Terra del Fuego & Ushuaia - end of the world

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Nick here - Rin and I have been chomping at the bit to get down to the end of south america before the weather gets too cold. We took a flight from shorts and t-shirt weather to 55 degrees south and about 20 degrees celicius colder to Ushuaia in Argentina. Ushuaia has successfully marketed itself to all the passing tour boats as the end of the world. So much so that you can now get off the cruise ship, walk across the road to the information office and present your passport and receive a stamp and a certificate that you have officially come to the end of the world. Now we won't tell anyone that chile has a town thats further south on another island of terra del fuego....

Its an interesting place and i think worth the trip as you can climb and ride in the mountains that dominate the north edge of the town and the skyline in the distance. The mountains are not so high only 1200m or so, but the glacial activity has carved them into amazing crags that are mere day trips from town. My suggestion is that if you go to this part of the world to definitely do some of the treks out of the town and then day trip to the terra del fuego national park. Interestingly the temperature in Terra del Fuego hovers around -10 celcius to +10 celcius year round. Prior to settlement by the spanish, it was actually home to tribes of indigenous people called the Yamana, who lived off the waterways and shores in this weather. However they predominantly spent the whole year naked only wearing a small seal skin cape on their backs in colder months and smearing seal fat over their bodies to keep them warm.

The reason for this was that the weather changes so often and short showers would constantly fall that any significant clothing would become wet and take too long to dry. With a small fire constantly burning in their huts or boats they found they could adapt to getting wet and drying out quickly, and keep warm from the cold.

Photos attached of a couple of walks that we did around the back of town (Cerro del Medio day hike and the Paseo de la Oveja 2 day hike) and our trip to the Tierra del Fuego national park.

We also began to relax here, despite the tourist boats in town. Leaving the hustle and bustle of the cities behind, the long views out over the Beagle Channel provided the perfect place to chill out. It also helped that we stayed at a great hostel, with such friendly and helpful hosts and other travellers. It made moving on quite a challenge!

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Photos

port of ushuaia
legion of boats returning from the day tours offered in the bay to see penguins, seals etc

everyone has a bus fantasy
....these guys are living it. a self contained rocket bus.

black stallion at the top of the pass? wtf
So we are in blizzard conditions crossing a low but windy pass at 900m and we find a horse there.

beaver dam
50 pesos per beaver tail is the going rate to irradicate these introduced pests from terra del fuego.

eagles
the guy on the top is the real aviator, one of the many large bird of prey. The one on the wing is a eagle that has evolved more magpie like behaviours and diet.