Mas austral del mundo

A few weeks ago our group went to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world located in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province. After 3 hours on a plane, we broke through the clouds and the snowcapped mountains were so close it seemed like we could reach out and touch them. I've flown over snowy mountains before, but something about being so close to Antarctica (800 miles!) made it different this time!

Leaving mi querido Buenos Aires!

 Arriving en la ciudad mas austral del mundo!

We arrived at the tiniest airport outside of Alexander City and jumped in a van to our hotel. The city of Ushuaia has about 50,000 people and thrives on tourism and manufacturing household appliances. It has a small town feel and is full of souvenir shops and un monton of restaurants competing for who can serve the biggest, best king crab in town. Too bad I can't comment on the king crab, food in Ushuaia is expensive to say the least.

"The Malvinas are and always will be Argentina's." Falkland War, google it. But in Argentina, NEVER call them the Falklands.

"Culo" = umm, bottom :)

We were only there for two full days but we saw so much during that time! The first day we went for a ride on the 'tren al fin del mundo' (train to the end of the world) and disembarked in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. In its early days, Ushuaia was a penal colony but through the years it morphed into a town that now boasts a strong tourism industry. The prison was closed in the 1940s. Prisoners in Ushuaia rode el tren al fin del mudo to and from the forests where they cut the wood for the prison's furnaces. The prison didn't have problems with escape attempts- after a day or two in the bitter cold, escapees returned begging for shelter and food. Claro!

I took this photo for my Granny because she gave me this jacket at least 10 years ago and my Land's End actually made it to land's end!

The dead trees are ones that were cut by prisoners.

After the parque, we went on a boat tour of the Beagle Channel. Luck was on our side because no one bought tickets for the VIP area (enclosed top part of the boat with big comfy seats, free coffee, alfajores, pepas and heat!) which had 16 seats, our group had 16 people and the ticket taker was an angel! We set off into the channel and the view was AMAZING. It was a four hour trip and the highlight was definitely the penguins! But the sea lions, mountains and flag waving in the wind were amazing also!

2 more minutes and I may have frozen in this position.

Those aren't penguins but those ARE sea lions!

Not what I was expecting of a penguin colony but it is summer here. C'est la vie!

The next day we toured the lake district. This was a lot of fun too although I wish we hadn't been in a van 90% of the day.  We were itching to move around and get away from our tour guide who insisted on being snappy with the driver. 'Rapido, rapido boludo! Adelante como te dije, dale dale dale!' Excuse me lady but we are hanging on the side of a mountain in damn near Antarctica in a van with wheels the size of paper plates, let this man drive as slow as he wants! Pobrecito Roberto! I digress. We ventured to the end of Ruta 3- the road that starts in BsAs and stretches to Tierra del Fuego. Southernmost point in the Americas: check! We continued on our tour stopping along the way for photo shoots and lunch at the weirdest-coolest-market-exotic bird reserve-museum-bakery-all-in-one-type-sort-of-I-don't-know-what-it-was-place. 

Kelsie enjoying the weirdest market/bird refuge/museum/bakery!

Then we returned to the hotel, packed our bags and headed back to Buenos Aires! Ushuaia was a lot of fun but I think it would be interesting to see it in-season. Then again, I hate cold weather so who knows!

Back to mi querido Buenos Aires!