The End of the Earth

Leaving  Torres del Paine behind, we set out for Punta Arenas, a port city, where we visited a Magellan penguin colony.  They are so cute!  If they can’t see their mate they howl out for them.  This seems like a cool city but we didn’t have much time to explore, but went straight to bed in out nice hostal just a block away from a seedy area where port workers hang out.

The next day we set off by bus, then ferry across the Magellan strait, then back on the bus, across the Chilean border back to Argentina, to reach the End of the Earth – Ushuaia.  It’s the southernmost city in the world, and setting off point for most Antarctic excursions.  And, like almost everywhere else in the world, it has an Irish bar.  In this town we are “going steady” with a room – we’re here for three nights!  To get there we travelled north, east, south, and west to get to the island of Tierra del Fuego.

We had a cruise on the Beagle channel in a small boat, to see colonies of cormorants and sea lions, and fantastic views.  We docked on an island to check out the indents left from the huts of the Yamana natives who used to live here.  Apparently only one woman is still alive from the tribe.  These people lived pretty much naked in this inhospitable cool and rainy climate, but when westerners arrived they were forced into clothing that was difficult to keep clean and dry, so caught diseases and slowly died out.

Although it’s the closest city to the Antarctic, it’s really not that far south, only 54 degrees latitude – the northern land masses are much closer to the Arctic.  Edmonton is at 53 degrees latitude, so is almost as far from the north pole as Ushuaia is from the south pole!  And Ushuaia’s climate is much more moderate – average temperature year round is about 0.

In the afternoon three of us went horseback riding – most of the terrain was up or down steep slopes so we didn’t go very fast, but the views were amazing.  And later the Irish bar!

The next day in Ushuaia we hiked into Tierra del Fuego national park.  At the entrance is a “passport office” where an eccentric guy who claims to own a country (an island in the lake) stamps your passport for a few pesos, with a picture of himself!  It was a nice walk along the lake, to the end of the Panamerican Highway.  Then for our last night out in Ushuaia, the Irish bar again!