It´s the end of the world as we know it (...and we feel fine!)

South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego » Ushuaia
November 9th 2005

Published: November 11th 2005

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Guy and Rachel

Southern sunset

It gets dark at about 10pm

"How civilized air travel is", one of us recently quipped. It's difficult to share that sentiment when it means getting up at stupid o´clock (3am) to catch a 3 hour flight. Well that´s exactly what we did and as a result of such actions we are delighted to now be in Ushuaia - the southernmost city on Earth and self proclaimed "End of the World, beginning of everything". Situated on the shores of the Beagle Channel, Ushuaia is a former penal colony that has boomed into a thriving little tourist town.

Upon arrival we booked ourselves on a 6 hour boat trip out into the channel so see cormorants, sea lions and pengiuns. Unfortunately for us, we had inadvertantly booked ourselves on a ´luxury´ trip, and in doing so we discovered that we were the only people on the boat under retirement age! It was hard to get any good photographs, what with all the blue-rinse bouffants getting in the way!!! The natural sights were amazing though, especially the penguin colonies.

We went hiking one day in the national park and were told at the entrance that we could´nt pay the entry fee as the park wardens were on

Boy, it´s windy

...and Windy, this is a boy!!!

strike. We could enter the park however. We did so and after about a mile´s walk from the entry gate we were accosted by two wardens in a jeep who demanded to see our entry passes. We explained that we were unable to purchase any upon arrival and they insisted on taking us in their jeep back to the entry gate where we were made to purchase entry tickets (which we tried to do in the first place!). It seems that these two wardens were the only ones not striking, and the rotten buggers did´nt even give us a lift back to where we were picked up from, so we had a longer hike than we´d expected, but it was all worth it in the end as the scenery was incredible. Apart from the odd lone hiker and a big gròup of Frenchies, it seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves, stumbling through the lush woods onto one deserted beach after the other. We even spotted a small octopus swimming around in the shallow water.

It´s an activity (and meat-eaters) paradise here. We have been mountain biking, canoeing, 4X4ing, hiking and glacier climbing. Well, the glacier climbing

Canoe girl

up the creek WITH a paddle

bit isn´t quite true; we started out with a guide on the 3 hour hike up to the glacier but were unable to cross the river as the recent rain has caused the river to swell dramatically and the bridge is practically no longer there! As we are flying back to Buenos Aires tomorrow, we'll just have to imagine what it was like. We are continuing to eat fantastically well for not much money here in Argentina. There are ´tenedor libres´too numerous to mention here. We are going back to our favourite one tonight. Guy befriended the meat purveyor at this particular establishment with the international language of ´pressing the flesh´and everytime we walk past the restaurant we now get waved at as well as the occasional thumbs up!
We have also been for a drink in "The southernmost Irish Bar in The World" not a patch on "The highest Irish Bar in The World" which we visited whilst in Cusco, Peru. Note: neither establishment had draught Guinness... honestly!

Being in the southern hemisphere (and so far south) is rather strange. It doesn´t get dark around here untill 10pm and the weather, although changeable, has been clement to say

4X4

Beleive it or not, we did´nt get wet

the least (apart from the abovementioned rain!) Hard to beleive it´s November...

As mentioned, we fly tomorrow and catch a ferry from Buenos Aires across the River Plate to Uruguay. Were aiming for a town called Colonia Del Sacramento and from there we plan to follow the Uruguayan coastline, visiting various beaches! (it´s the start of summer now). There should hopefully be some photographs with this blog, although broadband hasn´t quite reached this far south so our apologies if they don´t materialize for a few days.

We trust this blog finds you all in the naughtiest of November fettle, and until the next one...

Pip Pip

Guy & Rachel x

PS: Sorry for the awful R.E.M. pun, impossible to resist!

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