The Post Office and King Crabs

So I have this parcel I wrapped up in Buenos Aires that I've been carrying around ever since. It's about 1½' x 1½' x ½' and contains my 50 foot handmade rawhide lasso, my horse hobbler, photo CDs, etc. Holiday stuff I want to send back to the UK. When I tried to post it in Buenos Aires I was told it was too heavy to send. Even though I'm still in Argentina I thought I'd try my luck here in Ushuaia.

At the Post Office every parcel has to be inspected and officially sealed by a customs official. I now know the procedure to be that you bring your unwrapped parcel to the Post Office along with paper, scissors and tape. You have it inspected (searched) and you wrap it up there and then. As it was, I had this pre sealed, tightly wrapped bundle with more layers than an over zealous game of pass the parcel. This did not amuse the customs officer who, after carefully slicing thought the sellotape on the outer parcel with a razor blade, was presented with another smaller parcel taped up on the inside! Then another, then parcels of tightly wrapped plastic bags! Tee he! But then, after destroying my hardy work of art he had no sellotape to put it back together again!? Doh! We had to bum some from a fellow parcel wrapper. I then had to fill out 4 forms (not 1, not 2, but 4!) detailing what I was sending, why I was sending and it's worth. But still, heavy or not, they finally took my parcel. But given there's only 3 bits of tape holding it together (and Ushuaia is next to the Falklands - don't mention the war!) I don't fancy its chances of making it to the UK.

Back to the Internet and I realised I really want to take a ferry / mini-cruise somewhere. There's the Navimag ferry around the Chilean Feords but in April, when I'd be wanting to take it, it's closed for repairs. Then there's the Australis ferry that sails around the Cape Horn and into Chile which leaves in a few days time - but I can't seem to book that particular day on-line. Grrr... I plan to phone them up tomorrow.

All the local sea-food restaurants around here seem to specialise in King Crab dishes, obviously a good catch in the area. So I thought I'd splash out and spend £10 on a crab meal. It was King Crab in a creamy paprika sauce, but as nice as it was I couldn't get it out of my head that it tasted like something cheap and not so exclusive back in the UK. This put me off the special and exclusive meal for a bit until I realised what it was - my dinner tasted like Crab Sticks!!! Like, no shit Sherlock!

Well, back to my favourite Internet cafe / bar until 02:30 watching their big flat TV screen. They had on some dark, futuristic, semi computer animated American film about Inca Gods coming back to Earth, possessing bodies and killing mutants. I've no idea what it was about really, I was only half watching it, half blogging and drinking at the same time. But it looked cool and freaky. A mate who works in the bar, Ezequiel, kept telling me it's all true and that, that shit really happens!

Posted by Steve Eynon