The Truth about Working Remotely from Ushuaia

When the internet isn't all it's cracked up to be

An essential part of funding my three-month research trip to Tierra del Fuego came from continuing to work full time in my day job. I couldn’t afford to take that much time off of work, but I was privileged to be able to be able to do my work as an editor from anywhere.

That said, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

I became a regular at this coffee shop in downtown Ushuaia because of its reliable internet.

For context, I should mention this was in 2019, when work from home was much less common. At the publishing house where I worked, the head of HR had to personally approve remote-work requests. Around this time, another coworker in my department petitioned to work away from the office when she moved out of state for family reasons, and HR turned down her request, which meant she had to leave the job. So when I was granted permission to work while traveling, I felt responsible for proving it could be done. I was determined to not make my employer regret the decision.¹

Access to good internet was my one essential requirement for my housing, because my plan was to work from wherever I was living. Although I was accustomed to using an adjustable standing desk and a second, large monitor alongside my laptop at my office at the publishing house, all I really needed was my computer and a strong enough internet connection to check email, be available to my coworkers by instant message, participate in meetings by video call, and access the in-house network through a VPN. Editing really doesn’t require much.

My host family in Ushuaia had excellent, high-speed wireless internet at their house. My bedroom upstairs was furnished with a simple desk under a window. Despite the long corridor to the room, the signal was flawless. It was a perfect setup for working—when I wasn’t distracted by the gorgeous view.

That is, it was perfect until the internet went out.

The view from my desk window at my host family’s house in Ushuaia, at 8:23 one morning. (See that mountain on the right, with several jagged peaks? That’s known as Los Cinco Hermanos—The Five Siblings, named after the Bridges children who were born at the Ushuaia mission.)