South South America or Bust

As I write we’re sat on a ship that has just docked in Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southerly city in the world we are told. The reason we are here is the subject of the next, much lengthier blog. This one is just to fill in the gaps between leaving Australia and our arrival here today. The reasons why there is not much detail are many but basically boil down to...

• Being physically and emotionally drained after the last 8 days and the journey to get us to these last 8 days;
  
• There isn’t actually all that much to tell;
  
• I’m sat here with an abscess that will require the attentions of a dentist in due and imminent course and therefore feeling none too sparky.
  

The last of these is of course something we hadn’t planned on as part of our adventure preparations, but none of the travels we have completed since leaving Australia were exactly planned until after we left Australia, so it’s fitting I guess.

So, the highlights…

• Fly from Sydney Australia to Auckland airport New Zealand;
  
• Wait an hour in Auckland airport fighting the urge to perpetrate mass murder
  
  Unoriginal Picture
  Another blogger took a picture like this, so I couldn’t help having a go myself. Santiago cathedral reflected in the high tech office block that stands opposite.
  on fellow transit passengers;
  
• Pop a tranquiliser to alleviate the more murderous emotions that begin to surface as a result of being denied the facility to satisfy our nicotine addiction in Auckland airport New Zealand;
  
• Fly from Auckland New Zealand to Santiago Chile where we spend three days trying, but largely failing, to be impressed by our first experience of South American big city life whilst, at one point, being relieved of money by some pretty slick pitches in Plaza de Armas;
  
• Take a taxi ride from hotel to bus terminal that made us feel like the last three days would be our last experiences of life on earth;
  
• Take an overnight 12 hour bus to Puerto Montt, just over 1000km south of Santiago;
  
• A couple of nights in Puerto Montt, not because there was much to see, but because our next bus journey wasn’t due to leave until two days later;
  
• A 36 hour bus journey to Punta Arenas, some 1100km south of Puerto Mont which can only be reached by travelling via the Argentinean Atlantic coast;
  
• A 12 hour bus journey early the next day to Ushuaia in the Argentinean half
  
  Puerto Montt Promise
  A view of the bay south of Puerto Mont and a tantalising glimpse of snow capped mountains we have yet to see up close and personal.
  of the island of Tierra del Feugo;
  
• A couple of nights in Ushuaia where much of our time was spent shuttling between warm clothing shops and an Irish bar (and it’s good to see the Irish bar thing coming back into vogue again).
  

So there’s our South American experience so far between our arrival in Santiago on the 28th February and our subsequent arrival in Ushuaia some 2500km(?) south of Santiago on 8th March.

If this sounds like a bus journey from hell then yes and no. The taxi ride between hotel and bus station was a mixture of full on ‘give-no-quarter-expect-no-quarter’ death ride across the city and ‘was-that-our-bus-going-in-the-opposite-direction’ stationary traffic jam. The bus terminal itself was more crowded than Cardiff Millenium Stadium on an English Welsh derby. This did not make collecting our tickets, which had been booked remotely by the travel agent, an easy task, nor did our dreadful attempts at Spanish when we finally got to the head of a lengthy queue.

The overnight journey, by comparison, was luxurious. They operate ‘cama’ busses over here, cama being Spanish for bed, and they are not kidding. A 65 degree recline and footrest put some of the hotel beds we’ve stayed in over the last three months or so to shame. We had an onward connection from Puerto Montt, the only reason we stayed there, but if you´re ever travelling in this region check out the much more picturesque Puerto Vares a little up the road.

The 36 hour journey, however, had both high points and low points. The terrain between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas, both in Chile, is such that to drive between them actually requires us to travel via the Argentinean Atlantic coast. The high point therefore definitely came early on in the journey with the crossing of the Andes from Chile into Argentina. Spectacular mountain scenery marred only by the sight of cars pulled up at awesome scenic lookouts as we sailed on by, apparently unstoppable. The low points kicked in as the mountains receded and we settled down to a whole night and following day in a bog standard non-cama coach the like of which would have passengers mutinying on a journey between London and Liverpool. Notwithstanding the scenery, the availability of stops during which we were allowed to smoke gives this journey a slight edge over the flight to Santiago.

The final 12 hour journey to get us into Ushuaia was a doddle by comparison, even if stuck as we were once more on a non-cama bus. After the previous journey we were pretty much moulded into standard coach seat shapes anyway. The fact that we were travelling through Tierra del Fuego added a sense of excitement to the journey. The Chilean scenery looked like it could have come from Scotland or Dartmoor and the sense of remoteness was made complete by the lack of sealed road. Thankfully for our skeletal integrity the Argentineans had tarmac’ed their part of the journey and we were once again treated to some stunning, if sometimes hair raising views of the southern tip of the Andes just before arriving into Ushuaia. The Argentines call this place ‘Fin del Mundo’ (end of the world). It sits on the banks of the Beagle Channel, named after the British ship that first navigated it on Darwin’s voyages of discovery, with a snow capped Andean backdrop and a view of the Chilean half of Tierra del Fuego across the channel.

For travellers who like to get down and dirty with the local culture Ushuaia is a sore disappointment. It’s a major cruise port and tourist centre infested with souvenir shops. We loved it. It gave us our first chance to pick up some souvenir tat since arriving in country. It also gave us a chance to stock up on warm clothing for the next part of our Odyssey, more of which in the next blog.

---

---