The End of the World

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All the way back in Rio we had made a rash change of plans. With a depressing weather forecast for the forseeable future along the Brazilian coast, doubled with the fact that we were in the most expensive country in South America (for those exchanging from the pound), we decided to leave Brazil altogether as soon as possible. This left us with about a month of free time before our flight out of Buenos Aires, which we now needed to fill. Obviously this wouldn't be too difficult with the number of countries at our fingertips, all offering a variety of wonders within themselves. So we tossed a few ideas around, including living in Buenos Aires for a month to try to get some work in a hostel and recover some funds, or making our way slowly through Uruguay, but really for us only one option stood out. There was no point in wasting our time in one place and working, being in a continent bursting with opportunities, so it was with that thought in mind we made the brash decision to head to the end of the world. That is, the bottom of Argentina, and we had still yet to enter through into the north.

So from Sao Paulo we headed down to the Iguacu falls as the first leg of our trip, and our passage from Brazil to Argentina. As mentioned in the last blog we left Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the falls at 5pm on the 10th of January. 3 buses later (and 79 hours more on the bus) we arrived at our destination of Ushuaia on the 14th of January at 5am. Along the way we had an 8 hour layover in Buenos Aires where Katie took a local bus into the big city to get her laundry done, and another 1 hour layover in Rio Gallegos. Obviously there was the obligatory bus break down in Rio Grande, a mere 2 hours from our final destination which lasted a good few hours and where even the driver gave up and left us abandoned. Eventually another bus came to collect us and we arrived into a place that will be memorable to both of us forever.

We caught a taxi from the bus (as there is no terminal in Ushuaia) to search the small town for somewhere to stay, as we had no reservation. This time it was due to no fault of our own- our last bus had not been booked as we couldn't guarantee getting to Rio Gallegos on time, so we had decided not to book anything. Anyway, we had been supposed to arrive in Ushuaia 9.30pm the night before. So as it goes in South America, we went with the flow and accompanied our new taxi driver on a ride around the town looking for anywhere that would open their doors to a surprisingly spritely (should have been travel weary) couple that had spent the past four nights on a bus. That place happened to be Cruz Del Sur Hostel, where the owner Alejandro couldn't have been more helpful. We were ushered in and given a bed, we had forgotten what it was like to lie down properly.

As check out was at 10am, we only had a few hours to sleep before having to beg Alejandro for a few more nights accommodation. At this point we were only very vaguely aware of there being 'some issues' with the Chilean borders, meaning that the Torres del Paine national park in Chile was inaccessible. We were soon to find that this was actually a very real problem which had escalated somewhat out of hand in Ushuaia and meant that we actually saw people having to camp in the streets due to not being able to find accommodation. The reason for this was because Ushuaia is situated on almost an island away from the mainland, known as Tierra del Fuego (land of fire) and is separated from the rest of Argentina by land occupied by Chile. As Chile was amidst a wild gas-price-rise protest involving road blocks, no transport was able to leave Tierra del Fuego as it was not possible to cross the borders through Chile. Even without the road blocks, it was still not a great journey between Rio Gallegos in Argentina and Ushuaia as it meant four stops at immigration (leaving Argentina, entering Chile, leaving Chile, entering Argentina) it also involved an extremely choppy ferry crossing within Chile which made us realise where the inspiration for the 'Pirate Ship' ride originated.

Anyway, we immediately booked 3 more nights at Cruz del Sur with the intention of leaving on the night of the 17th, and heading to Torres del Paine in Chile. We had been forced to get up early due to check out, but it really was a blessing in disguise as the sky was blue and it was apparently an unusually mild day for Ushuaia. We headed down to the town and immediately fell in love with the beatiful town at the end of the earth. There was a long promenade along the front, with beautiful views over snow capped mountains and cruise liners docked for Antarctic cruises, parked along side a collection of little weathered fishing boats. There were coulourful flowers everywhere and manicured gardens, little boutique chocolate shops dotted between pine chalets- the whole town was completely charming. It was Luke's birthday the following day, and where better to spend it than at the end of the world? Therefore we headed to the tourist information centre so that he could decide what he wanted to do. As it turned out, eve though it was already 1pm we weren't too late to make a day of the rest of our time. The beauty of this side of the world is that they have about 17 hours of daylight in the summer, so day trips were running at 3.30pm- it was a completely bizarre concept for us, but worked out really well. We decided to book a boat trip for the afternoon as the sea was really calm and we had been informed that this was not an everyday thing. Luke decided that the following day on his birthday he wanted to go and visit the husky dogs that are used to pull sleds in the winter.

We headed down to the front and booked onto a catamaran boat trip which would take us to see some sealions, a light house, then the highlight- penguin island. The weather held out for us, and although it was a bit chilly we had an amazing time. Every time we thought about where we were we couldn't believe it. We were glad we took the bus to Ushuaia as opposed to a flight (the flight was only about £50 more) as we really were able to appreciate the distances we had travelled, and the sparse land that we had passed through really drove home that we were at the end of the world.

So the boat trip started and we saw some sea lions, but not so many as we had seen back at the Ballestas Islands back in Peru- they were still cute though. We then headed along the Beagle Canal (named by an English man who discovered it) where we passed by a light house, then made our way to the penguins. The penguins were really the highlight of the trip and worth a good mentioning. There were over 1500 penguin pairs on the island, made up of 2 different species. As the boat pulled up onto the beach (the boat was really not that small so we were surprised it did this) the animals were really inquisitive and many of them waddled towards the boat, flapping their wings and shaking their whole bodies. We were able to watch them taking it in turns to dive into the sea, then run back onto the beach as if it was too cold. Most of the penguins were lying face down on the beach which was quite funny to see, but they were so adorable. We stayed at the island for about 20 minutes observing the penguins and their obscure characteristics, then the boat turned and headed back. The ride back to Ushuaia took around 2 hours, and as we made it back to land it was 9.30pm and the sun was still up, as if it was daytime. We noticed over the next few days how different life is with so many hours of natural light. Everything is open so much later, particularly restaurants, cafes, ice cream bars etc. We headed out to eat at 10.30pm and people were only just starting to come through the doors. Apparently this is the norm in Argentina anyway, and that restaurants back in Buenos Aires don't even open until 9pm. What has fascinated us most is how the Argentinians burn the candle at both ends so brilliantly- as most of these establishments are open from 9 or 10am the following day. The people working in the bus ticket agency didn't seem to ever go to bed, we saw them late night and early morning, but that may have been due to the Chilean road blocks.

For dinner we went to a typical Argentinian meat buffet, these seem to be everywhere. They have cordera (lamb) strung onto spit roasts over open flames, then they cook chicken, steak, sausage and black pudding on a grill. The meat is being cooked and carved while you wait at the door to the glass walled kitchen area. If you give a tip to the chef you get a better cut. You can eat as much as you like for between 75-85 pesos depending on the restaurant. Luke had the buffet and ate his body weight in meat, while Katie decided to go for quality over quantity and ordered the succulent fillet steak special for 55 pesos (just under £10). To be fair though all of the meat even included in the buffet was amazing quality, especially the lamb and sirloin steak cooked how you wanted it. We were completely mesmerised by these restaurants- we would never have anything like this back in the UK.

The following day was Luke's birthday so plans were to head out to see some doggies. Over the previous day however we had become increasingly more aware of how bad the problems were in Chile, so decided it may be wise to head to the bus agency first to try and book our outwards tickets. This was obviously an idea shared by many we soon learned as we reached the agency. We were eventually able to book tickets but they were open dated as the situation was getting no better. We then headed down to the front to catch a collectivo to one of the three ski centres which homed the dogs. We settled on one that sold food as apparently the man with the collectivo couldn't pick us up for about 4 hours and we hadn't made a picnic so decided it would be wise. We paid 100 pesos for a return journey and climbed aboard for the 20km ride.

We arrived to the centre and were shown around the dogs by a number of different workers including one of the waiters who we later saw serving lunch. We weren't really sure who looked after the dogs, but everyone was willing to show them off which we found really sweet. The clear favourite was a dog called Omar, which the owner of the centre had bought in the Antarctic. This was evident from his fur- he felt like a cuddly sheep. The other dogs were mostly in their pens, but they went wild when we went inside to see them. There were some pups but they were too young for us to play with unfortunately, one litter were just one week old, and the other were 3 weeks. One of the men picked up the 3 week pups and brought them over to us to see and they were so adorable.

In the afternoon the sun came out and we took a walk around the little stream outside of the centre. The area was so beautiful, surrounded with both greenery and snow-capped mountains. It would be really beautiful in the winter no doubt. We waited for our ride back, but didn't know if the man would come or not. Armed with our new book 'James Herriott's Dog Stories' that we had found on a shelf back in the hostel, we sat and read and laughed while passers by looked as us strangely. Our man did arrive, true to word, if a little late. We arrived back at the hostel and made some soup and chilled out for a bit as we were still catching up from the bus journies. Later on we went out for pizza (at like 12am) and town was buzzing.

The following day we had planned to go to the Tierra del Fuego national park to do some hiking and see some wild animals including beavers. However, we woke early and our good weather fortune had changed for the worse- it was tipping it down. Our ride arrived but we decided it would be wise to turn him away and request him to come back tomorrow, as it really was not the weather for hiking. The driver (from the previous day) was fortunately more than understanding, and agreed the same time again for tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the hostel writing postcards and reading, waiting for the weather to clear up. As it was Sunday we had planned to go to the national park as we had assumed nothing else would be open. That was true and as the weather cleared in the early evening we headed down to town where one souvenir shop and the tourist information centre was open. We had our passports stamped (with a fin del mundo stamp!) then decided to treat ourselves with another meat buffet.

The following day was the 17th, when we had originally planned to leave, but as we had yet to see the national park we decided to stay one more night. We couldn't book another night in the hostel as that morning's bus had not been able to leave and so people who were checking out had come back. Therefore we headed to the national park in the knowledge that we had nowhere to sleep that night. It would be ok we thought. The national park really was nothing to get excited about as we did a four hour hike and the most interesting thing we saw were some birds that looked a bit like geese. No reindeers or beavers or foxes as promised in the guide books. We returned to the hostel where we told Alejandro that we had no accommodation and begged him to take us in. He said we could sleep in his newly purchased tent that he had just bought from the supermarket to deal with this 'crisis'. Considering it was minus five at night we were surprisingly delighted with his offer and proceeded to try and create some kind of nest in a tent that we would be sharing with another man. We had no matting for the floor and by this time it was late so we couldn't go to the supermarket to get any cardboard. We ended up sleeping pretty well considering- fully dressed including woolly hats in our sleeping bags.

We woke at just before 4am to pack for the bus journey. We walked down to the parking lot at the front around 4.30am where the sun was just rising and we were treated with staggering views and a perfect ending to a perfect trip to the end of the world.

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Comments

[zee]

OMG
WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON THAT UNICYCLE, woman!!! I would have been brrrricking it haha!! Cant believe how amazing those views are! Just as you said =) the huskies are soooooo adorable!! x