IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!

Let's keep in mind "it's all about Daisy". We left her in a kennel for three weeks, and feeling guilty as hell we always carried plenty of pictures of her wherever we went in South America. Can you fell the guilt? Probably not.

And now we're on our way without Daisy. Starting to feel the guilt? Here we are with our friends Denise and Brian (Brian's on the right with the shorter hair. That's Paul in the middle). We have flown from Buenos Aires down to the southernmost tip of South America: Ushuaia, Argentina. And behind us, that red boat is what we'll be spending ten days on, traveling to the Antarctic.

Ushuaia is just a small port town but somehow the locals manage to graffiti it up big time. How the hell do "taggers" find their way to this remote place?

This was our hotel where we stayed one night, on the bay. It's a nice family-oriented place called "Los Cauquenes Resort y Spa". This was late December, summer down there but with weather that can go from the 70s one day to freezing and snow the next. In the winter (our summer) the place is buried under several feet of snow.

This is the view out our window. Quite dramatic with the Chilean Patagonian mountains just across the sound.

Like we said, a nice family place where people gather for excursions into Patagonia. So since we're not swimmers, we went to our room, turned on the TV (DirecTV/satellite reception), looking for some English-speaking news like CNN International. It was nothing but Spanish, home shopping, and what follows.....

Yep. "Cream My Crack, Part 6". Can't believe we've missed parts 1 through 5. Like we said, it's a family hotel. We won't show you the content but needless to say it's as hardcore as it comes....no pun intended. And interestingly enough, the hotel seemed proud to offer these channels at no cost. I'm no prude but come on, this is not the mild, bubble-gum, boob-jiggle TV that you see on late night Cinemax. However, having said that it was in English but even so, it would not have needed any translation. So we watched some of it and then went exhausted to dinner.

By the way, anyone know where we can find "Cream My Crack", parts 1 through 5?

Well, now we're back in Ushuaia where you're constantly reminded that you're about to embark on a penguin-spotting journey.

It's a place where you buy T-shirts, trinkets and all kinds of BS, which we bought.

And then posed, poised, for our great Antarctic adventure.