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Published: February 21st 2007
The trip down to Ushuaia was an absolute nightmare. Instead of taking a “short” 12 hours it became a total of 16h sitting on a bus next to an Argentinean guy and his 3 year old girl on his lap. The bus had to cross the famous Magellan strait and a total of 4 borders taking almost an hour each. The only way to get to Ushuaia is by crossing Chilean land and 200km of unkempt gravel roads, which Chileans can not be bothered paving as its sole use is for Argentineans.
After 14h in the bus, the wee 3 year old besom sitting next me was unshackled when her dad went to the loo. The overdose of caffeine from the coke she drank in the past 13h turned her fretful and boisterous. While I feigned sleep, she released all her excitement and started slapping and hitting me with her wooden toy and laughing her head off. Her father arrived just before any severe head injuries were done. All apologetic and giving her a good flogging they went at the back of the bus. Slightly black-and-blue, I was finally able to enjoy my last couple of hours in peace and quite.
After that entire ordeal, I finally arrived at Ushuaia also known among Argentineans and Chileans as “El Culo del Mundo” or in a more catholic way “the End of the World”. You literally feel like it is. With its 60 000 inhabitants it is said to be the most southern city in the world and the doors to Antarctica. However with my national pride, it is worth the mention that the most southern place is actually the Chilean town of Puerto Williams with its 2000 isolated soles. I thought of going there but its access is too difficult. Anyway, Ushuaia still does the trick for being in the world’s @*$€.
My first couple of days there were welcome with rain and wind. It just felt like being in Glasgow. The bad weather did not discourage me and went off doing some easy treks around the national park. Some of the landscapes really seemed to be taken from a Lords of the Ring scene, expecting that wee ugly midget springing out of the bushes. One surpising thing is how they are suffering from a real beaver problem. Apparently some Canadians brought them in for business purposes and then their
At the tip of the continent
Route 3 is where Argentina finishes.idea went bankrupt. Not knowing what to do with them, they released the whole lot. There are now 90 000 of them turned loose and munching away. The government sees it as a plague due to the damage caused to the forest. They push the locals to hunt beavers freely and you can find their meat and fur quite easily. I think the whole thing is becoming almost a regional sport. Really wanted to try the meat, according to locals it can be very tasty but sometimes a bit too woody.
For several days the weather was so bad that ended up spending more time visiting museums. I visited one on the Yamanas, the local indigenous population of Tierra del Fuego. It was really surprising to see pictures of how they all lived in their birthday suits. Hunting and fishing in such a hostile place with no clothes on. The only thing keeping them warm was sea lion fat spread on their bodies…nice. Unfortunately not much heritage is left in the region. Many of them were massacred as a past time by the early colonies (who were mostly English, Irish and Scottish) and those who survived were westernised by
In the National Park
Lord of the rings...nah? missionaries.
I was supposed to leave Ushuaia on Friday 09th but buses were all full. Ended up staying a whole week there, which wasn’t that bad. The weather really started to clear up and trekking in the roundabouts made it much more enjoyable. You could finally see all the peaks that surrounded the place and decided to go up one of them to see a glacier that was pretty much nonexistent but the view from there over the city and the beagle channel was just mindboggling.
Knowing that I cannot go further south unless I pay 3000 Dollars to go Antarctica, my next step is heading towards the Chilean Patagonia and the Park of Torres del Paine.
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Mariana
non-member comment
the end of the world looks great!
Wow, let me just say one thing: reading your entry AND enjoying the pics, I really felt astonished by the beauty of the landscape! Me personally, I would have crossed to go to Antartica, but that's just my personal weird thoughts...anyway, fantastic pics and funny entries as usual, keep writing, I am following your adventure from here! Take care! xoxo Mariana p.s: eerrr...how does beaver fur look like? could you bring me back a beaver coat or does that not look stylish???