My first stop in Patagonia was Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Having boarded the plane in hot and humid Buenos Aires, I disembarked to grey skies, drizzle and a temperature of 12°c. It felt just like home.
Ushuaia is known as the "Fin del Mundo" - the end of the world - and it certainly did feel like that (apart from when you look further South and see the bottom of Chile). It was windy and desolate, but also beautiful.
The first afternoon and the following day were rainy and overcast but the forecast was for sunshine on the way, so I decided to wait before exploring properly, and instead took advantage of the opportunity to snuggle up in a cosy hostel room (with central heating!), and catch up on some sleep, catch up with the family and of course catch up on the blog!
Finally the 3rd day dawned with a bright, blue sky and sunshine, and after a leisurely wander around the town, I set off on a Penguin spotting trip. The penguins reside on a small island in the Beagle channel, about an hour from Ushuaia. On our way, we stopped off to photograph some "flag trees", which are permanently bent sideways due to the strong westerly winds. We also had a very quick guided tour of the museum at Harberton House, where they collect and display the bones of birds and mammals which have washed up on the shore. This part of Argentina is the only land mass at this particular latitude and consequently many sea creatures which die down here eventually get washed up on these shores. I had no expectations of the talk, but found it surprisingly fascinating, as they had so many complete skeletons, including different species of penguins, dolphins and whales and it was interesting to compare them in size and bone structure (just trust me, it was interesting, OK?).
There are several boat trips which circle the island and offer viewings from the deck, but ours was the only trip which actually landed on the island, and allowed us to walk right through the penguin colony. Consequently it was quite a bit more expensive and frequented by major nature enthusiasts, with suitably impressive cameras with long zoom lenses. I was pretty mortified to be clicking away with my smart-phone camera, which doesn't even allow me to zoom in, let alone do a blurred background! Fortunately there were two friendly (and very beautiful) Italian men on the tour who kindly offered to send me some of their pictures, which I will of course add to the blog and pass off as my own as soon as I get them through....
On my final day in Ushuaia I headed to the Tierra del Fuego national park and did a 13km hike. I wasn't sure how I’d like doing a long hike on my own, but once I set off I got really into it. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and there wasn't another person in sight. When I tripped over my own feet and almost head-butted a tree I realised this perhaps wasn't the safest idea, but it all worked out just fine.
The scenery was absolutely stunning here. The first part of the hike was the Pampa Alta, which took me through some woodland glades, alongside a stream and culminated in a spectacular panoramic view of the mountains and the Beagle channel. Next I headed through fields of buttercups and daisies, past deserted Beavers’ dams, and came out on the Coastal Trail, which... well, took me along the coast. Again, a very beautiful wilderness, fringed with mountains, and with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves it was just stunning. Of course smart-phone photos can never do it justice, but I'm over that now. Honestly.
Ushuaia is known as the "Fin del Mundo" - the end of the world - and it certainly did feel like that (apart from when you look further South and see the bottom of Chile). It was windy and desolate, but also beautiful.
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| It's not the end of the world! Oh, wait.... |
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| Ushuaia |
Finally the 3rd day dawned with a bright, blue sky and sunshine, and after a leisurely wander around the town, I set off on a Penguin spotting trip. The penguins reside on a small island in the Beagle channel, about an hour from Ushuaia. On our way, we stopped off to photograph some "flag trees", which are permanently bent sideways due to the strong westerly winds. We also had a very quick guided tour of the museum at Harberton House, where they collect and display the bones of birds and mammals which have washed up on the shore. This part of Argentina is the only land mass at this particular latitude and consequently many sea creatures which die down here eventually get washed up on these shores. I had no expectations of the talk, but found it surprisingly fascinating, as they had so many complete skeletons, including different species of penguins, dolphins and whales and it was interesting to compare them in size and bone structure (just trust me, it was interesting, OK?).
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| Flag Trees
After that we took a short boat ride over to the island with the penguins and we spent about an hour there, wandering through the colony. The penguins were absolutely everywhere. Both the Magellanic penguin and the Gentoo penguin are native to the island but we were also lucky enough to see a few visiting King penguins. We were told to keep a distance of 3m away at all times but it was pretty difficult as the penguins had decided to sit, lie, and nest on the path at various points across the island and some of them were as intrigued by us as we were by them!
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| Magellanic Penguins |
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| Penguin-tastic |
The scenery was absolutely stunning here. The first part of the hike was the Pampa Alta, which took me through some woodland glades, alongside a stream and culminated in a spectacular panoramic view of the mountains and the Beagle channel. Next I headed through fields of buttercups and daisies, past deserted Beavers’ dams, and came out on the Coastal Trail, which... well, took me along the coast. Again, a very beautiful wilderness, fringed with mountains, and with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves it was just stunning. Of course smart-phone photos can never do it justice, but I'm over that now. Honestly.
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| La Pampa Alta |
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| Fields of Buttercups |
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| The Coastal Trail |
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