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Ushuaia

 

Ushuaia

Ushuaia

The land of fire was tantilisingly close in terms of Argentian travel, so whilst in Puerto Madryn, we made the choice to head down afterall. It had been an aim of mine to reach and have a look around, and perhaps fly south to Antarctica from there too, but it was really a one step at a time scenario.
Tierra Del Fuego was named for the many fires that were sighted by the Spanish explorers, the likes of Magellen and co. when they first saw the fires dotted across the landscape from their tiny ships. Lit by semi nomadic tribes who had wandered down from north america and asia around 20,000 BC, the locals were extremely primitive still wearing furs tied to them rather than sewn, it was the beginning of summer when we arrved and snowed pretty much every day, so I think they must have been pretty damn cold..surely. A hardy bunch I think. The good Spanish and European people clothed and housed the natives, but forget to immunise against diseases related to sedentary living and dirty clothes and rapid development. By the beginning of the 20th Century there were around one hundred native indians left. Why the european explorer stayed is clear. Who doesn’t want to ski at the end of the world? The ancient ski lifts still work there and as we arrived had only just closed for the “summer”. The abundant wildlife and the control of the southern tip of America might actually have been a more relevant reason. The Brits had their eye on the area too and Cook in the Beagle managed to find a slightly safer route past as is now referenced by the Beagle Channel, which Ushuaia guards.
The landscape is incredible as you would expect and the main town and point of reference in the area is Ushuaia, serving as a strategic military base against those pesky Chileaneans who also like the idea of owning the islands, and perhaps the oil that lies beneath the Southern Atlantic ocean?

We had found our hostel with a group of fellow mad dogs and Irishmen, following the Irish contingent who had booked. The hostel only offered bunks, but was extremely clean and tidy with very comfy beds,. and I would highly recommend it. Cruz Del Sur I think.
The next day we headed out for a walk around town to see the sites, i.e. the sea, the surrounding landscapes and absorb the life there, and of course the museum, which I think should be called Museum at the End of the World. I loved it, and would like to return for some skiing next time.
The town is nestled in beneath the mountains and offers the more well healed intrepid explorer a base for expiditions to the the Antarctic, perhaps next time we thought, it looks so close and in reality was a good 48 hours on a ship. We headed off for a day of walking in the national parks nearby which offer a glimpse into what the area was like pre european settlement i suppose. We had inquired about walks and found that sadly a good number were still closed due to the snow line, so wandered along the lakeside to the Chilean border. We had wondered why the track did not run the entirety of the lakes perimeter. The border itself showed of times less peaceful, with old barbed wire fencing in the forest still up. The signage now was quite laughable, but we obayed and stayed on the Argentinian side so as to not lose our lunches.
It was a shame to have to catch the bus back into town, a day or two of camping and walking would have been enjoyable. Apart from the skiing and the walking in the national park there is also a glacier to have a look at. We attempted this and walked up a powder covered ski piste with questionable older snow under it and could feel it cracking every now and then. We heard a couple days later that a fellow tourist had falled into a stream and got a soaking.. The top of the ski lift was the basis for the walk to the Glacier, signs advised against further walking without a guide so sadly we turned back, and faced the wind pelting snow into our faces as blizzard conditions suddenly appeared. The funniest and perhaps most bizarre part of the walk up was our Japanese friend who decided to bring his Ukulale with him and then gave us a mini concert in Japanese at the top. Brilliant and very talented, but in a blizzard, bizarre.
At the bottom of the run we found a small hotel with a tea room that could have been kitted out from Laura Ashley with the full floral curtains and cutlery. They served hot chocolates or Submarinos and great cake and kindly called a cab to take us down the hill to the town once more.
We booked ourselves flights from Ushuaia to El Calafate and then onwards to Buenos Aires as they were only marginally more expensive than the buses and much more comfortable and less dusty. Ushuaia was really more than I imagined it could be and I look forward to returning to do some european summer skiing and walking.

Travel to Ushuaia by BUS


We boarded a bus in Puerto Madryn that took us to Rio Gallegos. The Bus ride started at five pmish and we got there after watching a couple of movies so it felt anywa …. There was a few hours of sleep… some of us more than others. The bus ride was comfy enough, but the chance to see Llamas running around in the morning mist was something that became fascinating and kept me from sleeping as we trundled across the mind numbingly flat and largely featurelss landscape. The arrival into an entirely non descript town was a little depressing, there was a HUGE Carrefour, some large Army barracks and nothing more really. The buildings are all little run down one storey shack types and we didn’t really want to hang out all day. There was only one bus a day to Ushuaia and the bus ride had been long enough, so we had made the decision to make a break. We walked around town and killed time for the day, Jen cooked a superb stew and we enjoyed some more cheap wine with our fellow travellers in another nice little hostel type place. The bus ride the next morning started out as an interesting ride... we didn’t move for an hour after arriving at eight thirty for it. There was another bus that looked a little nicer than left earlier which left a little more promptly.
Eventually, just as Jen had gone to the loo off the bus, it started to close the doors and reverse. I headed to the driver and had a few words in broken spanish made it clear he was being an asshole as he has just watched Jen get off the bus and the two extra minutes to his hour delay did not justify this lack of patience… I don’t think he understood or cared too much. It became clear the journey would be a long one, more that we expected, not more so, than at the first border crossing into Chile. The road does not follow an easy route, the terrain is highly politicised and borders seem to have been drawn by crayon at an asylum and make no sense. So, on the way to a city in Argentina, we crossed into Chile, most people handing over packed lunches and fruit to the border guards who must have a terrific lunch each day. They made it complicated to say the least, but it seems to be a LOT better than it used to be, with the border building now shared.
The Logical workflow at this border station would be to check in with the Argentians on one side and trapse through the building with bags to be Xrayed then reboard the bus. No. First enter and line up to leave Argentina. Then reboard the bus. Then get out again, take bags to the border desk and line up to have bags Xrayed infront of the Argentian border desk. The repack the bags and stand in line to have your passport stamped… at desks which sit behind the Argentians… very muddled, confused and time consuming. I suppose at least they have to make it appear they work for a living.That took three hours.
Through the beautiful but featureless landscape we trundled, as we had crossed into Chile the infrastructure was not really present, and the roads were dirt. The crossing of the Beagle Channel was fun. Driving down to the shore on a narrow concrete ramp we boarded a boat and started crossing through what appeared to be a very fierce current. Arriving the otherside and the first signs showed warnings of mine fields. Still not sure who the were to keep out. I then found a tangerine in my bag that had been X Rayed… and was pretty pleased. Ha.
The trip continued along the coast line and we had views of the roughest seas in the world on a calm day. It was wild and beautiful but quite flat. We had been warned that it might still be covered in snow by two travellers we had met who had been holed up in Ushuaia for a few days extra, but all we saw was green grass and lakes and rivers with wind whipping up the water into white caps. This continued for a good two hours until we were around ten hours into the trip when suddenly trees started appearing on the landscape..very deformed oak and beech trees we think. Then the bus stopped and we changed to a smaller older bus and were told it would be one more hour. The human landscape was very functional and not promsing, we drove slowly into the mountains which we had been waiting for with bated breath almost, looking for the path the road would be taking through the mountains into the pass beyind and the southern shores. It finally came and with it the rain and snow. It bucketed it down and well into the next day, so we arrived in the pissing rain and went walkies for a hostel which we found to be pricey but nice. Thirteen hours in the bus, thank god we hadnt continued on the day before and had a day break in Rio Gallegos…
MT

SRW Calf

 

 

Whale of a time in Puerto Madryn


Puerto Madryn arrival was early, and despite the very comfy semi cama bus ride, we and the various other travellers looked appropriately disheviled and tired getting off. We sat down for some breakfast and were joined by some of the fellow travellers from Holland and Switzerland. They had met in Mendoza and were a fun bunch who had just completed their medical degrees so were having a bit of fun before the “real world”. We then found out it was a long weekend in Argentina and the hostels were pretty much all booked up and we as usual, did not have a booking. Oops? We headed off to find some accomodation and even though everyone said it would not be possible, found a very acceptable small hotel in the town centre with a nice clean room available for once more, less than it would have cost us in a hostel.
Still tired we mooched around town and then met the rest for a few drinks and chat. We passed the afternoon in high spirits before heading out for some dinner. The dinner turned into an epic card playing evening which ended up in a club at two am, partiyng in Argentine style. Needless to say, the next day was slow and we took it easy wandering around town on our own enjoying the beeches with the great reflections of the buildings on the sand and ducking into the odd café to avoid the rain showers while keeping an eye out for whale spouts and breeches that are fairly common along the entire coast. The reason for visiting the area for tourism is primarly the wildlife, the extraordinary easy of whale watching here,penguins and Southern Sea Lions. We looked at the distances and the costs and for once it was cheaper booking a tour than a car for two of us. The tourism here relies heavily on locals coming down from Buenos Aires apparently so prices are kept fair. The tour was a round trip of 400 km plus, an hours bus trip and covers a very wild peninsula. The guide was funny and had an endless supply of information which was really nice, and ironically he wore a Japanese Whale Study t shirt… One of the first things he pointed out was the tide range differential between the two parts of the peninsula which differ by up to 8 metres in height across a 40 km land stretch; whales pods take advantage of this and follow the krill around apparently. We were there there just after calfing season so after seeing alsorts of interesting animals that hop like rabbits and look like deer, large birds similar to the Emu and a scuttling armadillo we took a walk along the coast line for a good hour. The sea lion colonies were terrific, stretching along the coast line huge bulks of males guarding their hareems. We noticed a difference to the Californian ones, the snouts on the Californian ones are more pronounced and trunk like.. and I think perhaps a little bigger?
The landscape was terrific, huge sand cliffs dropping from raised beaches indication of lots of eustatic rise {how awesome to see text book stuff in reality…who is a geek?} and massive sandy beaches on which the humungous sea lions were sunning themselves. There were also loads of penguins running around, which made me laugh as they looked like the penguins in from a certain cartoon.
So.. onto the main bit of the day. WHALES. Southern Right Whales to be precise. The boats leave from a tiny hamlet which is overun and entirely populated by tourism businesses. No piers have been built and tractors push out boats into the water once they have loaded up on trailers. The arrangements are interesting, and very efficient. Apparently it is very common to have whales off the shore but we saw none. The boat we got onto was a nice size, but rammed with tourists, I made sure I had a good space by getting on first and it really paid off. The masses of photos I took of flukes and breaching whales were great and the whales were just majestic to watch. The calves came to visit followed by their mothers which gave me loads of opportunities to just watch, but then also take even more photos. The whole day was topped off when our guide took the van down another dirt road following the coast and we stopped on a beach to watch them close to shore doing things like “handstands” where they bash the waves with their tails in a vertical position. Having worked for research teams in Argentina on penguins and whales, and a real fountain of knowledge, I was very pleased to have been introduced to the guide.
So we spent another day pottering around and then got to the bus station undecided on where to go. At the bus station we met an Irish couple who were talking about Ushuaia which had been a must see on the trip for me, but was seconded due to other fun things like diving. I decided to bite the bullet and go, so we headed onto a bus with some fun Irish and close to 40 hours on a bus to go. MT