The End of the World

After our penguin experience in Punta Arenas, it was finally time for our last stop on our South American adventure:  Ushuaia. Located on the island of Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina, it's considered the end of the world city (only because the Chilean town across the beagle channel from it doesn't have enough residents to be a "city").  It took us a 12 hour bus ride to get there including a ferry crossing. The shocking thing was that this was the first bus that arrived on time!!!

The end of the world is not flat after all!

Upon arrival, we were met with all the sights you'd expect to see in a place called the end of the world: large cruise ships and a Hard Rock Cafe. We got into our Airbnb only to find out that our host was having water issues and that we had no hot water. We ended up having to shower in our host's place (it was just behind ours). That certainly made for an interesting experience!

Heading out with the cruise ships blocking a good view of Ushuaia

By the time we arrived in Ushuaia, both of us were nursing some small colds that we had picked up due to the ever changing Patagonian weather. This lead to a lighter schedule of activities than we might have otherwise planned. The highlight of our time here was our cruise on the Beagle Channel. This is the channel that is the absolute southern border of Argentina with only 2 islands belonging to Chile to the south. This is Argentina's main shipping path to connect the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. There were many different options of what kind of boats to take, from large catamaran's that herded the cruise ship takers (I'm not sure what they like to call themselves) around like cattle to small 6 person cruises where you hoped you had calm waters. We finally settled on the Patagonian Adventure Explorer. It was a relatively smaller boat, but large enough to handle the weather and small enough to feel personal. 

Happy Cruisers

Our first stop was bird island. This island was the home to an absurd amount of imperial cormorants (or shags). They feed off the abundant marine wildlife and build their nests from kelp and their own poop. Eventually they overrun their current island with their own poop and will move to a different island in the channel, only to do the same thing to it. Eventually they'll cycle back through their previous islands after a couple years away (and presumably a deep clean from mother nature).

The birds were everywhere

After bird island, we headed out to check out the old lighthouse. It was constructed in the early 1900's as there are some very dangerous shallows in the channel. The last major shipwreck here was in the 1930's. It was a cruise ship and while everyone was rescued, the population on the cruise ship was more than double that of Ushuaia at the time so they had no room to house the people. They had to use the jail to accommodate people and it took three months to get everyone from the ship out of town. 

Despite the moody weather, the cruise offered spectacular scenery

The other fact we learned about the lighthouse was in the color scheme. The lighthouses are either red/white/red or white/red/white. Depending on the color scheme, it told you (as a captain) if the danger was to the west or east. This island also happened to be home to a large colony of sea lions as well.

I guess it was nap time when we got there.

After the lighthouse, we stopped off at an island that gave great views back into the city and also housed some of the early native settlements. To celebrate a successful voyage (a 3 hour tour some might say), we all toasted with coffee liquor, made by the first mate on the ship. It wasn't half bad. It was like a Bailey's without the cream. The overall scenery was beautiful as the snow capped mountains just rolled off right into the water.

The Andes rolling off into the channel with Ushuaia along the shore

We also had some amazing food in Ushuaia. We found a great pizza and empanada place the first night which really hit the spot after the bus ride. We also had a delicious dinner out at Paso Garibaldi where the crab ceviche was fantastic as well as the local caught trout and steak. While there were no breweries visited, we were able to sample the local brews from both Cape Horn and Beagle brewing.

Paso Garibaldi. Highly recommended!

In our final day/night in Ushuaia and to celebrate the end of our eight weeks in South America, we decided to treat ourselves to a night in the Los Cauquenes resort and spa.  Not only are there cruise ships and Hard Rock Cafes at the end of the world but also 5 star resorts!! Our room had an amazing view of the channel and we had excellent massages to loosen up all those muscles we had used during all our Patagonian hiking! We finished off with a great dinner a bottle of Petit Caro, which we had sampled much earlier in our trip in Mendoza!

A room with a view

After a great night's rest, it was time to head back to Buenos Aires for one evening before catching our flights over to South Africa to begin our next leg!

-nick