A el Fin del Mundo (To the End of the World)

Day 95 – February 1

Today after a nice breakfast at the hotel (bread, butter, local jam and tea) we caught the 10am bus to Punta Arenas. We got there around 1pm, walked around the very windy and chilly streets to find our hostel, and checked in to dump our bags. We figured we’d go out for a big meal, then hit the sack early since we are all still tired and we had an early start the next day. We found a great place right around the corner where we were tempted by the menu del dia (menu of the day). It was great – a tomato stuffed with some sort of ham pate (well, I didn’t like that) then a fabulous steak served with fries, fried onions and a fried egg on top, followed by an odd but nice dessert. The dessert was a molded pudding that sort of tasted like porridge covered with red wine – odd – but with a bit of sugar on top it was quite nice! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hostel taking advantage of their huge flat screen and dvd collection – SO nice to just relax.

Day 96 – February 2

Today we got the early 7am bus to Ushuaia which included crossing the border into Argentina and a ferry crossing across to the island of Tierra del Fuego. We arrived at 5pm and set off to find our hostel. Finally found it, claimed our dorm beds at the Antarctica hostel (darn private rooms were all booked out) and then went out for a bite to eat with a French girl we met on the bus. Then it was early to bed, because those day buses are just SO exhausting!



Ushuaia is pronounced oo-SWY-ya and is the southernmost city in the world. The city lies at the bottom of Isla Grande, clustered between the snowy peaks of Cerro Martial and majestic Monto Olivia and the icy waters of the Beagle Channel. Ushuaia is the provincial capital of the Argentinean part of Tierra del Fuego, and the city’s name comes from the Yamana (the local Indians) and means ‘bay that faces the west.’

Ushuaia

Murray and I with our feet in the water at the end of the world!!

Day 97 – February 3

I am sick. I actually did not leave the hostel once today. I sat in the lobby for most of the day, surrounded by our bags, and hooked up to the wi-fi. Got some good research done for places to stay in the next few cities we are going to though. I had to hang out in the lobby cause Murray and I were moving rooms (to a private double – yay) but it wasn’t ready til noon. Fine with me! The lobby was nice and comfy – lots of big cushiony couches. Only bad thing is people are allowed to smoke in there – so gets a bit eye watery after a bit. While I nursed my cold Murray and Steve went off to find us somewhere to stay for the next 4 nights (our hostel was booked out). Eventually they came back, with accommodation booked and groceries in their hands – hooray! I made an ok spaghetti Bolognese dinner for the two of us, and then it was off early to bed to try and kill off this cold!

Day 98 – February 4

This morning we moved to the America Hosteria which is MUCH nicer (actually a hotel rather than a hostel) and was only 10 pesos (about 3 USD) more than what we were paying before (thanks to Murray’s price negotiating skills). After checking in, we went down to the docks to book our boat tour for the next day, and then went out for a lovely lunch in town. Then Murray went back to the hostel (I seem to have passed my cold onto him….) and Steve and I went to the Museo Maritimo y Presidio de Ushuaia (the maritime and old jail museum). The museum was actually excellent (and expensive in South American terms - $12 USD).

The best was actually the prison exhibition! Each cell was used to tell a different story, about the people who were imprisoned there, what life was like for them, etc.

To establish a permanent settlement in Ushuaia, the government’s original idea was to convert the city into a penal colony. The first convicts arrive in 1896. Though the idea of a penal colony was eventually downsized, the prison over time did end up housing some of Argentina’s most notorious criminals. In it’s heyday it contained 600 inmates in 380 cells who were put to work locally as bakers, electricians, printers, etc. It was shut down by President Juan Domingo Peron in 1947.

Me posing with someone? I can't actually remember what murder he was famous for....


Steve posing with Mateo Banks aka ‘The Mystic.’ He was convicted in 1924 of Argentina’s first multiple homicide when he poisoned his family in order to inherit his family’s ranches. At one point he tried to show authorities he was innocent by showing them that he had been shot in the foot by the intruders! He showed them the hole in the top and the bottom of his shoe, only problem was when they took his shoe OFF they saw his foot was fine – not a great lie if you ask me!

The museum also had some small but very interesting displays about the indigenous Indians (Yamanas), marine life in Ushuaia, and a fantastic art exhibition (if only we weren't backpacking I would have LOVED to have bought something - really unique beautiful paintings)!

After about 3 (CHILLY) hours in the museum, I headed back to our hotel to check on the patient. Murray and I had a nice relaxing dinner in the hotel restaurant (Steve was staying at a hostel down the road), with a lovely flan con crema y dulce de leche for dessert (cream and dulce de leche with is what they call ‘milk jam’ – it’s odd and very sweet). Then it was early to bed again.

Day 99 – February 5

We met up early with Steve to go out on our Beagle Channel tour, although unfortunately when we got down there they said the tour was cancelled due to too much wind (just made it too cold to go our on a little boat). So we rescheduled, and then got a taxi up to another tourist destination in town – the Martial Glacier.


We took the chair lift up to the base of the glacier

Steve on the chair lift


Murray & I


Steve and I walking up closer to the glacier


Steve & I


Look – snow and ice!


Me & Murray with Martial Glacier in the background


Steve pondering the snow….


And then trying to smash a snow ball onto me!


Steve decided to walk on to the base of the glacier


For this photo, I hopped across the glacier water and did end up dipping my boot ALMOST up to the edge – whew that was close

Murray and I decided we had had enough of a view, and went back down to the top of the chair life where there was a refugio (mountain cabin) where they sold GORGEOUS hot chocolates (well worth the exorbitant price they charged)! It was what they call a ‘submarine’ – which is a large cup of hot milk in which they dunk a piece of chocolate in the shape of a submarine. It eventually melts down into gorgeous chocolateness!

When Steve got back, we went back to the chair life to wait for a ride down (we HAD paid for return tickets after all). Unfortunately the guy told us that it was too windy, so they had closed the lift down, so walk down it was.


Lovely views on the way down though!!!

We popped into town for lunch, booked our bus tickets out of town, booked a rental car for the next day and stopped by the SUPER nice tourist office (wow were they helpful and so so friendly - they also stamp your passport with a 'end of the world' stamp if you want). Then it was back to the hotel for more relaxing and cold nursing. Although we did make the mistake of watching the new thriller/horror ‘1408’ on the laptop, which made it VERY hard to get to sleep (hint – don’t watch a hotel room horror while staying in a hotel room)!

Day 100 – February 6


It SNOWED overnight!!! Wow – the mountains behind town looked lovely! (but COLD)!

We picked up our little rental car early – and set off to explore a few of the sites that are a little bit further out (makes more economical sense with 3 people to just rent a car rather than pay for transport to each place). It was a bit of a miserable day though - cold, raining, and eventually snowing (once we got up a bit higher) - good day to be IN a car!

Doesn't that dirt road look inviting?

But the views were still lovely

It is just a BIT windy …. The trees actually grow this way because of all the wind

We spotted this happy guy along the way…

And some lovely marsh land

And even wild horses!!! Pretty

Eventually we arrived at Estancia Haberton (it was a 85km – 53 mile – mostly dirt road trip due east from Ushuaia).

The estancia (farm) is the oldest in Tierra del Fuego, and is surrounded by dramatic scenery – right on the edge of the world (well, sort of) - lovely view though.

We decided to just hit the recommended restaurant on site. On the way there was nearly got the car stuck…(it was up a hill looking down on the estancia). It was raining SO hard and our little car just sunk right into the mud on the way up (even with Steve AND I pushing). Eventually we gave up and Murray parked at the bottom of the hill and then walked through the pouring rain to meet us for some warming chow.

They let us hang up our super wet jackets near the stoves, and then we enjoyed the gorgeous tiny little rolls and garlic sauce they put out for us to enjoy along with our tea con leche – lovely.

Murray went to check out the cooking room where they were making lamb ‘Patagonian style’


Looks gross…. But tastes nice


The boys still had the old favorite though – steak (with LOVELY salsa sauce)


And of course – a submarino!!! YUMMMM

After lunch we popped just down the road from the estancia to the Museo Acatushun.
Inside they had material related to Tierra del Fuego’s marine life, including huge skeletons from beached whales, sea lions, seals, and rare dolphins.


A student who was living and working there for free as part of his study gave us a fabulous VERY informative tour!


Me with a cute little Beaver skull

Some of the facts he told us…..

* What you see coming out of a whale’s blow hole is actually not water – it is just hot air which has created a mist, from two areas 1/the water that was originally at the opening of the blow hole and 2/ the surrounding air (like steam creates a mist - which is suspended water droplets from surrounding air)
* Dolphins navigate by using their sonar to create audio signals by sending out squeaks from a small empty ballon sack which is then amplified by passing through the large 'grease' melon in the 'forehead' of the animal. The echo that bounces back off the surrounding environment is received through the lower jaw bone, which is hollow and also filled with grease. The sound reverbirates through the jaw and into a section behind the jaw that vibrates the sound twoards the brain to be processed. This is where an amazing event occurs - audio is converted to video. If you like, the animal creates a real time image of its surroundings. Pretty much like the 'Daredevil' action hero played by Ben Affleck - for lack of a better examples to illustrate. This works as a great back up system as deep in the sea it is too dark to actually ‘see’ anything with their eyes.
* The only whales in the world which have taught themselves how to beach their huge bodies and wiggle themselves back out in order to feed are the Orcas that come to Patagonia. They also teach their offspring how to do this.

* Leopard seals can be vicious; there is even record of a woman who was killed by one in Antarctica a few years ago
* You can tell a whale from a dolphin by the shape of their heads – if they have a big square or round shaped bump on the top of their head (what they call the melon – which is filled with grease) they are dolphins. Dolphins also have teeth (whales have that hairy filter system)
*Killer whales are actually part of the dolphin family.
*The way most whales actually die when they accidentally become beached is by their lungs getting crushed due to the sheer weight of their bodies outside of the water. Also, sometimes the grease in their heads which they use to dive becomes so heated up by the sun that they die of heat exhaustion (such as with sperm whales).
*Sperm whales use the huge amount of ‘grease’ in their bodies to dive. They heat it up to be nearly liquid in order to surface, and they make it solid in order to dive to great depths.
* Sea lions can be told apart from seals because they have separate joints for their hips and legs and can therefore sit up and ‘walk’ a bit.
* Seals have fused hips and use their back fin just for swimming, and their front flipper to steer in the water. Any ‘seal’ you sea at the zoo that can clap its fins is actually a sea lion.
* This museum has the most skeletons of spectacled porpoises in the world (they are VERY rare).


When we came out of the museum we noticed a piece of the car was hanging off……

I guess that happened when we were trying to go uphill? On closer inspection it was missing screws, and had probably broken off long before we rented it and was just barely held back together. So we got some wire from the museum and fixed it up ourselves (well – Murray did).


Then we headed off again in the INTENSE wind!

We decided to take Ruta 3 to the end of Lago Fagnano to the town of Tolhuin to visit the most famous bakery in the area. We had some LOVELY empanadas, a churro filled with dulce de leche, and a picked up a few chocolates for later before heading back to town (totally worth the detour)!

Our car allowed us 300km in mileage before we would get charged extra – and believe it or not we ended up using 299km!! Not bad!

Day 101 – February 7

Today we did actually get to do our boat tour of the Beagle Channel!! We had booked to go on a small sailboat, rather than go on a large catamaran with hundreds of people.

The Beagle channel is named after Captain Fitz Roy’s ship, and the channel connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Our boat
It ended up just being the three of us, two other people, our guide and the captain!

First we went to see the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse
Then we went to Isla de los Pajaros (bird colony)
which is full of Cormorants
Then it was off to see Isla de los Lobos (the sea lion colony)
They were awfully cute!
And thankfully the wind was blowing AWAY from us!

Then we went to Bridge Island, where the Yamanas used to have their houses
Apparently they lived their naked and just covered themselves in whale fat to keep warm – we had our matching jackets to TRY and keep us warm:) (it was SO cold and windy)!!

We even saw some Calafate berries!

Steve & I – check out the wind blowing on our trousers! BURRRRR it was COLD!

Our guide gave us a tour of the island and showed us the indents where the Yamanas would have had their homes. How they managed to survive in freezing weather like that (and this is SUMMER weather) I do not know! Unfortunately there is only one pure blood Yamana still living, the original settlers managed to kill nearly the entire population by forcing them to wear clothing (which spread germs – as they previously just used the rain to clean themselves) and by spreading European diseases to the groups – shame.

After a rest back at the hotel (to thaw out after the boat ride) we went out to a well known parilla restaurant in town and had a GREAT meal!
Me enjoying my meal - yes, I did go back for seconds! and thirds:)

There was a fab buffet with great veggie dishes, salads, etc etc and then there was a little room towards the front of the restaurant for the meat. There was one guy in there with a MASSIVE stove. You just went up to his little window, stated what kind of meat you wanted, and he sliced it straight off the grill and onto your plate. We ate WAY too much, but wow it was good!

Next blog - off to Puerto Madryn - coming soon.............