Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego

  Ushuaia, Argentina
Friday, November 10, 2006

Yesterday we trekked the park. I went with Ralf, a German guy travelling solo to the same places I´m going but in a slightly shorter time frame. We paid 30 pesos (10 bux) for a minibus lift up to the trailhead, 20 pesos park entrance fee (it was a lot like entering Jasper park in almost every way).

Me at the Trailhead

The hike was listed as an easy that could be done safely in three or four hours. I would have been surprised if people expecting easy would have been able to negotiate a lot of the climbs Ralf and I encountered. It was nothing short of amazing. There was an abundance of horse manure along the trail. I think a lot of the hiking trails were originally (or may still be) access paths for the ponies to get to places to graze. Almost everywhere we went along the trail had signs of horse. There were very few birds, odd I thought, other than the occasional pair of some sort of geese.

Mountains in the Park

We passed one spot where there appeared to be a settlement of some sort but nature has an efficient way of reclaiming that which man neglects for any length of time. All that was left were the odd concrete foundation bits and scraps of super rusted metal. The tide was out when we trekked so you could see masses of mussels and shells. We came across a couple of shell mounds from the aboriginals from way back. None of them exist any more. The wind is not stop. You can see in some places where the trees are swept in one direction. There were some odd mushroom growths on a lot of the trees. Interesting stuff but it looked like it killed the tree in the end. Beaver is one of the introduced species that is more a nusance than anything else. There was a perfect example of a damn and lodge near the end of the trail.

A Beaver Lodge

Something else of note was the abundance of bunnies. Big, well fed, seldom disturbed bunnies. Bunnies are an introduced species so they have no natural predator, the few foxes around are also introduced but the bunnies seem in no way perturbed by the possibility of a fox near by. They were everywhere. In some places you could see them stretched out sunning themselves or lying in the shade. Front legs and back legs stretched out and totally relaxed. In most cases they barely moved when we marched by.

Bunny Grand Central

We were gone for about five or so hours and walked/trekked probably in the 16km range, passing in Chile at one point I beleive.

Chile in the Distance

We sat at the end of Ruta 3 and waited for our pickup to arrive and watched the package tour folks, bedecked in their spotless, new trekking gear climb out of the Volvo tour busses, obligatory photo in front of the Ruta 3 mile zero sign, snaps for the kids back home, a quick smoke and a potty break and back on the bus. Most amusing. I´m not sure what the drivers where talking about but the cluster of them were having a good old laugh about something.

The End of Ruta 3...Is Alaska Really That Far Away

After our transport arrived we made our way back to Ushuaia and while Ralf took care of getting the photos retreived from his phone, I found a kioskco and bought myself a package of chocolate cookies. After all of that hiking I think I earned some poor eating. A shower and a rest and we headed out to the local parrilla (all you can eat meat for 28 pesos (8 bux)) had some beef, vegies, and some pasta. Afterwards back to the hostel to chat for a bit and have some Quilmes (beers in big bottles).

I should mention this is my first hostel experience. It´s been great. There is a huge mixture of people from all corners of the map with a variety of travel experience and a load of good advice. There´s a group of young guys from the UK doing a RTW (Round the World), a mixture of young ladies from the UK, US, Canada, Ralf from Germany (go figure I´d get along with the German), Mike and Jason (currently on the ice in Antarctica), a young guy from Australia, and Lux and Murray who are on the tail end of a RTW. Check out their blogs...cool stuff. Amazing photos.

I´m off on a Beagle Channel tour this aft and then I need to get serious about the next leg of the trip. El Calafate is the next stop, to check out Glaciar Perito Moreno. This is the glacier you see often with the big bus sized chunks of ice dropping off it into the lake. I´m told El Calafate is not a place to stay long so my plan is to head there, see the "ice" then head down the road to El Chalten and do some more trekking, perhaps some ice climbing.