Advertisement
Published: April 7th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Our travels of mainland South America really began in Ushuaia, in Argentina, but to get there, we had to fly via Santiago and Buenos Aires. We decided to stop a couple of days in each, spending the time relaxing in our hostel or in restaurants and bars. We are coming back to both cities later on and just thought a few days catching up with e-mails seemed like a good idea, and helping to make sure we were 100% healthy again ready for our next adventure.
We arrived in a very windy and cold Ushuaia after a very early flight... as it is the southernmost city in the world, and known as the "End of the World", it was no surprise it was so cold and as we were never going to travel south of here, we hoped that this was as cold as we would get for our trip. Our 3 weeks of winter have begun, so out came the fleeces from the bottom of the backpack in an effort to try and keep warm against the wind chill. Ushuaia is in a great location, with the Beagle channel in front of the city and snow-capped mountains behind... that
even got the occasional dusting of snow added while we were there, as if we didn´t feel cold enough already!
To travel around southern Patagonia we booked ourselves on a tour, and as we hadn´t travelled as part of a tour for a long time we were looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the scenery whilst someone else organised the activities and where we sleeping each night, which is nice for a couple of weeks or so. We joined our tour here in Ushuaia, which will take in the highlights of the wild Patagonia region, plus some of the Argentinian and Chilean Lake District, eventually ending up back in Santiago. After meeting at our hostel, the group headed off to the nearest bar, an Irish pub, so we could all get to know each other.... We have discovered on this trip that there are not many cities or towns in the world where you can not find an Irish bar!!!
The next day we got a transfer out to Tierra del Fuego National Park to do the first of many treks planned in the next couple of weeks. We were prepared for the cold and rain, and as
we started down the road to the coastal walk it was freezing... but once we got along the coast the wind died down and the clouds cleared a little... and eventually the stunning scenery appeared! It was a fantastic walk along the coast, with some great views of the mountains surrounding us... eventually ending up at a nice new cafe for a spot of lunch and a cool drink. In the afternoon, we had heard of a couple more tracks that went past live beaver colonies, so we thought we would head off and see what we could find. One colony had a massive dam that had obviously taken years to build, and the other one just loads of gnawed trees... but no beavers could be found, only lots of rabbits. The walk also took as to the end of the Pan-American Highway that runs all the way from Alaska... and of course we had to do the touristy thing and get a photo or two!
The next day we had a boat cruise down the Beagle Channel, past some of the small islands crowded with sea-lions and birds. Down wind from a colony of sea-lions was not the
Ingleses = Piratas
English are pirates!! best place, but we managed to get some great photos of some of the obviously dominant males having a bit of an argument. Apparently, sea-lions can grow up to 150kg, so you wouldn´t want to mess with a fully grown male!
From here we travelled to Rio Grande, site of an Argentina Army base which was attacked during the Falklands/Islas Malvinas war. We stopped at a lookout across a beautiful lake that had some anti-English graffiti sprawled across the wall... we knew there was still resentment, but it seems especially so in this area. Our stay coincided with a ceremony for the ex-soldiers who fought, so our plan was to keep a low profile while in town, and if asked we thought it best to put on our best Aussie accent! Our plans were in ruins when the France v England game was on during our stay so we had to walk around the town trying to find a pub to watch the game, in the end we watched it in the hotel bar after the Argentina game was over.
We now head back into Chile towards the famous Torres del Paine National Park... and three nights camping.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.15s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 71; dbt: 0.0889s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jenny Goldswain
non-member comment
Thanks
Thanks again for another interesting Blog. We noticed you couldn't miss the footie !! Carry on enjoying yourselves. Hope to speak to you soon. Dad and Mum xx