So we have reached Ushuaia - the end of the world - as its sold here by all the tour companies, except its not the last town in the world as there´s a little one across the water on Isla Del Navarino (in Chile) which is further south ;) Still tho makes for good selling of tours so everything here has that label - plus we are in Argentina so as far as Argentians are concerned Chile doesn´t exist anyways!!
Its a pretty decent town with lots of shops, cafes, bars, etc with one entire street dedicated to tourists but everything else is pretty much ordinary so we can actually go to a decent supermarket! Its really cold here - highs in the summer reach 15C during the day and at night somewhere much lower. There´s constant heating and in fairness all buildings (except in some of the outer poorer suburbs) seem well insulated and heated. Its a nice setting as well with views over the Beagle Channel onto Isla del Navarino and on the northern side mountains with little patches of snow on top.
Getting here from Rio Gallegos was a painful 12 hour bus ride with one section of ripio (gravel)that seemed to be pure mud and go on for hours. Also involved 4 border crossings ie Argentina-Chile and then back to Argentina which is always time consuming. The scenery for most of the trip was flat (except for the odd sheep, guanaco or rhea breaking the skyline), grey, dreary and very uninspiring. The ferry crossing the Magellan strait onto this Isla Grande (where Ushauia is) broke the monotony and we saw heaps of penguins and a brief glimpse of a small black and white dolphin which I cant remember the name of. The last couple of hours was more interesting as well altho very foggy but at least there was trees and hills.
Stayed in a really super B&B the first night but then had to leave as they were fully booked but found a good hostal (called ABRA) which is cosy, reasonable (the price of accomodation here is a bit mad as its high season) and a good kitchen so we can actually cook our own food - wahooo such a novelty!! Been here now for over a week except for one 2 night walk we did (which I will blog in a different post). Have spent a lot of time hiking (Sierra Valdivieso for 3 days, Tierra del Fuego for 1 day), and lots of painful time trying to figure out where to go next. Originally had planned to go to Puerto Williams on Isla del Navarino to do the Dientes circuit there (4-5 nights) and then continue on the ferry to Punta Arenas (36 hours and sounds pretty cool). Unfortunately we couldn´t get ferry tickets and also after completing the Sierra Valdivieso circuit here (which was really good) decided to save ourselves nearly US$500 and not go as the scenery doesn´t look hugely different from here. Also suffering a bit of travel-trekking lethargy now - think its cos we had such a buzz going for the last 6 weeks we just had to crash sometime and its happened.
Went to the maritime muesum as well which is well worth a visit. On friday night turned into a session, we bumped into an Aussie guy called Darren (well he recognised Dunk from uni and is good mates with Brett) who is crewing on a yacht (more like a cruise ship I think) for some really rich people who just fly in to places like this, do a cool cruise then jet out again (on their private jet of course) to leave the crew move the boat to the next fab location. Unfortunately port security was too tight for us to go onboard so instead we stayed in the pub for a very long night (and a consequently very quiet saturday) discussing the merits of crew life versus backpacker life (not sure what the conclusion was). We also tried to do a glacier/ice course here but that also fell thru about 3 times as they are short of guides. Today (monday) we have finally managed to make a plan and we are heading to Puerto Natales on wedneday morning at 5am on a 15 hour bus journey - bring it on NOT!
Did the quick 4 hour tour on the Beagle Channel. Turns out the 4 hour trip is even quicker then that and is only 2.5 hours and there was no hiking on some island as advertised (false advertising seems to go a long way here) and yes it was a tourist trap but hey when in Ushuaia gotta go see the Beagle channel! So for 135 pesos (about 40 euros) each we got a good view of the beagle channel on a calm day. The wind still nearly cut us in 2 thou but we got to see loads of albatross (not sure what kind but pretty big ones), comorants, some penguins, seal lions and lots of other nesting birds at very close quarters on some of the little islands in the channels. Not sure what the birds thought - made me think back to what its like in work in the ´Big Pong´ last year - always some one rushing up for a close view of your personal quarters, squaking away at ya like I knew what was going on (only messing bigpongers - I loved the daily harassment hahahaha)! Got super views of the mountains too as the clouds cleared slightly - altho not off the Chilean ones in the west. Dont think its ever cleared in the west in the last week.
So one more day left at the end of the world and then we´re heading to Puerto Natales, Chile on a 15 hour bus trip to start planning our trip to Torres del Paine. Looking fwd to moving on again now and maybe some slighter warmer weather (it snowed on a mountain on us yesterday!) .
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