Due South...

Ushuaia, the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province in Argentina is commonly known as the southernmost city in the world. This is strongly contested by the Chileans as they believe their Puerto Williams should claim this title, although given that neither Ushuaia with its circa 64,000 residents nor Puerto Williams with its circa 2000 residents are actually classed as cities then I don't think either should stake this claim! If anything Punto Arenas in Chile should win based on it having more permanent residents (circa 120,000 residents) but lets not get bogged down in semantics...

Ushuaia was my next stop after Buenos Aires and it could not have been any different to the city I had finally grown to love, what with the weather going from over 30 degrees in BA to circa 10 degrees in Ushuaia I finally stopped cursing the fact that Id been lugging around cold weather clothes in my back pack the last month and a half! I arrived late and despite it being 11pm there was still bits of daylight in the sky. The scenery was also a huge change to what Id been used to in BA. Here I was surrounded by forests, snow capped mountains and the Beagle Channel. Not to mention buildings that wouldn't have looked out of place on the Isle of Skye or any other remote part of the UK. Needless to say it took me a few hours to adjust but my body soon acclimatised to the cold climes it was used to : )

To start with I couldn't understand why there were so many Bolivian and Peruvians in Ushuaia until I discovered that most of the population derive from Indigenous tribes (four altogether). The name Ushuaia therefore comes from the language of the yámanas or yaghanes indians, its original inhabitants, and means “bay that penetrates westward.”  

The town was fairly deserted during my visit which was slightly concerning at times, but I was assured by my hostel that it was safe and that there were loads of police around which I did end up seeing. I wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or not, Ushuaia did used to be a penal colony for re-offenders so perhaps they're just keeping the tradition alive?

During my stay in Ushuaia I took a boat trip along the Beagle Channel (named after the ship HMS Beagle which undertook a hydrographic survey with a young Mr Charles Darwin).

My initial impression upon arriving at the port was that I had chosen the wrong company to go with as their sales hut along with their boats were tiny in comparison with the other companies there. My fear was nearly confirmed when we boarded and I couldn't see any life jackets anywhere and the crew looked a little too relaxed with ash trays and party hats strewn in their cabin. But, as I keep on learning, appearances can be deceptive. Leo the captain and Ariel (yes, like the Little Mermaid) his skipper, soon smoothed away my fears and showed me the life jackets stowed in a box under the seats and proceeded to be really entertaining and made everyone feel relaxed...I think the beer and mate tea helped us all along!

El Capitan

Little Mermaid a.k.a Arial

The ride was smooth to start with and then got quite choppy which freaked me out and made everyone else laugh at my city girl hysteria. Once it calmed down we were able to take in the scenery which was breath taking. There were thousands of sea birds (which I thought were penguins to start with but I was soon told were just black and white birds) and sea lions to take pictures of, although sailing past their islands was quite wiffy as they were literally covered in excrement - I did wonder why all the islands were white...

Randomly after our trip whilst having lunch in a restaurant along the high street in Ushuaia, Kylie and Jason´s "Especially for you" song came on the radio...if you've been following my blog you will remember that I met a Argentinian guy in BA who spoke like an Aussie but had never been there. Im starting to feel like I have an Australian spirit following me around South America : D

I didn't stay too long in Ushuaia as I was worried about leaving (getting flights and buses get booked up really quickly and you can get stranded for days) so after a long wait at the Aerolineas Argentina office in Ushuaia I bought a flight to El Calafate which is north of Ushuaia. Im thinking of buying shares in the airline given how much I have spent with them recently...

Arriving at El Calafete I immediately found it to be, in my opinion, much prettier and more villagey than Ushuaia. There were lavender plants along each street and the high street reminded me of the towns I had visited this year in Sonoma and Napa, California.

The Calafate plant which the town is named after!

Due to not having much time to spend in El Calafate Id emailed my hostel in advance to book a tour to see the Pedrito Moreno Glacier which is situated about an hours drive away and was Id been told, a must see. In hindsight I wish Id waited until arriving as it wasn't until I was on the tour that I realised I could have done some mini trekking which would have included walking on the glacier wearing crampons! I had to make do with taking pictures of people doing it instead :(

We started by taking a coach to the Argentine Lake where we boarded a catamaran to take us up close to the glacier. 

Our Catamaran

Whilst the views were amazing, this was slightly ruined by the fact that the catamaran became a floating circus when everyone realised that bits of the glacier were breaking off and falling into the lake. Everyone suddenly started vying with each other for the best view, the elderly ones being the worst offenders - god help you if you obstruct their photograph shot...


However, as much of a nuisance this was, the awe of hearing the glacier crack and then seeing it crash mightily into the lake soon diminished all of this.

People mini trekking on the glaciar...

Another boat up close to the glacier

vying for the best view...

Small iceberg in the lake

Iceberg cracking and a bit falling off!

From the lake, the bus took us up to the visitor centre which had a walking circuit so you could see both faces and the surface of the glacier. Words cannot do justice to the view of seeing the surface of the glacier for the first time. It is jaw dropping. Literally. It was like seeing a giant Eton Mess with blueberries instead of strawberries to give it colour. Magical.

Walking around the circuit had built up quite an appetite so later that evening we ate at a local Asado Parrilla restaurant. An Asado Parrilla is the open fire grill that they cook the meat on. Our restaurant had sheep carcasses on theirs (Apologies veggies!). One traveller I spoke with said they´d been to another restaurant in Argentina which had an asado parilla big enough for the carcass of a cow!

Since being in Argentina, I have eaten so much red meat, I think I've easily eaten an entire cow and possibly the rest of its herd. Regardless, each steak I eat is always as good as the first. My favourite is Lomo which is delicious. I tend to have this accompanied with a salad of lettuce, onion and tomatoes (juicy ripe ones, not like the green ones we have in the UK) all washed down with Malbec, the wine of Argentina. *dribble*


My final sight in El Calafate was a walk around the Laguna Nimez which is a Nature Reserve (I had to walk off the wine headache). The laguna, clear turquoise in colour, is stunning. The nature reserve is home to lots of birds (the feathered type) and also Flamingos, which I failed to pap as they were too far away and the zoom on my camera was useless - Canon, you and I need to have words...

The nature reserve

The lake 

If you squint you can see the flamingos...

And so the time came to leave El Calafate. I had hoped to go to Torres del Paine national park in Chile but due to the recent forest fires there, most of the hiking routes were closed. So instead I decided to head up to the Alpine resort of San Carlos de Bariloche. Unfortunately Chile doesn't seem to be doing too well nature wise right now. What with the recent volcanic activity at the Puyehue volcano, all flights going into San Carlos de Bariloche (my next destination) were grounded. So, much to Aerolineas Argentina´s dismay, I had to get a bus there. 


Much to my dismay, there was not a direct bus journey there. Instead it would involve going via Caleta Oliva and then catching another bus to Bariloche. Twenty six hours in total. 


In addition, given that everybody and their dog had no other choice but to bus it to Bariloche, most of the bus tickets had been bought. I therefore had the glee of finding out that the first twelve hours of my journey would be in what is known as a semi cama (normal chair that reclines). This would be followed by a one hour wait at 4am in the morning at Caleta Oliva bus station. Thankfully the final thirteen hour leg of the journey would be in cama. Gracias a dios. 


Given this was my first long distance bus journey, and after my bad experience in Uruguay, understandably I was not looking forward to it. I´ll let you know how I got on in my next update!


To be continued...