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Published: December 29th 2006
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Merry Christamas from the bottom of the world! Sorry about the amount of photos but these represent just a small selection of the snap-happy amount I took!
The bus journey from Rio Grande was what you hope every journey will be like - short (3 hours), comfortable and beautiful scenery. It’s just a shame that the city of Ushuaia didn’t quite impress us as much as we had hoped. Perhaps we hoped for a quaint pioneer frontier town or something like Bariloche, but anyway, the place is very functional and generally very expensive.
Even so, we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay. On Christmas Eve it was hard to find places open and charging prices we were prepared to pay. It seemed that every restaurant upped its prices fourfold, and even the tenedor libres (buffets) wanted 100-120 pesos rather than their usual 25-30. We managed to meet up with some of our new-found biker friends to celebrate the passage from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Complimentary champagne was given out so that everyone could toast to friendship.
We spent Christmas Day walking in the National Park. It was about 8km in all through woodland and along the edge of
the Beagle Channel. The scenery was generally wonderful and we were surprised by just how many people were doing the same as us. Once again we had lunch in a beautiful spot by the water and watched a family of ducks teaching the ducklings to dive and swim. At the end of our walk we met more biker friends who were camping. They were halfway through cooking a barbecue feast for Christmas Dinner, must be the Aussie influence!!
On Boxing Day we trekked up to the Martial Glacier. After Perito Moreno it was a bit disappointing, but to be up above the snow line was great. The views over the city were incredible. On the chair lift (to save us about an hour each way) the air was decidedly chilly!
We had been very lucky with the weather but the forecast for Wednesday was not good. That’s not the sort of news you need ahead of 9 hours cruising on the Beagle Channel! Fortunately our luck held out and we had a fabulous day viewing Imperial Cormorants, Sea Lions, Black Petrels and, of course, more penguins. This time the chicks had grown and were starting to take their
first tentative steps towards the water. We also passed a lovely red and white lighthouse in the Beagle Channel, but I was disappointed to learn that it is not in fact the one which inspired Jules Verne’s novel, The Lighthouse at the End of the World. The trip ended up with a tour of the Harberton Estancia and an overview of the history of the area. It was fascinating.
On our final day we caught up with the museums where we saw how the prison used to be. They had to move it to Ushuaia because conditions on Isla del Estado were just too bad for both the prisoners and the wardens. It was also useful to find out more about the shipwrecks we had seen on our cruise. We also needed time to check out the hot chocolate on sale in town!!
So, despite not being over enamoured with the city of Ushuaia we have had a terrific time here. It has been good to meet up with friends again and, thanks to the Dublin Irish Pub, we have had some happy reunions and some sad goodbyes.
Next stop, Chile!!
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I fell behind a little bit with your travels but I have really enjoyed catching up. The blog is great. You keep doing fun and amazing stuff and we will live vicariously through you.