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Published: April 11th 2006
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Beagle Channel Cruise
Sunset on the channel 'The End of the World'...
They just love to throw that expression around down here.... 'End of the World this', 'End of the World that'! Ok, it is the southern most city in the world... and quite a beautiful and surreal place, so I guess it is justified.
Flying into Ushuaia was breathtaking! We flew down out of the mountain and clouds just behind Ushuaia and made a sharp spiral dive to reveal a small and colourful town on the edge of the Beagle Channel. Getting out into Ushuaia was a breath of fresh air... literally! Getting out of the pollution and the traffic of Buenos Aires was just what I need.
I spent five days in Ushuaia and managed to get out and about and do something everyday. I stayed at the
Antarctica Hostel, which was set up almost like a ski lodge and help make my time in Ushuaia even better. OK, there was a brothel
Club Noctorio with neon lights across the road, but hey, I guess it makes the crawl home easy 😉
So what did I do here at 'The End of the World'??
On the day after I arrived in
Beagle Channel Cruise
Lighthouse... at the end of the world! Ushuaia we organised a cruise around the Beagle Channel on a sailing boat. We got 8 people from the hostel together, so that we could hire the whole boat, and were off. The eight lucky sailers were Auke and Lieneke (a couple of dutch girls that were staying at the same hostel at me in B.A.), John and Jennie (a Canadian couple that I met in the airport in Rio Gallegos after our flights to Ushuaia were cancelled - Jennie's spanish saved me more than a couple of times - Cheers!), Phil (a Sydney boy that was motorcycling his way around South America), Mike (a Welsh guy also doing the motorcycling thing) and Alfred (some dutch guy?) and Me!! The cruise around the channel was great... we got a few bottle of beers and wine... and cruised to a lighthouse (wow!), saw some seals and things like that... and went for a walk on a island! It doesn't sound that exciting... but was a relaxing afternoon taking in the beauty of the place... ahhhhh.
The next day I went Horseriding! It was my first time and managed to get the hang of it pretty easily, except for the part
when the horse would start cantering along and I would be holding onto the saddle for my life! I read in a magazine that these guys were 'real guchos' that took you riding. I started to believe it when a big guy in a muscle top with his long hair tied back started to lead the ride, but when he started txting on his mobile phone about 30 minutes into the ride I could help but think about the irony of the situtation.
That night we went to a fancy seafood restaurant to try the infamous 'King Crab', this giant bloody crab about 60cm across that I had never seen before. I tried the
Naturalle version with just a bit of lemon - it was pretty good, but I think it was just a lot of meat with not a lot of flavour - not as sweet as small sand crab for example.
On day 4 I went for a small hike in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. I went with a english and american guy that I met while booking a bus. A hour later the three of us were walking around Tierra del Fuego -
Martial Glacier Hike
Surely they could of built the chairlift up to here! we opted for the easy coastal hike that took about 3 hours and gave some awesome veiws of the Beagle Channel and the mountains on the other side of the channel in Chile. Later that night I went to a Irish pub... met more travellers... and before you know it, it's 4 in the morning and you are at the local strip club with some Aussie guy.
Understandably I had the hungover from hell the next day! Got kicked out of the hostel I was staying at because I forgot to book another night and they were full... so I just went to some other hostel down the road. It was my last day in Ushuaia, so I didn't want to waste it, and headed up to the Martial Glacier in the mountain behind Ushuaia. I was under the impression that you could catch the chairlift nearly all the way up to the glacier... to my horror I discovered that it was a 2 hour steep hike and scramble up to the glacier. I ran into John and Jennie at the chairlift and we all struggled up to the glacier... ok I struggled up with my killer hangover... they
Beagle Channel Cruise
Leaving Ushuaia and heading out on the cruise walked up. Once we made it up it was beautiful! There are a few small ice caves in the glacier and once inside you get a amazing view back down the glacial valley, down to Ushuaia and across the Beagle Channel!
That night John, Jennie, Pim (a hilarious dutch guy) and I went to a all you can eat
Parilla - see photos below... there in nothing quite like seeing a whole lamb racked up over a open fire.. or is that just me?
Next day... 5am... bus to Puerto Natales....
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