Bienvenido a Ushuaia

Hello! I am here. in Ushuaia. Let me start by saying it is like no place I have been before. If given the opportunity, you should try to visit. The airport looks like a lodge up north with its wooden beams and tiny space. When you first arrive you will find that the city is completely surrounded by mountains and water. The Andes are to the west, mountains hiding a glacier (martial) are behind the city, and the rest is unbelieveable blue blue water engulfing little islands loaded with sea lions and penguins! This was so great to see considering in Buenos Aires the water is a muddy, sandy brown. I am beginning to realize that one of the main downfalls of this trip is going to be my lack of planning. However, I have no doubt that everything will fall into place.

So Thursday I went to Tierra del Fuego National Park. I met a French guy who was going so I tagged along with him. It was so pretty. I took many photos. We hiked 20km, so about 12 miles all day. It was medium difficulty. There is a sign at the end of the park that says el fin del mundo (the end f the world), the theme of Ushuaia. It also says Alaska is some 17800 km from this very point. Kinda cool...

Friday I went into the mountains behind Ushuaia and up to Glacier Martial. Let me tell you, I was not totally prepared for this difficult hike. The trail escalated at one point almost at a 40 degree angle, needless to say it was tough. I kept thinking about how aweful the walk down was going to be! It took me about two hours to hike up to an elevationof 1000m, I am not sure how long the actual path was. I think I did a pretty good job capturing the steepness, but probably not. At first I thought well that wasn´t that bad, but I found myself thinking, as I passed people headed up on my way down, "sucker". After the hike I decided that I would walk back to town, I was told (and what clearly was a miscommunication) by one of the french kids, that the way down was only 20 min. So then, I walked not for 20 min, but for 1hour and 20 min totaling another 2.5 miles down the mountain side into town. I thought it was a good idea becuase as I was making my decision to walk I saw a guy pass me and he was walking. I was a little ways behind him, so I figured, yup 20 min, and I followed. He cut down into a path between the winding roads, I followed , I then discovered that the dog that I had pet and sat next to at the end of the glacier trail was following me, cool, a companion! The dog walked ahead and the guy who I was following was now out of sight, so I followed the dog, who took me through another great shortcut between the roads! We get to another path, but this one is made of rocks and sand and was very steep. I stopped and thought, "make good decisions", but after walking down from the steep pathways that I had drug myself up at the galcier, I had little fear. After my first 2 steps I realized, bad idea bad idea!! I slipped a few times, but only suffered minor scrapes on my hands. Now after about 20 min the dog, my leader, had left me. I found another not so steep, compact path and took that for a ways, it proved to be very trustworthy and led me back to the beginning of residence on the mountain side. At this point I had been walking for about 40 min, and would-you-look-at-that, my dog is still there! I see the dog across the road still following me, I lost the dog here though becuase I found a ledge looking over the city that I could look at to see where the hell I was and where I needed to go. To finish a long story, I made it back t my hostal 40 min later, yup, I made it a total of 1hr and 20 mins later!! My legs were killing me, my things and my shins. Walking down a steep slope is no joke!

I wanted to leave today, Saturday, for Punta Arenas in Chile, but the bus was full. So I am kind of stuck here in Ushuaia for 2 more days. I take a bus on Monday at 5am. I am debating on going on a five day camping hike through Torres del Paine in Chile. Not sure I want to do 5 nights of camping, as it would require. But I am thowing it out there as something to do while in Patagonia. Patagonia is expensive. The food, transporation, and hostals are all over priced as compared to other parts of Argentina. This is a tourist area though, full of French people, really. Majority of the people in this hostal are French or Swiss. Everyone speaks French which is kind of frustrating, becuase I came here to speak Spanish, blah blah...

Thats all I have for now. I have been here 4 days and can only imagine how much more I have to see and learn in the next 60 days I have left here!

CHEERS!!!