Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego

We spent some time at Ushuaia on (the island) Tierra del Fuego - have a look at a map, it's mad when you look at how south it is. Often referred to as the End of the World it's the last stop before Antartica.

We had a good time here. The town is reasonably touristy, nice shops and good atmosphere. It's on a slope starting from the bay so you get good little views around town with the mountains rising up to the north.


We did 2 separate day treks; the first up one of the mountains with the whole scenery plastered with deep snow. So some great, tranquil sights and landscape...but...some damn hard, icy, wet terrain. The view from the top was worth it and the sliding down slopes and the immense snowball fights on the way down were great fun. Although the last half hour was a bit of a race for a heated room to prevent frostbite.


The second trek took us through some of my favourite surroudings with a few different forests and a general path following a river up another mountain, so we had some cool rope bridges to cross. One well scary, high up but luckily quite short. All this led to a small glacier at the top that was kind of stuck in the highest cliffs.


After the stay here we had our first taste of hitch hiking in South America...

We did well to get 3 separate lifts, the first a quick one to the police check point on the edge of town, 2nd to nowhere - just nothing there - the third was the life saver. It was probably the most miserable day so far weather-wise - drizzly, cold and WINDY. The 3rd car was 2 Spanish guys who had rented it for the day, they were cool and took us to the next town. From there we cornered a minibus cab thing and paid a bit to get to the next town where, at least, there was accommodation. Rio Grande.