at the same time, I had not made detailed plans because making detailed plans would have been the equivalent of assuming that all was going to go well. And I just did not want to do that. I did not want to get my hopes up internally by making all of these plans, only to be crushed if the citizenship did not come through.
So, I'm assuming that I should be able to get sworn in hopefully next week, and then have my passport within 10 to 12 days after that. I originally got my ticket to leave on the 6th of June, and if this pans out I will do that. I am planning to stop in Europe for a few days, so that I can see an old friend in England, my friend Jakob in either Denmark or Bulgaria, and possibly a person of interest that I wish to meet up with in Rotterdam. But I have been named as a sponsor in the wedding of a friend's daughter in the Philippines that is taking place on the 17th of June. So, I will see this will all work out. But I am in a euphoria of juggling what I need to do. 😊 A good way to start the day. I will post this right now and I will keep you updated.
Happy and elated from Argentina.