Blogs from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America - page 57

We arrived in Ushuaia in the middle of a snow storm, which whilst slightly unnerving given the fact that it was almost the summer solstice, it somehow seemed fitting for Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia is a fantastic place on the shores of the Beagle channel, with a backdrop of the Andes. We had planned to do a three day trek in the mountains behind the town, but after hearing tales of 8 inches of snow overnight from others in our hostel, I decided that one night in a tent would be more than enough! So we squeezed the three days into two, after agreeing that we were feeling fit enough to walk for long days - a decision I started to regret at about 7pm on the first day with a couple more hours still to ... read more

Hallo ihr Lieben in der grossen weiten Welt, sicherlich liegt ihr gerade in Euren Betten und schlaft tief und fest. Wir wuerden es auch am liebsten so machen, aber unser Bus faehrt hier um 03:00 ab und da lohnt es sich nichtins Bett zu gehen. Stattdessen habe ich beschlossen Euch ein bisschen ueber Ushuaia und auch ein bisschen ueber Patagonien zu berichten.Ushuaia wurde vor ca. 450 Jahren gegruendet. Damit ist es eine der aeltesten Staedte auf dem Kontinent. Gegruendet wurde es von schwaebischen Einwanderern die eine bessere Heimat suchten. Das ist eine lange und aufregende Geschichte die ich euch jetzt erzaehlen werde:1519 kam ein spanischer Matrose der mit einem Herr Columbus unterwegs gewesen war auf einem seiner Streifzuege durch Europa in einem kleinen Dorfam Rande der Alb vorbei und weil es schon daemmerte bat er einen ... read more

Hola Chicos, thanks for all the messages! We're beginning to get used to the lingo out here, faring a bit better than we did in Korea; at least we don´t get too many surprises when ordering food. Unfortunately we don´t quite have enough to ward off taxi drivers in the process of ripping us off! Well we´re not in Antarctica, unless anyone feels like giving us a very nice Christmas present (any takers - go on, it´s only $3000 US.. each...) We could go, but it´d mean we´d be back by, erm, January! So yes, we´re in Ushuaia, southern-most city in the world. (No-one ever mentions Puerto Williams, in Chile, which is quite a bit further down, simply because it´s impossible to get to.) Ushuaia´s beautiful and ugly at the same time; it´s a bright splash ... read more

Well the weather has indeed been as if it were the end of the world. It's bucketed it down and all that's missing is the four horsemen of the apocolypse riding into to town and stopping off for an empanada (well ok, maybe not Famine - he´d probably give that one a miss). Ah well, we're only 100km or so from Cape Horn, the last land before Antarctica, so what do you expect... Being in Ushuaia has given us the opportunity to kick back for a while. We've had 6 days here, which is a bit of a record for us. The Aerolineas Argentinas pilots are on strike at the moment so we might be here even longer than we bargained unless the government manages to mediate a settlement. Nevermind, I'm sure it will be sorted ... read more

early early flight, managed to catch it and so began our journey. The weather was pretty clear, so we could see the changing scenery below. The land became so deserted and arrid, like a lunar landscape, with sporadic lakes and water like potholes on a rocky road. Some of the water was muddy, matching the brown barren earth around it, but some of the lakes were so blue it was unreal. We were going to Ushuaia first, but stopped off at El Calafate. As we came into land the snow suddenly appeared, in a line across the ground, spreading out like a blanket then disappearing as we landed next to a huge turqoise lake. It looked like we were about to land in the water, it was so beautiful, you could see the snow covered mountains ... read more