Ushuaia

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

I arrived in Ushuaia at noon after a 2 hour flight from Trelew Airport about an hour from Puerto Madryn. The city is located on the island of Tierra del Fuego and it is as far south, as you can get in Argentina. It is the last stop before Antarctica. The island, which is shared with Chile, is located between the Magellan Strait and the Beagle channel. Ushuaia lies at the foot of the Andes next to the Beagle channel, so the approach on the plane was water on one side and mountains on the other side. My first meeting with the Andes.

The airport is placed almost in the Beagle channel and when we came out of the plane, we were hit by a very nasty storm. It was cold and absolutely necessary to put on my jacket for the first time on this tour. The airport is located close to the city, so after a quick check in at my Hostel, which was more a B & B and placed in the outskirts, I went into the city center. I had to change money, get something to eat and of course to see the city.

After lunch I went for a walk by the harbour, but my god, once you were out of the sun, it was so cold, it almost felt like winter. After 4 weeks with nice warm weather, it was quite a change. The wind was very strong, so it was home to find warmer socks and the mittens, I brought with me – just in case. I was prepared for cold weather in the south, but I had not thought about the wind.

It would not have made a big difference though if I had. For me it was never an issue, if I should go there or not. Of course I had to visit Ushuaia.  I did not learn a lot about South America during my time at school, but one thing I remember is Tierra del Fuego. I always thought it sounded very exotic and although my research did tell me that no-one really knows how it got the name, I still wanted to go to the End of the World and see the really nice and beautiful nature.

Something surprising happened just after my arrival. After only 5 minutes on the main street called San Martin, I met a couple that were staying at the same hostel as me in Puerto Madryn. Yes San Martin is THE street, when it comes to; cafes, restaurants, shops and many agencies where they sell excursions, but still. it was a total coincidence weather I went right or left  and the street is very long. They had taken the trip by bus and in addition to the scheduled +30 hours, their bus broke down, so the trip had taken a total of 36 hours. I know all this because we met by chance again 2 days later first at a cafe and later in the supermarket. While they were finishing their dinner at the cafe, I had been watching Tangodance in the street, examined the first Christmas decorated window and then we ended up in a que next to each other in the supermarket. When you hardly know anyone, it is strange to meet like this, and each time you say goodbye as if, this is the last time we will see each other again.

Off Road Lake Tour

I did not need the mittens the following day, as the weather was much better and almost no wind. After a little gray morning the sun came through and I think we had about 20C, which is a lot in Ushuaia. A fine day for an off road trip to the Lakes Escondido & Fagnano north of Ushuaia. On the trip we got a little insight into the local fauna and consequences of some Canadians bringing beavers to the island. They thought they could make money on beaver skins, but the quality is bad, probably because of the very little varied diet they can get, but it means no-one catches them. They have no enemies, so the number of beavers keeps going up and up, and now they destroy the forest. There were huge areas of dead trees. Due to shortage of enemies, they are also now almost twice the size of the originally imported beavers, and they get cubs twice a year instead of the usual one. Despite of that,  it does not sound as if there are any plans to do anything about it. New trees are popping up in the area, but they’re easy for the beavers to eat, so they never get a chance to survive. Sad to see. At one place they had also changed a stream of water to become a lake. Beaver Lake, where we think we saw the nose of a beaver.

In winter you can ski in the area. Although the mountains are not very high only about 1500 m, there are snow  guarantee, and it is the wonderful powder snow, so some countries bring their elite skiers there to train, while they have summer home.

We also visited a few places where they had sled dogs, which is a major activity in the winter.

My tour included lunch which was Barbecue – lots of meat, a little salad, potatoes, a glass of wine and dessert. It tasted wonderful and was enough food for the day.

End of the world – Fin del Mundo

Ushuaia is known as Fin del Mundo, which is Spanish for The End of The World. It also means, that the main road from Buenos Aires – route no 3 – ends here just outside the city. The road is also a continuation of route no 40, which is the road that goes along the entire American continent from Alaska to southern Argentina.

The road ends at the the Beagle Channel, or actually today it ends in the Channel. To make it more attractive for tourists, a footbridge has been build out into the water, making “the road” i a little longer. They have also  created a path up to a view point, making it possible to view and take pictures of it. What you do for tourism! Well this was all part of a beautiful tour through the National Park, with opportunities to see the island’s flora and fauna.

Most especially are the parasites that grow on trees, but we also saw orchids, geese and lots of Linga trees.

It is possible to take a train through the National Park. The track was originally built to transport prisoners to work inside the park. In old days Argentina deported convicts to Tierra del Fuego, and they worked in the forrest.

The Chilean part of the island is largely uninhabited. The Argentine part was originally inhabited by four different clans. They lived as nomads and moved on to get food. After the arrival of Europeans, they disappeared gradually and are now gone completely. They died of diseases they were not immune to, but some were also brutally exterminated.

Food

Until now I have been shopping fresh fruit in small supermarkets, placed in the local area where I have been staying. There are fruit and vegetables on the shelves, but not a very large selection and not always top quality. In Ushuaia I found a reasonably large Supermarket on San Martin street but unfortunately by the end of the day, the quality was the same. I really wanted fresh fruit, as I had to return some pieces to my landlady. She had kindly borrowed me some on my first day because it was a local holiday and all shops were closed.

It is not possible to grow anything locally, so It is all being transported from Buenos Aires. I never figured out why it cant be kept fresh, a lot of the fruit I buy at home, has not exactly grown in my backyard. I guess they use less protections. It is also impossible to get a plastic bag in the supermarket, only cardboard boxes or bags made of natural material.

In Ushuaia local food only refers to sheep. This applies to most of southern Patagonia. Further north is however plenty of cattle, they are not found on Tierra del Fuego either.

Beagle Channel

On my last day, I was on tour on the Beagle Channel. The boats do not sail when it storms, and although it was only on my first day, I really noticed the strong wind, there were more days where I was recommended not to take the tour, as it was too windy. That turned out to be very fortunate as it was super nice and very calm the day I went. We were told, it is extremely rare, to be able to see the glare of the setting and clouds in the Beagle Channel, but we could that day.

The boat went past small islands with bird sanctuaries, sea lions and penguins. It was primarily the same penguins – ‘Magellan – which I had seen in Ponto Tomba, but there was also a few King Penquins and luckily, I also saw a couple of them. it looks as they do everything together as a couple. While watching them they did everything pretty much in sync with each other

By boat we could get close, but apart from Estancia Haberton with the penquins, it is forbidden to go ashore. There are various trips making tours, but the majority are either short trips without penguins or a long tour with the penguins. I took the long tour. Not so much to see the penguins: I had just seen a colony of almost 800,000, but to get a longer cruise and with the weather we had, it was a really nice tour. It took about 5 hours and after the first hour and a half, we had passed all the islands with birds and sea lions, so the rest of the time there was plenty of time to enjoy the lovely day and the amazing landscape on both sides.

We also passed the Chilean city, located south of the Beagle Channel, Puerto Williams. Ushuaia is usually described as the southernmost city in the world, but with Puerto Williams on the south side og the channel Ushuaia is beaten. Puerto Williams is not a city with tourism though, as Chile has not to the same extent build on the potential for tourism in the area. Most people who live in the city are public servants who are watching the whole area, which is large and mainly consists of small islands. Cape Horn the southernmost point of the continent, is also on a Chilean island and to get around the island, you need to be on a cruise. Unfortunately, it is either a rather expensive cruise going around the tip or a trip to Antarctica, so I skipped that from my plans. It can also be a hard ride as there will almost away be hard weather.

Summary

Ushuaia is beautifully situated on the Beagle Channel and the mountains behind. The town is charming with many colorful buildings. It is a city in development, which was evident as there was much construction going on to build new hotels and apartments. Since it is difficult to build more up the mountain, they build in length, so there are now far from one end of town to the other. From judging the houses someone here earns a lot og money. Unlike what I saw in Puerto Madryn there were some beautiful houses in between.

The main revenue for the city is tourism and there are a lot of different type of excursions to the National Park. To get up and down and around to see the city, there is both a double decker bus and a small city train that runs a few times a day. Very nice when you want to avoid climbing up the mountain to enjoy the view.

Hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park or up to the glacier Cerro Tonelli are together with the tours on Beagle Channel the most popular activities when visiting Ushuaia. The city are also visited by cruise chips going around Cape Horn or to Antarctica

I did not avoid a day with rain, but it was forecasted, so I took my “day off” that day and nursed another cold. This time it was probably the cold weather, but also too much heat in my room. Although the summer was close, the heating was still on. Unfortunately I did not notice, until waking up very hot during the night. The rain we got in the city, fell as snow in the mountains, so we woke up to a different sight of white mountains the next morning.

Summer in South America does not follow the calendar month as I am used to. Her the summer starts on the longest day of the year –  December 21st.

After 5 days it was time to say goodbye to Ushuaia and head north again to El Calafate. Fortunately, also this time by plane. Bus from Ushuaia is on gravel roads and involves a boat trip across the Megellan strait to Rio Gallio, and no matter where you are going you need to change to another bus.

Alternatively, you can go to Punto Arena in Chile. It is a slightly shorter trip but you still need to get a cross the Magellan Strait.

Thanks for reading the blog and for more photos click here