Tierra del Fuego

17 februari 2017 - Ushuaia, Argentinië

¡Holá amigos! *

I think the weather on a place has always a big influence on if you like, or not the place. In Tierra del Fuego we were very lucky with the weather. And we really enjoyed this place!

Tierra del Fuego is the Island in the very South of Southamerica, discovered in 1520 by Magellan. It's located only 1000km from Antarctica! The biggest town on the Island is Ushuaia, Argentina. 

When we arrived in Ushuaia on monday afternoon, by plane, the weather was very nice! Sunny and mild temperature. At the check-in in the hostel, the guy from the hostel recommended us to go for a walk immediately, to benefit from the good weather. By the way, the sun goes down only at 22h, so even if it was already 16h, we had enough time for a 3h walk. Behind Ushuaia, there is a glaciar called "Glaciar Martial", and from there you have a nice view on Ushuaia, the channel/sea, and the Island and mountains on the counterside. 

The next day, we went for a boat trip on this channel, the Beagle Channel, which separates the argentine part from the chilean part of the Archipel. This boat trip was I think, the most expensive activity we have done until now, (in the very south everything is expensive), but it was really beautiful! The weather was sunny again, even if it was cold on the boat. The view was gorgeous, on the mountains (some of them 1500m high), the sea. There were many birds, we saw the lighthouse, then we stopped at an Island with a lot of cute little penguins. And, on the way back, the big surprise: We saw a whale! A humpback whale showed us his back for about 4-5 times. I loved looking at the whale, while Tamar loved observing all those super-excited tourists! :)

In the afternoon, even if we were tired, but the weather was still good, we decided to do another walk. Unfortunately, there was no more bus to the startpoint of the walk, and we decided to take a taxi (expensive...) and to come back to Ushuaia by hitchhiking. The walk was beautiful, passing forest, swamp, beaver dams and ending at a Laguna. 

The day after, we went to the National Park, where we walked again in the forest, on the shore of a lake, and in the swamp. 

In the national park, we met a swiss couple, and during the emerging discussion, they wondered that we wanted to leave friday and did not have a bus ticket yet. Actually, we thought to buy the busticket earlier, but then we were sooo busy with all those activities! But, when we went to the ticket office the same evening, we understood those swiss guys were right! To buy a bus ticket was a little mission! Finally on thursday afternoon (at the 4th attempt) we managed to buy a ticket for saturday. The rest of thursday and friday, we passed with organisation, relaxing, and a visit to the local museum.

Finally we are happy having done all the outdoor things in the first days, because effectively the weather got worse, with rain and cold on friday. 

Tomorrow (saturday) early in the morning we will leave Ushuaia, and around midnight, if everything goes fine, we will arrive at Puerto Natales in Chile. On sunday we have time to prepare, and monday very early, our trek in the Torres del Paine national Park will begin. 

* Ich bin sicher, Du bist interessiert, wie es so geht mit unseren Spanischkenntnissen. Sie sind noch sehr beschraenkt, aber doch taeglich besser. Die linguistische Naehe zum italienischen hilft dabei sehr. Vergleiche dieses einfache Beispiel (phonologisch aufgeschrieben):

Italienisch: Gasche nite magge ische niete de gagge!

Spanisch: ¡Gachos ñito machos ichos ñito dos gachos!

Foto’s