The last city

First thing first...WE´VE MADE IT TO THE END OF THE WORLD!! We are currently in Ushuaia, Argentina, the world´s most Southern city. Some of you smart alec´s out there might point out that Puerto Williams, Chile, is technically farther south, however, technically, Puerto Williams is only an unicorporated settlement, not an official city. (That is until Chile realizes that they are sitting on a tourist gold mine).

Ushuaia, just 630 short miles from Anartica, founded in the mid 1800s as a penal colony, has grown into a major tourist destination and THE jump-off point to both Antartica and Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Since the 10,000 US Dollar per person cruise is a bit out of our price range, we opted instead for choice numero dos, a gorgeous day hike around Bahia Ensenada. The hike was a 12km mellow trail through a bay off the Beagle Channel, in land formerly inhabited by the indigenous Yámana, whose fires were witnessed by the Portuguese navigator Ferdanand MAgellan in the 1500s thus giving birth to the Land of Fire (Tierra del Fuego) name. (Is that enough trivia yet?) The trail wound through peat bogs, rocky beachlines, forrests populated by hayas (beech trees), beaver dams and spectacular views of the Fuegan Andes, the only section of the Andes that run East-West, not North-South.

Currently we are residing in a beautiful campsite located on the edge of town and overlooking all of UShuaia. After two weeks of hard trekking, we are content to be just sleeping in, visiting museums and generally reaquainting ourselves with civilized life. Tomorrow we are on the 3:15pm flight to Santiago, sadly ending our 1 month long venure into the barren, burly, rugged, trying and unconquorable Southern Patagonia.

Getting down to Ushuaia most definitely is difficult and expensive. So, if you don´t happen to make it down this far, don´t worry, it´s not the end of the world....OR IS IT??!!!

The Ustedes Trio