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Mish and Liv's Travels
The journey from El Calafate to Ushuaia was incredibly long and tedious. There is no way to get to Tierra del Fuego from Argentina so you have to cross the border into Chile and then go back into Argentina. Chile are really worried about people bringing in anything that could damage their agriculture so you arent allowed to bring in any dairy, fruit or live animals. We got off the bus on the Argentinian side of the border had our bags scanned and our passports stamped which took about an hour, then we got back on the bus drove for 10 minutes across the border and then had to get off again so we could have the Chilean authorities stamp our passports. We then got on a boat over to Tierra del Fuego where we had to get off the bus and then had to get back on and then off to be stamped out of Chile and into Argentina. Basically the whole thing was very long and involved a lot of getting on/off buses.
We were a little apprehensive arriving in Ushuaia as the hostel we were staying in had really terrible reviews on the Internet but because its the height of the season we didnt have any choice but to stay there. We were actually quite pleasantly surprised when we arrived it certainly isnt The Ritz but it isnt THAT bad. Its absolutely full of Israelis who have all brough guitars and sheets of music with them so we were invited to join in with renditions of George Michaels Faith and various Oasis songs.
The highlight of Ushuaia was the boat trip we took. We went with a company called Tres Marias who are the only company allowed to visit Isla H which is a beautiful island where we could walk around looking at all the different wildlife living there. It was a very small boat and as there were only four of us on it we could get really close to the sea lions and penguins which was really interesting.
The next day we went on a trek with two Israeli girls from our hostel and three guys they had met the day before who were staying in a nearby campsite. The trek started at the bottom of this massive mountain, it was incredibly steep and each time we thought we had reached the top it just kept on going. Eventually we made it to the top but then we had to walk through marshes following a trail which then just disappeared. This was the moment that the boys decided to tell us about the trek they went on where they got lost and almost died! We were starting to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into when we saw a main road and from there we could see the Mountain with the glacier on which was our destination. The climb up the glacier wasnt too bad, although after seeing the Perito Moreno glacier this glacier wasnt as exciting but it was really nice to do a bit of walking. At the top of the Mountain the boys got out their gas stoves and made us some coffee and mashed potato (bit of an odd combo) but at least it was warm as we were absolutely freezing and as usual underdressed. The walk back down the mountain was really hard, we both fell over quite a few times. A man near us fell and cut his hand really badly on the sharp rocks so it was quite dramatic too. But we made it and felt very pleased with ourselves when we reached the bottom.
That evening we went to have some well deserved waffles which were delicious and then met up with the boys again for a few drinks. One of the boys, Sella, is going up to Buenos Aires tomorrow too but he is taking the bus which will take him 48 hours. We are definitely pleased we decided to fly as we will get there in 3.5 hours!
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