Exploring the End of the World
Safely off the boat and back in Ushuaia, we have been busy checking out the town and mountains of Tierra del Fuego. We spent a couple days here before Antarctica and already had time to find the good coffee shops, and visit a few museums, so this week we decided to do a little hiking. Luckily the weather gods supported this plan and gave us a few beautiful, warm, sunny days.
The Martial Glacier was a bit underwhelming after seeing the giant glaciers in Antarctica, but it was nice to see something green after a week of nothing but white. We also got a nice view of the city and the Beagle Channel from the top of the mountain.
We also made a trip to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. There was a bit of a snag getting into the park, we arranged a bus ticket 20 minutes before we left and didn’t realize everything had to be paid in cash only. There was no time to find a bank and we got to the entrance of the park 50 pesos short. Luckily we were able to borrow it from another traveler on the bus. Once we got in, the hiking was great. It was another sunny day, this time with views of Chile.
Our final excursion was to the top of another mountain just outside of town, Cerro del Medio. It was sort of a rainy morning so we left the camera in our room. That turned out to be a bad idea, it rained/snowed the night before and the top of all the mountains had a fresh layer of snow. Very beautiful.
That’s it for Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world; not to be confused with Puerto Williams, the southernmost town in the world. It’s goofy thing to argue about, but it reflects the rivalry between Argentina and Chile.