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It´s not so simple getting to the "fin del mundo" (end of the world). Our 20 hour bus journey to Ushuaia ended up being extended to 24 hours as we had border crossings in & out of Chile, plus a short ferry trip across rough seas to get to Tierra del Fuego. But we finally made it to this quaint little port town at 3:30am, and being Argentina, the streets were filled with party goers on their way home and the sun was just coming up.
After a couple of days rest & play, we hitch hiked 12km to the National Park (rather than paying $25 each for the minibus) for a couple of days hiking. A long uphill hike through forest, mud, marshlands and scree had us arriving at the top of Cerro Guanaco, where we were rewarded with sensational 360 degree views of the surrounding snow-capped mountains and the Beagle Channel. Another day had us walking along the coast and looking at beaver colonies ... yet not a beaver in sight.
We then ventured off on another 3 day hike, and at the trail head we were met by three very friendly dogs. (We´d heard from an Aussie couple the night before that they had met a man who got his dogs to show them where the bridge was to cross the river). So we let these dogs show us the way, but when we got to the bridge 1.5 hours later the dogs didn´t head back, they kept walking with us for another few hours up to the campsite. As it got darker we thought they´d head back home as we hadn´t fed them & it was getting really cold, but they stayed all night.
So we continued along the trek with our three dogs in tow, where we saw beautiful glaciers, camped alongside a gorgeous lake, crossed rivers in knee depth icey water, walked over snow bridges, hike up over the pass known as the "Paso de Oveja" (pass of sheep) ... yet not a sheep in sight! It was so windy walking back along the shale valley that at one point de nearly blew away!
Our dogs were such faithful companions over the three days, and one of them even kept running back to Nic when she was lagging behind to make sure she was still following. It broke our hearts when we got back closer to town and had to jump in a taxi so that they wouldn´t follow us to the hostel, and they chased after us for as long as they could :(.
A couple more days were spent back in Ushuaia chillaxing at the hostel, then we were off on yet another long bus journey ... this time 40 hours to El Bolson. Eeeek!!
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