Fire and Ice

This is one of the few places where you can proclaim that "its the end of the world" and actually mean it. Ushuaia is located in Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for "Land of Fire".) Its name comes from Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first European to pass it in 1520. He believed he was seeing the many fires but he must have been crazy because all we encountered was snow and ice.

On our second morning we found ourselves heading up a mountain for some glacier trekking through the snow. Now as you know we are not trekkers, hikers or even walkers. That is, unless we are trekking a mall or walking into a restaurant. So it is a bit of a mystery why we chose this activity. Perhaps it was the guide´s promise that someone with average fitness could do it.

Now Evana has often helped random strangers in the street with their walking sticks or cruches. But she had no advice for me on how to use the trekking pole we were loaned. They have always fascinated us and we finally got to use them. It turns out they were pretty useful and we only fell 10 times instead of 100 times.

The walk was pretty gruelling up a mountain, throw the snow and at the top of the mountain in pretty windy conditions. But we made it without any major accidents and we were pretty proud of ourselves. I guess I should admit at this point that on our way down from the mountain we passed some oldish german trekkers going up. 25 minutes later they overtook us on their way down.

We rewarded ourselves that night by eating at a restaurant which was voted the best restaurant in Argentina in 2005.

The next morning we were pretty sore so we decided to take the easy way out and take a bus ride into the national park. It was really beautiful and we got to see the post box at the end of the world as well as the end of route 3 which starts in Alaska.

On our final day we took a boat trip onto the beagle channel. We saw the lighthouse at the end of the world, some sea lions and a cormorant colony.

Interesting fact. Even though Ushuaia claims to be then end of the world (and you can get a stamp in your passport which says this) it is actually a bit deluded. Puerto Williams in Chile is truly at the end of the world. Its just that noone goes there.

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