Fulfilling the Prophecy of the Calafate Berry

    About six years ago I came to Ushuaia in hopes of finding a last-minute deal on an Antarctic cruise. There were tales of people getting on cruises for $1000 and these were more or less confirmed by the travel agents I spoke with at the time. The problem was I arrived during the first year a floor had been placed on how low the prices would drop. Four grand was the lowest it would go that year. Half the budget for a six month trip. So it was put on hold.

    While in Ushuaia I did a few day trips. One of them involved hiking in the woods and eating some wild berries. Calafate berries to be exact. The guide said that if you ate a Calafate berry,  you were destined to return to Ushuaia some day. Now I can't argue with that.

    Again, I am here with the intent to go to Antarctica. This time I said screw it and booked the cruise on my credit card while I was in Nicaragua (No easy task on Little Corn Island, by the way). My original plan was to just show up and try to work out a deal when I got to town. Knowing more or less what the ticket prices had been for the last few years, I decided to go ahead and book the trip. Good thing, because it was fully booked when I got to Ushuaia. And it was the cheapest deal they had had this year or would have for at least the next month. So basically, the cheapest of the season. I had some time to kill in Ushuaia and chose to do so by doing basically nothing but waiting for my cruise.