South America Trip Day 23 & 24: Ushuaia, the most southern city of the world

Day 23

It is 6:00 AM as the alarm wakes us up in a still rainy el Calafate. We packed our stuff, got our breakfast at 6:30 AM and at 6:45 AM the hostel already got us a private taxi to the airport for 600 pesos. Once arrived we checked in, got a window seat, had to rearrange our IKEA back pack because it was a bit overweight and took the flight to Ushuaia, duration: 1 hour and 10 minutes.

For 350 pesos our hostel, Rio Ono, picked us up. After that is was just a 10 minute walk towards the main street. We decided to book two tours, this afternoon a boat ride and tomorrow the national park. We got a tip to eat at El Viejo Marino, which we followed up. And not disappointing at all, it was insanely good sea food! Oh they also house the Cape Horn beers, worth it if you are a beer enthusiast like me! Good to note, they tell you that you cannot take away food in Ushuaia, and that there is a law by the city that forbids it. Later on we found out, that this was nonsense.

We took the boat tour at 15:30 PM, going to a few viewing spots in the famous Beagle channel. Ushuaia is completely surrounded by the Andes which gives you an amazing view once leaving the harbor.

We stopped at several rock formations housing local birds and sea lions, saw a lot of them diving and even sea lions giving us a swimming show around the boat which was neat! We stopped at the last island of Argentina and the famous light tower. After that an one hour drive back to the mainland. We went to the shopping mall to eat here, which had a big food court. We realized that all of our cards did not work at the ATM’s here. We took a cab to the hostel to relax for tomorrow morning to start our next trip, Tierra del Fuego National Park!

Day 24

Waking up 6:30 AM for a hot shower and breakfast before our 8:05 AM pick up to go to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Our guide was Luciano, a very enthusiastic young Argentinian.

After our pick up the first stop was the train station at the end of the world, it is called like that because Ushuaia used to be a cold place where prisoners got sent to until 1947, prisoners called it end of the world because of the weather conditions. You can take the train from 1200 pesos per person, it is a steam train taking an one hour trip. Just 7 km per hour, so it is very slow! We decided to enter the park by bus, was just us two and two elderly women from el Salvador and Guatemala who were very friendly. The entrance to enter the park is 490 pesos per person.

First stop people river, a valley with a nice view. Here we saw chicaron (wild falcon) and wild horses. The coolest thing was the fresh snow on the mountains on top, giving it three shapes: lot of snow on top, little white below and green all the way down.

We stopped at a tree graveyard, where the prisoners cut wood from back in the days. The rail goes through it, going 7 km per hour to take a nice picture with it.

Luciano let us try the local tea they drink in Argentina, it looks like tea but it is jungle plant you put hot water in, tastes like green tea with tobacco.

The last post office in the world is located on a beautiful but cold viewing point, in the middle of beagle channel. It is exactly in the middle, 90 km from.pacific ocean and 90 km from the Atlantic ocean. You can get a stamp on your passport for 100 pesos and sent letters to your friends.

After that we went to have a stop at the lunch place of.the park, beagle beer and king crab empanada are the shit!

We stopped at a place were beavers destroyed the forest. Beavers got sent here in the 70’s as an idea by the government to sell their fur. That idea did not work, they let 50 beavers stay from Canada and without predators they are currently 150,000 strong.

After that, Last stop is the end of the Panamarican highway, most southern place where you can go with a car. Here there is a sign of this high way, nice view and Luciano gave us a local spirit shot.

we had dinner with Luciano at Freddys, was a bit overpriced and not as tasty a meal as yesterday.

After our dinner we went to the tourist center near the port, here you can get your free stamp in your Passport of the end of the world!

After that we strolled through San Martin, the main street, to do some gift last souvenir shopping. After that we took our shuttle to the airport, where our flight was 45 minutes delayed to arrive to Buenos Aires for our trip to our next destination: Easter Island!