Blogs from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America - page 6

Before I start apologies for the delay in posting these blogs. We ended up on an old-fashioned holiday - no internet or phone. We are now home but I have decided to record them anyway. After leaving Buenos Aires we flew to Ushaia , the southernmost town in South America, nicknamed the "end of the world". It is the gateway to Antarctica for cruises. After being collected at the airport we were given a quick overview of the town and then left to explore on our own and have lunch. The weather changed from cool and sunny to cold to wet to snow!! Le Lyrial is a Ponant boat and is only 8 months old. We are on a Scenic tour and are joining many others who have come either directly from Australia or have been ... read more

As I stare out the window on board a flight to Buenos Aires, I reflect upon my last month spent travelling around Patagonia (Chile and Argentina). I conclude it's undoubtedly the most beautiful place/ region on earth that I've ever witnessed. From the Chilean fjords to Tierra del Fuego, beyond which lies only Antarctica, to Torres del Paine and Los Glaciares national parks, the scenery is jaw-dropping at every turn. Mountains, glaciers, emerald lakes and pure wilderness all feature in Patagonia's landscapes. For this part of my trip, I decide to try overlanding with adventure travel company Dragoman, traversing a colossal 4,250 kilometres in just over 3 weeks on their purpose built expedition vehicle. This enables us to get off the beaten track quite often, in other words, go camping and hiking in some of the ... read more

TIERRA DEL FUEGO. L' atavica sfiga prepara le valigie, direzione Ushuaia. Indovinate un po' chi va ad Ushuaia anche? Eh già! Il viaggio fila via liscio, talmente liscio, che ad un certo punto siamo sfrante dalla noia. Puerto Mdryn - Ushuaia sono circa 30 ore di bus senza imprevisti. Ecco, dicevamo della sfiga. Siamo nel cuore della notte, nel mezzo del nulla, con un signore enorme che russa nel sedile dietro ed una coincidenza da prendere a Rio Gallegos. L'autobus è rotto! Ci si ferma ad un'officina che non so da dove salta fuori e comincia una saga che durerà almeno un paio di ore, prima di cambiare autobus. Io ed il signore che russa diamo una mano con i bagagli per velocizzare, so che in genere a chi fa questo lavoro si da una mancia. ... read more

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and Fin del Mundo We finally made it from the top to the bottom of the world Leaving Buenos Aires we made our run south with some big riding days, as this was another holiday weekend many hotels were booked up and or wouldn't accept a one night booking so we had to change our direction a bit but not enough to go out of our way. Our biggest day of our adventure was a 730km ride from Bahia Blanca to Trelew in Argentina, I was so thankful for my airest and sheepskin that day that's for sure. Costs have gone up quite a lot here in Argentina since we were here last year with fuel getting close to NZ prices along with our food costs. It was good to be back ... read more

THE THEMATIC GALLERY (Interactive Prison Museum) Ushuaia, Argentina Aug 20th Hernan, my host for my stay in Ushuaia, drove past the Thematic Gallery on my first full day in Ushuaia. I was intrigued by the prisoners scaling the walls of the old prison. He tried to explain what it was, finally saying that it was a museum. The name of the museum didn’t inspire me so I didn’t really think I would venture inside but the outside of the edifice made for some interesting photos. One morning I set out on foot to walk to the downtown area. Although only 4.6 km, it took about two hours because of snow and ice and part of the way there was no path. The landscape took my breath away. I had decided to go to a travel agent ... read more