Blogs from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America - page 18

An early morning start got me to the airport for my flight south to Ushuaia. Three and a half hours later, I arrived in a somewhat cooler Ushuaia which was refreshing after the BA heat! I knew in the heart of hearts that this is the closest I will ever get to Antarctica as the cruise prices are beyond my reach! I spent three days in Ushuaia and stayed in a great hostel, Los Cormoranes, up in the Ushuaia hills and had great views of The Beagle channel. I met some great travellers including those who were doing an Oasis Overland Tour across South America and some were staying in the same dorm as me. This included Mary and Julie from the UK who were doing a round a world trip as well as the Oasis´s ... read more

In my school days I never dreamt that I would ever travel to places such as this – Ushuaia, 'el fin del monde' the Magellan straits, Beagle Channel. And if I am honest I didn't think too much about what it meant to travel here for those people on board the sailing ships. It is a place that I would reserve for the use of the word 'awesome'. We travelled down by bus from Porto Madryn, a journey of about 24 hours to the islan and then another dozen or so, depending on the tide and the buses. The scenery was lost on us until the island aas we travelled by night, but the island itself was interesting. The northern part is very like the mainland flatlands, with scrubby bushes extending as far as the eye ... read more

We awoke early and headed to the Tierra del Fuego national park. There we did one of their lovely hikes and had a lovely day before going back to the B&B. We were, still are, incredible unfit, and we slept for ten and a half hours that night. But then again, we’re on holiday, so why not. ... read more

Ushuaia When the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote his beautiful ´The Circular Ruins´ in 1940, he did not know my daughter. First because my daughter is not famous and secondly because my daughter had not been born yet (even I was not born). He describes how a man slips down from a boat on an Island and how he phantasize a person so strongly, that the person really becomes alive. The only ones who know the person is not real are the person himself and the man who phantasize him. When my daughter was young she also phantasized a person. She called him Yamana and her phantasy was so strong that my (younger) son really believed in it. Now we are in Tierra del Fuego it appeares the Yamana´s really exist. Robert Fitz Roy, captain ... read more

Off to Ushuaia, six days was enough in BA. The heat was getting to me, almost four years living in London with only patches of hot weather, when I was on holiday elsewhere, meant that my body was finding it difficult to acclimatise to sunny weather. So once again Anna and I found ourselves on a plane. Luckily for us the flight is relatively short, three and a half hours, just enough time to catch up on my blog, which is where I’m writing this. Anyway, another grip from an old man. The plane is lade out in a 2 - 3 pattern. That is there are two seats and then the aisle and then another three seats. Anna and I are in the three seat row, I have the aisle seat and Anna the centre. ... read more