Day 1:

Today we are leaving Chile and going to Ushuaia in Argentina. This city is the furthest south city in the world. There are some small towns that are found further south, but this is darn south!! We will be taking a 15 hour bus ride and crossing the boarder this way.

At breakfast we met one of the brightest 12 year olds that I've ever met. He told me that we are in fact seeing the llama's cousin, the guanaco. He told me many other animal facts and he was able to answer all of my questions. I was impressed.

The bus was fairly uneventful. Darren continues his llama comments despite the new learners at breakfast. Darren is wrong when he says llama, but guanaco doesn't sound as good as llama every 2 seconds. I'm not sure llama sounds that good every 2 seconds either. The land is nearly flat with the odd hill in the distance. Part way through our journey, we take a ferry since southern South America is very split up with lots of channels and islands which all meet up with the ocean. Before even getting on the ferry we can see something jumping out of the water. I later found out that is a commerson's dolphin. It looks like a miniature killer whale, look at the profile picture (you might have to zoom in). It seems to be a social mammal because there are plenty of them gathered around the ferry as we cross. In addition to the dolphins, I can see seaweed in the ocean.

We later arrive at the border. Border crossings are different here. We first have to sign out of Chile, then we drive a couple of kilometers and stop again to sign into Argentina. At the border crossing, Darren makes friends with a Canadian couple from Waterloo, Ontario. He said he saw them on the trail.... I don't remember, but sure.

As we approach Ushuaia, the landscape transforms into mountains and it is beautiful. Again, these mountains have been formed by glaciers and resemble our mountains but with different vegetation. There are underground pipelines that can use some reclamation along the side of the road. I wonder if reclamation is something that is practiced here in Argentina, at the moment it doesn't look like it.

Once at Ushuaia (which was a shorter bus ride than anticipated), I try to convince Darren to buy a book. He was very bored on the bus, but I wasn't. He started this new practice of making sounds in my ear to entertain himself, well it isn't that entertaining to me. We also sign into our hostel (Hostel Haush) and pay for our penguin excursion for tomorrow.

When we got off the bus we were handed a flyer for this pub. The flyer advertises a free beer sampler, so Darren and I decide to take advantage of this. At the pub, I order pizza and a glass of wine because the beer platter does not taste good to me. The food was delicious, but the service is horrible. I watch the waitress drink wine behind the bar as we wait for the bill. Obviously her job is not that important to her.

We walk the streets of Ushuaia and it is much different than Chile. There are many more products here, and many of the same products as Canada. It feels like the town is more developed and glamourous in the tourist areas. There are two big casinos and plenty of fine dining restaurants.

We wander around for a little while, but find ourselves returning to our hostel for an early night. We are still tired from our hike, so the early night is okay with me. Also, tomorrow we visit the penguins!

Day 2:

We wake up early so that we can be at the meeting point for 8 am. We are guided towards a minibus which is playing music very loud for morning time. Darren and I chose to do a tour that allows us to walk with the penguins on the island, the only tour company in Ushuaia that allows this (Pira Tours).

Our first stop, described by our guide (Laura) is a view point of Puerto Williams, which is even further south than Ushuaia. Even though we are traveling eat of Ushuaia, Puerto Williams is, in fact, in Chile.

Our driver (Chico), takes us to our next stop which is a tree that has adapted to its windy environment. The tree grows with the wind much like trees that grow in California. The tree overlooks the Beagle Channel, which quite frankly is more interesting.

Finally, on this long, dirt road we will arrive at the point where we will get on a boat to see the penguins. This point is called Harberton Ranch. I run into the washroom before leaving. I read on the back of the bathroom stall "Do not throw anything in the toilet unless you have eaten it first." Haha. I love it. This is common in South America. Unless we are in a newer city, we always throw toilet paper in the smelly waste basket. The sewer systems can't handle toilet paper, plus the amount of people that live in South America is crazy! Over 350 million people with about 200 million living in Brazil. Craziness.

The boat is a speed boat that fits about 30 people and has an enclosure to shield the passengers from wind and water. A group of bikers have joined us on the tour. The driver turns suddenly and some people are scared, but I love it. Some say to slow down, I say to go faster. I love the thrill of hitting the waves and the boat jumping a little. I almost wish there was no roof because I love the wind in my hair.

As we pull up to the island (Isla Martillo) we can see penguins jumping out of the water onto the island. There are so many of them! Where are they all coming from? The penguins keep jumping out of the water, it never stops.

We have a few rules to obey which include keeping a 2 meter distance from the penguins, don't touch penguins, don't try to feed penguins, walk slowly and in a group and don't leave anything on the island. There are two types of penguins on this island: the gentoo and magellanic penguins. However, there is a third type. One lonely king penguin got separated from his colony and remains alone on this island.

There is a pathway that we can follow, but the penguins can walk anywhere. And by all means, they should - this is their home. When I look up from the pathway I can see thousands of penguins. They are everywhere and there is a hill in the distance and all I can see are penguins walking up and down the hill. Penguins are swimming, socializing, eating and taking care of their young. Off the island towards the mainland are only mountains which makes for a very scenic island.

There are 3600 pairs of magellanic penguins and 20 pairs of gentoo penguins. This doesn't include their young. They typically have two chicks a year. However, first the male wins the female by making her a nest which is underground. If the female accepts the nest then the male has found his mate. There are many chicks on this island they are about 60 days old. The chicks are currently about the same size as the adults, but they have different feathers. The chicks have these grey down feathers that are slowly coming off and they look patchy. Also, Laura says that the juveniles don't have the black band on their heads.

It is hard the keep the 2 meter buffer because the penguins are so curious and they come up to me. They remind me of Deoge, the way that they robotically tilt their heads and look at me trying to figure out what's going on. Some people do not follow the rules at all. I saw a penguin peck at one guy because he had his hand out trying to encourage the penguin to come closer, even though he was 30 cms from it. This makes me angry because we are in their home and we are already disturbing them.

The penguins are funny though. I almost always see two together at once. Likely the male and female mate (females are smaller than males), but they seem to move in unison. One looks one way, so they both look in that direction. They walk together and when it's time to snuggle (at least that's what I think in my head) both birds go down into the nest.

We walk with the penguins for one hour. Darren and I watch the penguins swim in the waves. They are really quite fast and they will jump in and out of the waves. It looks like they could be apart of the wave itself. Laura calls us back and it is already time to leave the island.

Back at Harberton Ranch there is a marine museum that is included in the tour. When we enter a girl offers us an English tour. Sure. It is a small museum, but very cool. There are skeletons hanging on the wall and then the picture of the mammal is behind the skeleton. The skeleton of the sea lions show that they have bones like we have in our hands and feet. Our guide says that they have bones like knees too. One type can even stand (well I guess I knew that). She shows us how whales eat and shows us the teeth of the sperm whale. This is interesting because you can tell how old the whale is with its teeth, but not because of how worn down the teeth are. The sperm whale's teeth actually gain a layer each year and when a cross section is taken it has rings, like a tree. Very cool. This is the only animal that I know of that does this.

We then go into the back where the laboratory is located. The bones are usually collected in a bay where the mammals enter during high tide, but sometimes get stuck there when the tide lowers. The collectors use natural methods for the meat to come off of the bones; it takes quite awhile. The bones are labelled so that they stay with the same mammal. All of the bones collected here cannot leave the museum; however, anyone is allowed to use them. Many people use them for research. The workers here are students and are volunteering at the museum. Also, outside are some very large skeletons just laying there. They are currently doing a study to determine how long it takes for the bones to decompose into dust.

Our bus is here and we have to leave. I don't enjoy many museums, but this one was way cool. I wish I could spend a few more minutes here, but I can't miss the bus.

Back in Ushuaia, Darren and I decide to do a short hike. We stop at the tourist office and we are told that we need to take a taxi to the trail head. This hike takes us to Glaciar Martial. This glacier is just outside of town about 10 minutes. We find a taxi after confirming our flight to Buenos Aires tomorrow. The hike starts beside a ski lift which is closed. We hike up a ski slope that when covered in snow would be a pretty lame ski hill, luckily that's not why we are here. But it is cold, there might as well be snow. The hike warms me up and my legs are still tired, but we seem to be in better shape than the many people we pass on the way up. Every now and then I look behind me and I know that this is going to be a spectacular view. We can see the glacier and it is small. We opt out of climbing up to the glacier, instead we veer off onto Punto Panoramico so that we can get a view of the end of the world.

I find a big rock to sit on and I just sit and look. I can see Ushuaia and beyond the city is an airstrip that if the ocean were to rise, it would be gone. There are mountains and a channel leading into the ocean. I look at the map and I think I can even see a vague outline of Cape Horn. Cruise ships and cargo ships are in the bay and from up high I can see the different colors in the ocean. It looks like everything moves so slow from up here. I can just sit here forever. It is peaceful and incredible. It is also incredible to think that I am a very, very long distance away from home.

Darren disappears to bury a Chilean polymer peso. He wants to come back to it one day and see if it's still there. He takes a picture of the treasure location.

We hike a bit further to see around the mountainside, but we don't stay long. It looks like a storm is floating in, so we decide to hike down before we get even more cold. We walk down through the Sendero del Filo trail. Here the trees look similar to the dwarf trees on the W-trek. We also see these cabbage flowers along the way (the leaves are cabbage-like). We want to stop for a coffee at the chair lift platform, but it is closed.

On the way down we run into an American couple that are celebrating their 50th Anniversary. We take there picture for them. They do not look their age at all and the husband says that his wife was -10 years old when they got married. I hope I can do these type of activities when I am 40 years old... which is likely closer to 60 years old.

Darren and I take a taxi back to our hostel. Our cab driver used to live in Florida, so he speaks English. He told us that he would lend us his car tomorrow and we could drive to the End of the World (where the road officially ends), but Darren wants to do a city tour tomorrow. We decide to skip out of the offer.

Darren and I eat leftovers from hiking for dinner (soup and mashed potatoes), but we were going to go out for dessert. Yesterday we scouted out a fancy dessert restaurant. For dinner I ran down the hill to grab a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. While I was there I bought two types of beer brewed in Ushuaia. The beer turned out to be horrible, but wine is always good.

During dinner we meet a man from New Zealand. He rode his motorcycle from the most northern road in Alaska all the ways to the most southern tip in Argentina. His wife started with him, but gave up in Mexico. Then when he was riding through Guatemala he was hit by another driver. He was in the middle of nowhere and the driver did not stay to face any possible consequences. He was finally found by a native and taken to a small clinic where they used an X-ray (described as the first X-ray ever made) to determine that his leg was dislocated. The 'doctor' said he could fix it, but through his broken Spanish he convinced him to get a second opinion. So, an 'ambulance' came, which was a Volkswagen with a mattress laid down inside it to take him to another clinic. Here he was X-rayed again (by the second X-ray ever made) and it was determined that his leg was broken. The doctor said that he needs to get it fixed within 24 hours or else he will have permanent damage. The doctor said he can do it, but the New Zealander refused. He lucked out and came across a Spanish-English boy that was just passing through, who rode his bike to the closest main town to use a satellite phone to call for a plane to fly him out to a main city. This boy arranged everything and the next morning a float plane arrived (4 hours late) to pick him up and take him to a more modern hospital. Wow! I couldn't believe how insane this story was! He was unable to ride for 7 weeks, but he did not give up on his goal. He made it from the north to the south on his motorcycle, even though it was not the same bike he started with.

For dessert we had chocolate cake and tiramasu cake. Okay, I've decided that I need to stop eating chocolate here. It tastes gross to me. I miss chocolate at home. The milk chocolate tastes like goat's milk, so it is strong. Darren doesn't taste it, but I'm grossed out. Darren's dessert is delicious though, so I eat his instead.

Today was an excellent, fun filled day with inspiring stories. Now it is time for bed.

Day 3:

Today we wander the streets and then start the city tour. I am tired due to everyone in our dorm room waking up at 6 am, I'm guessing a bus or boat left early in the morning. The cleaning lady was even in our dorm before the allotted time for breakfast.

The city tour is on a colorful, double-decker bus. We sit at the top and at the front for the best view. We learn that the prisoners built most of the city. We took a quick tour of the old prison that overlooks the ocean. We then drive around the city and a strategic automated system tells us about how the indigenous did not wear clothes and to fight the cold weather they would lather oil on themselves. Then when the Spaniards arrived here they brought with them diseases and since the indigenous were not immune many of them died. There is still one indigenous women that lives in Puerto Williams. Along the bay, there is a ship that was abandoned after it wrecked. The speaker tells us of an honorable man that used to save people from ship wrecks and he never expected anything in return. However, he was sailing and his crew was in a ship wreck. Able to get to an island, they spend months building a ship because they knew that nobody would save them. They made it to Punta Arenas with this new ship. We also pass by an old Irish pub and an old airport where the Aeronautical Club is restoring a old airplane. We look up at the glacier we visited yesterday. The town is worried about this glacier because it is receding and it is their source of water. I wonder about this... why don't thy implement water policies to reduce their consumption? It doesn't seem like anything is in place to encourage the use of less water.

After the city tour, Darren and I walk around again, but everything is closed because it is siesta time. Siesta lasts for about 3 hours here. The only thing open are restaurants, so Darren and I restaurant hop for the next 3-4 hours. Not the most exciting thing to do. We probably hit about 4 different places. Coffee - then ice cream - then wine - then supper. Our supper was at the same place where we had dessert. We ordered a vegetarian pizza that had potatoes and zucchini on it. I think I have seen everything possible on a pizza now!

We return to the hostel to gather our stuff and share a taxi with a girl from Spain. She is living in Buenos Aires while she does her practicum to become a doctor. She says she is too young to work though, she thinks she might stay in school. Well, that's the first. Lol. I'm the complete opposite. I couldn't wait to be done school.

At the airport, we pay our international tariff which is about triple what residents pay. Then we wait for our 10:55 pm flight.

As we fly into Buenos Aires we only see lights for miles and miles. There are 16 million people that live in this proclaimed lively city. We fly into the inner city airport and after landing we run into the Aussies again. They went to Glaciar Merino instead of Ushuaia, but we weren't expecting to see them until Rio.

Our taxi arrives and we go our separate ways. The driving here is organized insanity. The cab driver cuts in and out of traffic and drivers don't use the indicated lanes. Most drivers will drive overtop of the lane line and it is rare to see a signal light. When we turn to cross the next avenue, the vehicles line up as if each one wants to be the first to go. They don't line up behind each other. There are about 6 lanes that are labelled here, but the drivers make 10 lanes somehow. People use horns constantly too. I think they use the horn to let other drivers know that they are beside them.

We arrive at our hostel (Hostel Rayuela) which is located in San Telmo and is close to downtown. Inside the unmarked building and up some swirling stairs, we are greeted with some refreshing cold drinking water (which is great because it is hot here!!) and a happy face. There is a recreation room with a balcony and a pool table, some computers and just a few rooms with high ceilings. We are shown around but we quickly find our way to bed. We are exhausted from all the restaurant hopping.

Tomorrow we will explore Buenos Aires, the city that never sleeps.