MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record cruise season for Ushuaia

Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina is living a record summer season with fifty cruise vessels calling and almost 100.000 visitors, according to a report from the Argentine Coast Guard.

The season which officially began last September 27 has so far been made up overwhelmingly of foreigners, 24.668 from United States; 7.765 British; 4.132 Canadians; 3.825 Germans and just 915 Argentines.

Among the highlight calls of this season was the "Queen Mary", the largest cruise vessel in the world, which is again scheduled for March 28 with 2.600 tourists and a crew of 1.250.

Ushuaia has in the last few seasons become the "gateway to Antarctica" since most visitors travelling to the South board in Tierra del Fuego's capital and many vessels come in for provisions and fuel.

The many cruise vessels that normally call in Antarctica from Ushuaia include, Antarctic Dream, Akademik Shokalskiy, Lyubov Orlova, Alexander Von Humboldt, Explorer II, Explorer, Polar Star, Akademik s Vavilov, Akademik Ioffe and Discovery.

An estimated 3.500 tourists who visited Antarctica this season boarded in Ushuaia which is a vital port of call for the Southern Cone circuits.