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Published: November 30th 2012
Ushuaia
The journey from Puerto madryn to Ushuaia was our longest yet, we took the night bus at 10pm to Comodoro Rivadavia where we took a very small propeller plane to Calafate and then on to Ushuaia, the whole journey should have taken 10 hours. The bus was fine but the airport was being blasted with the famous Patagonian wind ("the broom of god" the locals called it) the take off was better than a Alton towers ride and the landing made me believe again (not) There we found the next plane had been delayed because off the winds, after a 3 hour wait they decided to put us back on the theme park plane and fly with that instead landing on the way at Rio Gallegos (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid robbed a bank here) and then Rio Grande, two more white knuckle take offs and landings, at this point the pilot announced he had too many flying hours without a rest so the final leg to Ushuaia was to be finished by bus, a four hour trip over the mountains to the most southerly city in the world, we arrived at 11pm 25 hours after
starting, all part of travelling and sort of enjoyable.
Ushuaia itself is typical of most southern towns, tin covered houses, grid layout, bleak and cold but with the mountains all around and the beagle channel in front pretty amazing.
We went and learned about the indigenous "Yámana" people who used to live in this area, about 350000 of them before the Europeans arrived and in 30 years wiped them out (Sad a story thats repeated again and again)
We walked up to the glacier behind the town, the first half of this journey was by taxi but the second half involved a lot of leg work a scrambling over rocky ground, right up onto the glacier top where we had the most southerly picnic we are ever likely to have and probably the only one on a glacier.
The Parque national Terra del Fuego although small had some good long walks, although the one to the highest peak was closed due to snow, we did a 26km trek along the beagle channel and around the lakes in the area used by the before mentioned Yamuna people and along the shore at sheltered coves we saw the
Ushuaia
View of Beagle channel from sea front"Middens" (large mounds of shells and ash) left behind as they moved from cove to cove in their nomadic wanderings.
Our final day was spent in the prison, now turned into a museum covering pretty much the whole history of the area, the prison was built before the road through the mountains linked Ushuaia with the rest of Argentina, so the prison security was not so strict because the only way out for a prisoner was by sea or over the mountains, (there was only one successful escape and this was with the help of a boat skipper)
Our hostel here was a 8 on the one to ten hostelometer, good kitchen, roomy dorms and helpful friendly staff.
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Donna
non-member comment
OMG
You're in Ushuaia, I love that place :-) I'm off down the pub to tell Geoff what you two are up to. It looks amazing im really jealous. Can't wait to hear all about it and see your pics. Have a brilliant time. Donna