Every once in a while when traveling for an extended period of time, you hit a wall, even when you’re in an amazing place. Traveling isn’t as exciting; it wears you down. It’s not quite homesickness, it’s just getting tired of being on the go, seeing so many new sights, not being able to take it all in, and spending money.
In the past two months when we’ve started to feel this way — even just a little — we’ve stopped for a few days. We’ve found a private room or an apartment (rather than a hostel) which has cured the beginnings of travel burnout; we can cook our own food, take it slow, and spend a little less money.
Well, we’ve hit the wall again, but this time it’s a little harder to stop. It’s more expensive in this region and a private space could easily cost $75 US/night. We have to make a decision.
Our next stop is El Chalten, a small town with lots and lots of hiking. We’ll be doing a combination of hostelling, camping, and a bed and breakfast. After we leave El Chalten we’ll have about a week left of our trip. We had planned to go to Ushuaia. Tierra del Fuego. The end of the world. It used to sound very romantic.
At the moment it sounds like a hassle.
To get to Ushuaia we could take a bus for 26 hours. Not a nice bus with cushy reclining seats that we’ve been used to in Argentina, but a regular old school bus-style bus. The other option is to fly, which would cost $350 US more than the bus.
The return from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires (where our flight home will leave from) runs about $650 US; turns out we should have booked earlier. A bus would cost about $400 US and be around 50 hours (we won’t be busing).
The prospect of spending $1,000 US just to go to the end of the world, and possibly not enjoy it to the fullest, makes for a very difficult decision.
What would you do?
Our trip so far has been better than I could have imagined. Argentina is an incredible country with so many wonderful sights. But sometimes even an incredible vacation can wear you out.
The only previous experience I’ve had like this is the Trans-Siberian. After traveling for 5 (shower-less, dehydrated fool-filled) days across Russia on a train from Moscow to Lake Baikal, I was ready to be done. We didn’t make it all the way to Vladivostok, the end of Russia and of the railroad. It would have required another few days on the train and it sounded miserable.
Do I regret not making it all the way to Vladivostok? A little. But at the time I was ready to be done. And it makes my memories of the Trans-Siberian that much better.
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photo credit: Vautrin Baires
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If I were you, I’d follow my heart. Tierra del Fuego isn’t going anywhere… come back when you can fully enjoy the experience. Seeing it just to see it – at the price of $1000 – doesn’t really add up.
My vote is to pass up Tierra del Fuego. The financial and physiological burdens the trip presents are probably not worth the day or two spent there. I was excited for you to go as well, as I recently watched a Discovery movie about it. In a book I’m reading, a really annoying occurence happens on the last day of the people’s vacation, and it sets the tone for their memories of the place. Even though they try to remind each other that, had they left before that, the trip would’ve been wonderful.
Is this like American Idol? Do our votes and comments actually dictate what y’all’ll (it’s a word!) do?