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Published: April 8th 2009
6 - 10 Marzo 2009
In a taco shell... Welcome to Fin Del Mundo- The End of the World!
Ushuaia (pronounced oo-shway-ya) is the world's most southern city- nestled between dramatic snow capped peaks and frosty waters!
In transit... Our first mega mission- 17-18 hour 1st Class overnight bus trip from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires (Lulu was quite bus sick unfortunately 😞 We also had the Argentinian Army board our bus no less than 5 times within about 3 hours of leaving Puerto Iguazu). Upon arrival in BA we jumped straight into a remises (pre-paid taxi) for the hour long sprint to the airport for our 5 hour + flight to Ushuaia. The decent was over stunning jagged snow capped peaks and included a free fall punctuated by screaming passengers over said jagged peaks - very dramatic!
Digs... Hostel Antarctica. We had to stay in dorms as a double was more than just a little out of our budget (at least $70 AUD a night), but the dorms were great- heated floors rock! Kitchen was massive with two awesome gas cookers to enjoy our home cooked meals as it was too expensive to eat out.
We came, we saw...
We froze! Coming from tropical heat one day to snowy conditions the next was a bit of a shock.
We spent a full day hiking through Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego where we experienced at least 6 seasons along our way whilst marvelling at some of the most amazing ever changing terrain we'd ever seen.
We took a cruise on the Beagle Canal (twice actually, a bug swam into the water pump and forced an early return to shore the first time) to see commorants, stinky sea lions, fun loving fur seals and all manner of antarctic bird life as well as learn of the indigenous culture of the region who were, unfortunately like so many others, wiped out by the diseases introduced by European settlers.
City Highlights... The mish mash city of Ushuaia is part South America, part Swiss village, but it all seems to work.
The biggest supermarket we'd seen in Argentina (more than 5 isles- yay for variety!)
Having a conversation with spanish speaking room mates and feeling like we were making sense was quite a mile stone 😊
City Lowlights... Realising we'd never be able to do a trip to Antarctica
- on the cheapest, last minute ticket available it costs around $7000 AUD. So close, yet so far...
As you'd imagine, it costs a lot to be in the most souithern city in the world.
The sick feeling we had when we thought we had lost all our photos- not the case thank goodness.
Mental State... Different climate- same delirium! So many natural wonders to take in our heads were spinning!
Soundtrack... Not so much Sth American music here 😞... but the hostel pumped an awesome array of Brit Pop and other tunes- Blur, The Verve, Oasis, The Cure, Gorrillaz- it was great!
Flavours... Plenty of options from the supermarket + great kitchen = home cooked meals aplenty. Stir fries, soups and omelletes 😊
No comprendo... Our camera pretending it had deleted all our photos... That was NOT a very fun game...
After finding that the file we had saved to the hostel computer had been wiped before we had burned them onto disk, the camera decided to play a little game called "hide the photos on the memory card for a few hours while Lauren and Will have a heart-attack at thinking that a month
Ushuaia- Antarctica Hostel
Will´s prowess in the kitchen is now world renowned!worth of photographs had just been erased".
NOT a fun game! NOT a fun game at all!
Needless to say, the camera sheepishly owned up eventually...
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