End of the world

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They affectionately call it the "end of the world" but I think they are being a bit hard on themselves as it is too beautiful to be called that! I´m talking about Ushuaia and it claims to be the most southerly town in the world. Bit of a cross between an Antarctica outstation and a ski resort. Everything get covered in that grey grime that comes from the harsh climate and glacier country.

On the day that I arrived I did a boat tour on the beaver channel. Didn´t see any beavers but did see lots of sealions and birds. There´s also a nice light-house and is shown in the pictures. That night I tucked into a great feed - BBQ, Argentinian style. There was a man inside this cage with carcasses racked around a fire. OK it wasn´t a cage but it was a glass room with a small window from which the meat is served and I am sure that by the way he hacks into the meat, they only let him out after he has handed over his various assortments of knives and meat cleavers! I had the lamb and so he hacked a leg of lamb in half and served up enough meat to feed a local family for a week. It was very nice though. I washed it down with a litre of local beer and at $15 for the lot, it was great no-nonsense dining.

The following day I caught a bus to the local national park and walked about 25 kms along the channel and to the other sites. The views along the channel were spectacular and it was also interesting to see the handywork of the beavers who had built some impressive dams. The beavers are apparently introduced to the area.

That afternoon it was off to the airport to fly to El Calafate. I was originally planning to catch buses around the Patagonia area but when I found out it was going to take over 15 hours to travel just 500 kms as the comerant flies, I quickly booked a flight.

In El Calafate I found a nice hostel (Hostel del Glacier) which conveniently had a tour heading off to the glacier the next day and one space left. The tour provided a couple of alternative routes and therefore views along the way and also around the glacier itself. The Perito Mereno glacier is truly spectacular and made the ones I had previously seen in NZ look like dirty ice cubes. It conveniently ends very close to a peninsular that sits right in the middle of the main face and has additional faces that collapse into the lake on the north and south sides. Everybody eagerly waits for the chucks to fall off and create mini tidal waves. Unfortunately you hear the sounds after most of the action has occurred and so it is difficult to catch it on film.

The following day I took a 4 hour bus trip to El Chalten in the hope of seeing the sheer peaks of Fitz Roy but the weather was not good to me. I started out on the 5 hour trek heading into a howling wind carrying rain, sleet and then later on as I came closer to the peak, snow. Thank God for Goretex. At this time of the year the fauna is largely barren and so with the cloud cover, the walk was not particularly scenic but I did get to see a flock of woodpeckers (if you can call 3 birds a flock!). Although I made it to within a few kms of the Fitz Roy peak, I didn´t get to see it but I did get to see a very blue glacier hanging off the side of the mountains.

After another flight, which saved who knows how many hours (or should that be days) on a bus, I am now in Bariloche. I did a 3 hour trek around the national park today and if the weather holds up, will go for a ski on the local slopes tomorrow. Then it´s off to Pucon to climb an active volcano and to soak the sore feed in the local thermal springs. Should be a great way to finish off a fantastic trip.

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Photos

Ushuaia
End of the world

Beaver canal
Man do those bird stink!

El Chalten
How much wood could a woodpecker peck if a woodpecker could peck wood!