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From Puerto Madryn we took another overnight bus to Rio Gallegos, which is a large industrial town/city in Santa Cruz province. Basically an enforced layover for the night before catching the bus at 7am down to Ushuaia, the Southernmost City in the World. Getting there took 12 hours in all, and involved crossing into Chile while still on the mainland, taking a 10 minute ferry across the Magellan Strait to get to Tierra del Fuego, some more driving, then another border crossing back into Argentina (by the end of all this, we´ll have about 10 entry stamps into Argentina...). The terrain on Tierra del Fuego was initially flat and dry. Lots of sheep (Merino, mostly, so my sources tell me). Looked a lot like South Otago, except for the odd guanaco which reminded us this was (Far) South America. Then, about 90 minutes out from Ushuaia, the landscape changed, first with these odd, half petrified, half moss covered forests, then becoming more mountainous as we drove alongside Lago Fagnana. It continued getting more and more spectacular as the sun went down... in the end we had to peel back from the windows as we were straining our eyes without reward.
We arrived in Ushuaia in the dark sometime after 7pm, expecting freezing cold, but getting merely cold. We stayed in a 2 storey cabin in the residential area of town for the first three nights, and it felt super luxuourious to have our own kitchen, living room, 2 bathrooms, cable TV... This despite the fact it was one of the cheaper options... not that cheap is an accurate term when comparing prices this far south to places further north (or in Peru/Bolivia!!), but our cabin was definitely great value.
Our first full day we headed back into town to sort out our bus outta here. There´s no bus station, so tickets have to be purchased through travel agents, but it was Sunday and they were all closed. The bus to Punta Arena in Chile doesn´t run every day, but we didn´t know which days, so everything was kept in the air for another day.
The next day we planned to get the bus situation rectified early then head to the Tierra del Fuego national park (about 10kms from town) for some hiking and beaver spotting, but the weather was nasty. Rain, wind, cold. A few snow flurries. Visibility was minimal, meaning our plan B of Martial Glacier and the great view of Ushuaia was also ruled out. So we bought our bus tickets (Weds was the next bus, meaning we needed to find accom for an extra night), did some souvenir shopping, and went home for lunch and an afternoon of reading in our heated cabin. The national park would have to wait till the next day.
Today we awoke to snow 6 inches thick on the cars parked on the street outside. It was comforting to learn that this was the first proper snow of the year, but it meant trekking in the mountains was too risky. The weather has since changed about nine times, with great patches of blue sky appearing every hour or so, but it never lasts long and it´s hard to justify the expense of going to the national park (100 pesos for transport, 100 pesos for park entrance) when another dump of snow is only minutes away.
Kind of a shame, but then again, we´ve seen multiple sides of Ushuaia in our three days here (and can sympathise with the inmates sent here when it was a penal colony), and been able to chill out in our cabin. Oh, and we went to the Museo Fin del Mundo (Museum of the End of the World), which was interesting and good place to kill a few hours. **Travel advice: come here in the Summer, or stay for three weeks to ensure you get a nice day or two.**
Tonight we´re staying in a dorm room in the cheapest hostel we could find, as we have to catch the bus at 5am tomorrow (that´s the time all the buses seem to leave). It means we´ll pass through all the spectacular scenery in the dark (sunrise isn´t until after 8am down here), which is dumb, but we should get to Punta Arenas in time to decide if it´s worth saying there or just catch the next bus to Puerto Natales (also in Chile). Hopefully as we proceed back up North, the weather will be a bit more steady, at least for the Parque National de los Glaciers, near El Calafate (Arg)... Fingers crossed.
Craig
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