Escape from the Land of Fire

Trip Start Dec 14, 2007
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Trip End Nov 25, 2008


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Flag of Chile  ,
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Instead of "tiera del fuego" the land of fire, it should be called the land of wind. The wind blows hard for the entire time that the sun is up, which is about 19 hours a day, around now. Ushuia wasn´t bad because it had mountians around it to protect it, but everything north is flat.

From Ushuia, I snagged a bus to Rio Grande, then had to hitch-hike north from there. There was no space on the busses for the next two days. It seems like nobody leaves Tierra del Fuego. I spent all day hitching, I saw about 10 busses heading south to Rio Grande and Ushuia but not one passed me going north.

I got to the ferry to the mainland just as the sun was setting. There was one more ferry but I decided to camp near the ferry terminal, becuase it would be a real pain to try and hitch after dark. As I was looking for a place to camp I noticed the fields on either side had double barbed wire fences, and lots of little red signs that said "minas." Closer to the road there is a sign that says "danger mine field." So that ruled out a lot of camping spots. I ended up camping behind a little wind break somebody had build between the mine field and the beach.

The next day I took the first ferry across to the mainland. It was bad hitching from the ferry to the north. All the cars were full and there were still no busses heading north. There were at least 5 heading south. I had hiked about 5 of the six miles to the main highway before I got a ride with a truck all the way to Rio Gallegos. All the hotels in Rio Gallegos were full so I hit the road for El Califate, and got there about 11pm.

Saw some more cool animals. There are flamingos here, and wierd llama things called guanco. Also more nandu and lots more sheep.
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