Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia - Del Fin del Mundo

I didn´t put in an entry for Rio Gallegos, as there really wasn´t anything to say about it! We had hoped to get the next bus out of there, but we were a little delayed so by the time we had got there all the buses for the day had already gone. We managed to find a nice hotel for the night and had a good nights sleep, ready for our journey to Ushuaia the next day.

Epi, waiting for the ferry!

Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world, next stop Antarctica! It is known here as Del Fin del Mundo, the end of the world. And boy getting there certainly felt like it.

Bare in mind we have already done a 12 hour journey on a bus to Rio Gallegos, so we are now about halfway there. So the next journey should have taken about 12 hours. We were due to leave Rio Gallegos at 9am and should have arrived in Ushuaia at about 10pm that night. I say, should have! We actually left half an hour late, which I guess is not too bad. But we were due to get a boat across the Straight of Magela at 12.30pm, due to winds (and boy were there winds) we couldn't´t sail. So we waited in the port, there was just a tiny coffee house and nothing else for miles. We waited....and waited...... and waited. For 7 hours, on a bus with nothing to do and not too much to eat, playing cards has never seemed so interesting! We finally got the go ahead to sail at 7.30pm and we all cheered. The crossing was actually only about 20 mins, then we were back on the good old dirt tracks. We also had to cross into Chile as part of the journey, so this involved being stamped out of Argentina, then into Chile, then out of Chile and back into Argentina. May sound like great fun, but it wears a bit thin at midnight when you have been stuck on a bus all day and all night!

Waiting for the ferry to take us across the waters

We finally arrived at 3.30am and found our hostel quite easily and the guy who greeted us was great. He was a really friendly, happy guy and managed to very quickly put a smile back on our faces.

Today we have had a fantastic day. It has been a most beautiful day and we are so lucky as it has rained here for the last 2 weeks - non stop! We were very grateful and headed off to the Tierra Del Fuega National Park - stunning, clear lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains. Tierra del Fuega actually means ground of fire. It is called this because before this part of the world had been discovered the sailer's that passed by used to see small fires on the land and they thought that the land was covered with fires - but actually this was the natives and their camp fires for cooking etc.

Bahia Ensenada, National Park

After doing a trek around the Bahia Lake and getting our passport stamed with Del Fin del Mundo stamp, we headed back to town. The town is also really nice, see the pictures, I just don´t think they really do this place it´s full justice - you will just have to come and see it for yourself!!!!

Tierra Del Fuego National Park

Epi at El Fin Del Mundo

El Fin Del Mundo - Me!!!

Ushuhaia town