Blogs from Tierra del Fuego National Park, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America

Ushuaia is a strange place; a town tumbling the hillside between the Andes and the sea. It doesn’t get dark until 10 pm, prior to that is a dusk of eerie yellowish grey, and it’s light again by 5 am. Today we are going to Tierra del Fuego National Park. We walk to the shuttle buses departure point. It’s shockingly expensive (more than double what we’d expected) but we cough up and head for the park. After a brief stop to hand over more money for entry fees, we reach the visitor centre. Fortified with empanadas, we set forth on a 5 hour hike. It’s very beautiful; on one side the Beagle Channel with its abundant bird life, on the other snow capped mountains. Most of the area is peat bog so the rivers and lakes ... read more

Brrrr!!! 6 degrees here today. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes on Facebook and by email - I felt very special hearing from everyone and had a great day exploring the area of Ushuaia.Fine day here apparently, weatherise, it is known to blow gales here but not windy at all. It is known as the "Siberia of Argentina" - very remote but beautiful! Once a penal colony now a thriving travel gem with a population of 70,000. Got a private guide just John and I and he took as out to the "End of the World Highway" the termination of the Pan American Highway - you will see it is 17, 848 kilometres from Alaska to this point - Marky! it's a long way - but its on the bucket list! The trip took us ... read more

DAY 8 Set the alarm early to catch the sunrise & unusually had to be woken from a deep sleep. Sadly did not happen! - too much cloud. Today's program was a day trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park (translated means Land of Fires - so named by one of the early explorers who observed many native camp fires on the lower side of the Beagle Channel when passing (who wouldn't need a fire when getting around naked). The park was established to prevent the wholesale clearing of timber. Access is limited to the picturesque lakes area around the entrance with 4 small walks between 4-8 km's & mostly moderate exertion. We are both looking fwd to more challenging walks later on in the trip. Tierra del Fuego island is split between Argentina & Chile ... read more

Hi People, We are back, this time from Puerto Natales in Patagonian Chile. We have travelled from Buenos Aires down to Rio Gallegos and made our way via bus to Rio Turbio. We struggled all afternoon to find out a way to do the last 30 Kms or so to Puerto Natales so in the end we decided to go to the local Petrol Station where all the Chilean come and fill-up with cheap petrol in Argentinia. Not 5 minutes waiting at the petrol station and a nice lady took us in her pickup truck us and two of the friends we met on our way to Rio Turbio. Tonight we are staying in a nice hostel. Tomorrow we'll be preparing our trek to Tores del Paine, renting all the camping stuff we need, getting the ... read more

Rano sme mali celkom problem kupit jedlo a vodu, vsetko bolo pozatvarane, vlada sa rozhodla dopriat ludom karneval a vyhlasila tri dni volna. Neskor sme sa vybrali na navstevu narodneho parku Tierra del Fuego /Ohnova zem/ a ako dopravny prostriedok sme pouzili taxik - nechodili tam ziadne autobusy a museli by sme slapat asi 15 km cez, ako nas varovali na turistickych informacia, stvrt so zlymi psami. Najprv sme kracali cez hlavne bukovy les, plny povalanych stromov a pasucich sa koni. Postupne sme zacali stupat vyssie a vyssie a videli coraz viac stitov a ladovcov. Nasou prvou zastavkou bola Laguna Caminante a potom nas cakal najtazssi usek - prechod cez Paso de la Oveja - oveckine sedlo. Cele okolie bolo pokryte kamenmi roznych tvarov a farieb /asi hlavne skridlica/, vyzeralo to zvlastne, ako v inom svete. ... read more