Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We decided that since we had made it this far south, we may as well make it to the end of the line at Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego. It is the southern most "city" in the world. I put parentheses around city as there is a town, Puerto Williams, further south in Chile, but since it is only a few thousand people it doesn´t qualify for the dubious title of "city." And, of course, there is always Antartica. However, I don´t have the money to make it to either of those places, so as far as I am concerned for the moment, it is the end of the world. And boy, does the bus down there make you feel like you are getting to the end of the world. Due to the border crossings, the twelve hour bus ride has to start in the early morning. From Argentina you actually have to go into Chile and then back out, but as we were in Chile, it only took one crossing. However, for efficiency´s sake, they have the Chilean and Argentine side of the border several kilometers apart, so you have to get off, get on, and then get off
and get back on your bus again. It makes sense, right? And, we also had to get off the bus when we crossed the straits of Magellan. Yeah, I did just say we crossed the straits of Magellan. It was pretty bizarre. I remember learning about them when I was in grade school, and here I am decades later jumping on a ferry to go across. While waiting for the ferry though we decided to kill some time playing on the playground´s teeter-totter, so I guess I haven´t come that far since grade school.
Anyway, we did finally make it down there and had a heck of a time trying to find some reasonably priced accommodation. But, we did, and met some great people at the hostel who were on the same itinerary we were. Jennifer, who travels into conflict zones for the U.S. government helping resettle refugees in the States, was one of the more interesting travelers I´ve met on the road. She joined up with us for the next few days and was a really interesting person to hang out with. However, Jody, an eighteen year old from the U.K. who has cerebral palsy takes the cake
as most inspirational traveler I´ve met. While he uses an electric wheel chair to get around, he has managed to travel by himself through Russia, Vietnam, and is now spending a few months in South America. He climbed (he can walk, kind of, with the help of walls) Macchu Picchu and made it all over La Paz, which is simply mind boggling to me, as I had trouble climbing the uneven stairways and crooked sidewalks at that altitude. Talking to him was incredibly inspirational. However, the ignorant P.O.S. at the hostel wouldn´t give him a bed because they said he was liability (anyone going there don´t stay at Los Lupinos Hostel, it was horrible, and they are prejudice). It was infuriating to me, but he took it in stride and simply sat in the lobby, using their internet, sleeping on their couch, and eating their food while they were too afraid to do anything else. Check out his blog by going to Facebook and joining the "Life on Wheels" group.
The first morning we woke up and tried to make some sort of decision on what to do with the next few days. There are an incredible amount of
activities, and everything you think of doing has the novelty of being done at the end of the world. Taking a boat trip at the end of the world, hiking at the end of the world, fishing at the end of the world, going to the casino at the end of the world, getting drunk at the end of the world... it is never ending. We decided on going on a hike up to the top of Cerro Martial to get a good view over town and onto the channel. It was a great view, but it felt a bit bizarre; with all this "end of the world talk" you would expect to see off into the distance. However, when you look out there is Isla Navarino staring directly back at you covering the entire horizon with huge mountains. Moreover, from Cerro Martial you can even see Puerto Williams, the small town in Chile that is further south, so it kind of destroys that "end of the world" feel. However, it is still a nice view.
After the hike we had a few hectic hours of trying to set up plans for the next day, and after Eric´s attempt
Straits of Magellan
Never really thought I would cross these. at diving fell through, we decided to rent a car and make another day long road trip of it. We started off early by driving into Tierra del Fuego National Park. It wasn´t phenomenal, but the coast line is beautiful and definitely worth the visit. The drive north out of the city is absolutely gorgeous, and the second range of mountains outside of Ushuaia are some of the most beautiful I´ve seen. There are enormous valleys, huge peaks, flat meadows, large, but not intimidating passes, and the landscape is dotted with forests. If I hadn´t camped myself out in the previous month I would have loved to go on a several day hike in the area. While the lakes aren´t as magnificent as the Bariloche area, and the mountains aren´t as breath taking as the Fitz Roy, it is completely void of any other humans. We drove down a few dirt roads to some small lakes in the area, and to larger Lago Fagnano, and we hardly saw a single person the entire time. The complete isolation of the area, the absolute silence of the wild, was goose bump raising. And, it was an amazing place to skip stones, possibly
the best in the world. The shale rock in the area makes for really flat discs, so we spent quite a bit of time doing that; I must admit, Drew is an exceptional stone-skipper. If you are an avid stone skipper, I suggest a trip to Tierra del Fuego.
And, on a more humorous note, Drew and I both shaved the Tierra del Fuego playoff beards into nicely trimmed mustaches. They look quite dashing I must say, some would go so far as to call them exquisite. I think Drew looks a lot like
Von Kaiser, the second boxer Mighty Mac faces in Mike Tysons Punch Out; Burton and Eric claim he looks like Luigi. The three of them though are all in agreement that I look like a thin
Ron Jeremy.
Anyway, that night, or the next morning more accurately, we were catching a five a.m. bus northward. We decided to stay up all night, as we wanted to be as tired as possible for the 26 hour bus ride to Puerto Deseado (like I said, we are really far south). The sun had just set as we finished dinner around eleven at night. By four in the morning,
as I was leaving the all night internet cafe (and as Eric and Drew were leaving the casino), the sun had already risen; 19 hours of full daylight was as much as I´ve ever seen. (Erics edit: I actually dont think that theres a moment during the day when the sky doesnt have some sunlight in it. The sunset and sunrise are so gradual that dusk continues well into the night and transitions directly into dawn. The sky is never completely dark.) The bus ride out was fairly uneventful, however we did see some Commerson dolphins playing around the boat as we went through the Straits for the second time. And, we are all in great spirits (even Eric with his slowly healing nose) as we have started our journey northward. With the month of hiking and camping behind us, the parties of Buenos Aires and the beaches of Uruguay are in our sights. We are as excited for the next month of R & R as I was for this past month of amazing Patagonian landscapes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.142s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0659s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb