beautiful but erratic weather

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On march 17th I arrived in Ushuaia. A beautiful touristy town, a combination of snow covered mountains and sea is very interesting. Near by there is Tierra del fuego national park. A perfect place to camp with beautiful streams and gentel rolling hills. In patagonia due to climate the grass is very light colored (reflects a lot of light) and dead tree trunks are almost bleached white. There are wild horses grazing all over (although not in Tierra del fuego). The weather can be bit erratic, windy with light showers. I hiked there for two days, last day on my way up this steep mountain (1000meters), weather turned pretty bad (rain, hail windy). With wind speeds such that I could barley stand, my pants all wet and tempretures below zero, I was cursing my self for being all alone. I some how managed to reach almost to the top were a panoramic view of the surrounding area was quiet a treat. A green lagoon surronded by mountains on one side and a blue ocean on other. I could not take my camera out because of rain and wind. Well I still had to get down and that too in time to catch 7.00 PM bus, with less than two hours on hand I was bit worried, specially because by this time I had developed a little pain in my left knee. I guess I was bit lucky to meet these two isreali guys (you can always count on them to be around in these places), who were big help (especially with water, did i mention i had ran outer of water few hours a ago). we scrambled down the mountain with a muddy strech at least a feet deep. By the time we came down we could barely make a 7.30 PM bus back to the city.
Next two days I took it easy rested and spend time photographing the town and socializing. I met this very interesting guy Artur (looked like ben kingsley) from spain. He was fun to hang out with. He has travelled india extensively and was recounting how funeral pyres on river ganges in benaras still touches him despite it has been some twenty odd years.

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