El Fin Del Mundo

Hola from Ushuaia!

I love this town. It's straight out of a Jack London novel. The sort of place that an author envisions when writing a story set in a secluded arctic town nestled at the bottom of snow capped mountains. Very, very picturesque. When the captain told us we were beginning our descent and we opened the window, the scene was truly incredible. For as far as the eye can see in all four directions there endless mountains. They definitely put the Green Mountains to shame. Charlie actually thought the mountains were a part of the clouds because their jagged, white peaks literally cut through the fog and almost blended in. I could probably dedicate a whole new blog just to mountains on this trip. Stepping out of the airport is just as breathtaking. The temperatures been around 32-40 degrees, not bad at all. The air is really nice, it's actually pretty comfortable and definitely not the sub zero Patagonia I'd pictured.

The town has everything you could need down here. The main street, San Martin, is touristy, with some restaurants and lots of shopping (especially snowboarding/outdoor gear stores). Most streets are hills, it can be quite a hike just walking a few blocks in one direction but I guess that's what happens when you build a town down here. It's a cute town, some cool old churches and a lot of very run down houses that aren't insulated at all. They're more like little shacks than houses. The buildings are simple and uniquely built being that they are on the side of a mountain.

Today we spent most of the day recovering from travel fatigue (and from the night before, see following post) and went for a walk around the town down to the water to take in the sights. So beautiful. Everything was closed because it was Sunday but tomorrow we are waking up at 8 to go to Cerro Castor, a ski resort about 30 minutes from here. That should be interesting...I don't think I've skied in at least 2 years. Shittt I am going to break my knees.

Ummm okay, well that's Ushuaia so far. Tuesday it's supposed to snow a ton and we can't leave until Wednesday because of the bus schedules soooo the 16 hour ride to Punta Arenas, Chile might be a little hairy to say the least. Although I really don't think anything could be worse than that drive in the Andes last year which was essentially a near death experience. Hasta Luego.

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