USHUAIA

We arrived after the 14 hour bus / ferry journey from Puerto Natales at 9pm. The weather was pretty gloomy but it was still light out. (It's always light out down here, it gets dark round 11pm and is light by 4am) We had arranged to meet our Air BnB host at the bus stop and sure enough, five minutes later a guy rolled up and shouted "Will?" out the window. We hopped in for the short drive to Gabriel and Mercedes place. It was a simple double room but as the choice in Ushuaia is so limited, it was perfect. We heard Gabriel playing the guitar and on our last night we asked him if he was in a band. It turned out he was in a pretty popular band 15 years ago when he lived in Buenos Aires, and showed us videos of them playing to massive crowds in massive venues. Now though he's in a smaller ska style band called Serenos De Tierra in Ushuaia, who play to packed adoring fans in the local pubs.

Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world and is known as 'El Fin Del Mundo' - 'The End Of The World'. However, there is still rather a lot of land further south, including the Chilean island 'Isla Navarino' just across the Beagle channel, Cape Horn, and lots more little islands. However, it was the furthest south we would be going because of the astronomical prices to get anywhere else. A lot of people use Ushuaia as a stepping stone to reach Antarctica, and many places in town offer 'last minute deals' but starting at US$6000 they were a little out of our price range. One day though I'd love to come back! Ushuaia is a colourful tin roofed town at the foot of many snowy mountains with the Beagle Channel running along the southern shore. Named after the HMS Beagle which in the 1830s gave a young Charles Darwin the opportunity as an amateur naturalist. Upon his first sight of glaciers in 1833 he wrote "It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and especially as contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse of snow".

This may be the end of the road for many travelers but it's also the end of the road for many cars, who after making their final journey south sit quietly on side streets rusting away.

We messaged Cameron and John who'd arrived the day before us and managed to tag along on their minibus trip to Laguna Esmeralda. It was an easy enough hike to the lake through a lot of shoe stealing mud and peat bogs. The view was pretty over the emerald waters but after being spoilt with such stunning views in Torres Del Paine, it didn't really compete. We had our packed lunch and sat around dozing and skimming stones as is the done thing in these locations. We had a few hours to kill before the bus picked us up so we started inventing games, mostly involving throwing rocks at other rocks. This nicely passed the time.

A massive pack of dogs was running amuck, there must have been 30 young huskies. God knows how their owner finally managed to round them all up as they didn't have leads and kept running off. One was super small and super cute. She must have been breeding them and training them to pull sledges ready for the winter tourist season.

One morning we woke up to white skies and the clouds trying to decide if they wanted to rain or snow. Snow won and the mountains quickly got a light dusting. It was a superb day to go to a museum, but first we needed food. We found a restaurant by the waterfront that was serving a plate of the day - a delicious meat and lentil stew with bread, a drink and a desert for 155pesos or £7.50. Being holed up in there as the snow was coming down felt rather Christmassy. We stopped to spare a thought for Cameron and John who had left early that morning to hitch back to Punta Arenas to make their flight as all the buses were full. We heard from them a day or two later that it had taken 22 hours and four lifts to make it.

The museum in the old prison housed some interesting exhibitions including some Antarctic photography and underwater photography nicely displayed in the old cells! We also learnt a lot about the history of Antarctic exploration by the various countries and the history of Tierra Del Fuego.

The following day boasted clear skies so we rented a tent and spent a night in the Tierra Del Fuego national park. Hiking in from the entrance point to the free camp we passed the worlds most southerly post office poking out into the channel on a spindly jetty. The postman running the office had fantastic facial hair and due to the amount of letters, photos and postcards written and sent too him that plastered the walls made us feel he was the real attraction. There even was a postcard for sale just dedicated to him.

The path then wound its way along various bays and beaches one of which we had a siesta on. Then finally we plodded to the edge of Largo Verde (The Green Lake) and pitched up for the night.

Once we'd set up the tent around 6pm we had planned to complete some smaller hikes in the area, but instead we decided to grab some beers from the visitors cafe fifteen mins down the road and just chill out in the sunshine. As it had been snowing the day before, we wanted to make the most of today's glorious weather. The beer was cold, the sun was warm and the view was divine. We were right by a small river and behind that was a perfectly shaped pyramidal hill with snow on top. Our pasta dinner was very picturesque, and the tent we had rented was a palace. The guy said it was three man but it could easily have fitted five, and it was incredibly spacious after the tiny two man tent we had for Torres Del Paine, although we didn't enjoy the extra weight!

Making breakfast was a little more difficult as the wind had gotten up during the night. As there were no shelters to cook your food, we just had to do the best we could. Still, it was nothing we couldn't handle as we are now expert outdoor porridge makers.

On the second day we completed the smaller hikes to the most southerly point in the park. The plan was to do the hike to the Chilean border, but then decided our time would be better spent going back to town and getting some coffee and cake. Our decision turned out to be the right one as the heavens opened once again when we would have been half way through the walk.

After reading this blog, we decided against doing any of the longer treks in Tierra Del Fuego or around, but have a read as it is super funny.
http://www.thetravelchica.com/2012/02/cabo-froward-chile-journey-to-the-end-of-the-world/

On our last day at the end of the world we hiked up to a viewpoint above town. We seriously underestimated how long it would take and only took a couple of small packets of nuts. On the way we passed a ski lift that was closed for summer and hiked up a ski piste (without snow). At the top we could see the whole city, the port area, and the cruise ships. The lookout is called Glacier Martial but after Seeing Perito Merino Glacier in El Calafate this looked more like a slushy puddle. Still the valley beautifully framed the city and channel.

For our last two nights in Ushuaia the Air BnB was full so we went to stay in a hostel. It was up there with the worst place we've stayed, because it was next door to a night club and the music and the clientele were so fucking loud. A bloke fell asleep bolt upright midway through a text message with the blue phone light illuminating his face. This eerie sight wasn't helping the sleeping situation. Two hours later whilst rolling over and over to get comfortable he was still there. In the two nights we stayed, I could only have snatched four hours sleep.

Our bus out of town left at 5am, and when we got to the bus stop early, we were treated to an incredible pink sunrise. We had come down to the waterside the night before to try to catch the sunset but the sky wasn't playing ball. However this morning we got the photo we wanted, of the shipwreck with an incredible sky behind.

Ushuaia to Punta Arenas

Our journey south was over and it was time to head north. Our bus crossed the border at San Sebastián on Isla Grande. You stamp out of Argentina and then bus it 10 minutes through no mans land to reach the Chilean immigration office. Here there were millions of sheep and frolicking lambs and a few cows grazing. I wondered what country these animals were from, luckily Argentina and Chile both speak Spanish.

Looking closely out the window I noticed tonnes of plastic bottles had been discarded at pretty regular intervals from passing drivers. No matter what type of bottle (water, fizzy drink etc) all seemed to be partly filled with the same yellowish orange liquid...

We had a nice surprise on the ferry taking us from Tierra Del Fuego Isla Grande to main land South America. A pod of excited black and white dolphins jumped alongside us. They looked like wannabe Orcas.