Ushuaia -the end of the world (apparently)

  Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina
Friday, February 6, 2009

Ushuaia likes to use the slogan "The End of the World" sounds a bit dramatic to me! It is the worlds most southerly city and the end of the Argentinian road more than 3000km from Buenos Aires though. What they donīt like to say is that thereīs a settlement just over the water further south than Ushuaia but itīs in Chile and itīs too small to be a city! It calls its self "Puerto Williams - Beyond the End of the World."
Ushuaia is a port town and has a lot of huge cruse ships docking every day, as well as all the cargo ships, naval vessels and tour boats so there was always something going on at the docks. There were a lot of touristy shops  and some dutyfree shops too but Iīm not quite sure if they were giving much better deals really!

We arrived there after a long bus journey with a bunch of interesting folk from a variety of places including Korea, Australia, Wales and the Netherlands. The journey included 2 buses and a ferry across the Strait of Magellan onto the island of Tierra del Fuego.

Us on the ferry!

That was pretty cool until Pete reminded me it was just like the ferry I used to take to Dunoon for work every day! Still we got ourselves set up on the campsite Piste Andina Ushuaia which is the ski area in winter! Luckily the campsites were really nice (and flat) and you didnīt really notice the ski lifts after a couple of days!
We spent most of the weekend watching rugby as it was the first weekend of the 6 Nations. We almost managed to complete the joke and our group was 3 Scotts (us and an Aberdonian guy), and Englishman, a Welshman and 3 French folk in an Irish pub! The beer, Quilmes was good - shame about the results! We all met up the following day and due to the popularity of Spanish football in the Irish pub we ended up watching in the Casino! Again, good beer, shame about the result!

Next day we managed a trip in the Beagle Channel to see some penguins up close! On the way we passed the much photographed "flat trees" which are so windswept that they grow sideways, so of course we took some photos!

The most photographed tree in Tierra Del Fuego!

We also saw the ski resorts and huskies used for sled rides in winter, itīs be an interesting ski destination but considering itīs dark by 3pm youīd have to be up and out on the piste early to make to most of it!
To see the penguins we chose the company with the only license to land amongst the penguin colony on the little island! It was really cool to see them so close up and they had 2 month old chicks who were loosing their baby fluff so there were penguin feathers blowing around everywhere!

Penguins!

There were lots of penguins lying on their tummies having a mid afternoon nap and others ducking in and out of the water bobbing about in the waves. On the way back to the shore we saw about 6 albatross! Theyīre really big 2.5m wingspan and pretty impressive though I suppose theyīre really just a bigger, more streamlined seagull!   

Weīre back on the buses again in a days time, heading for Bariloche.... Time to get back up to sunnier climes again- itīs quite wet and windy down here but there have been some lovely sunsets in the evening looking out over the bay at the Beagle channel with the glaciated peaks surrounding Ushuaia. Canīt complain really!!