Oh for some heat and humidity! We’ve been cursing it for two months, but it wasn’t long after a 3,000 km flight south from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia at the very bottom of Argentina (and South America) that we began to long for a little bit of that warmth. The bulge at the bottom of our backpacks that until now has been just a dead weight has gone; our cold weather gear is out – waterproof coats, beanies, thermals and gloves. Being so far south, and in mid-summer, the days are long; the sun’s up at 5 am and twilight continues until nearly midnight.
In fact Ushuaia is the most southerly city on earth, perched on a bit of flat land and slopes between the Andes mountains to the north, and the Beagle Channel to the south. With a population of around 70,000, it appears on the surface to be primarily a tourist town, brimming with international visitors and cafes, and outdoor clothing, hiking, tour and skiing shops. In summer a constant stream of small ice-strengthened Antarctic tourist ships come and go from the docks. In winter, attention turns to the mountains with their cross-country ski fields and steep downhill runs.
Ushuaia has a couple of other big industries not so immediately visible. The stacks of freight containers at the docks contain electronic parts made in China, to be turned into cell phones and laptop computers in factories on the outskirts of the city, and out at sea there is a big gas industry tapping the huge offshore discoveries of recent years.
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The day after our arrival the sun came out and we hiked up to Martial Glacier perched 3,000 feet above sea level in the mountains overlooking Ushuaia. It was hot work in the cold wind, but a good bracing walk with great views around and back down over Ushuaia. It’s mid-summer here now, and the glacier is currently in its most piddling manifestation for the year, little more than a large frozen pond. But come winter, it’s a massive ice block creaking down the U-shaped valley. It was actually the glacier that gouged out the whole valley, in ice ages eons ago. We had a picnic lunch and rest at the top before retracing our steps back down along the creek, then riverside track.
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Last Friday we took a bus tour north east from Ushuaia towards Rio Grande, through mountains, forests of beech and peat bog country. Our route took us along a pass through the Andes and on to 100 km-long Lake Fagnano, ending in the small sawmilling town of Tolhuin, home to one of the largest bakeries we’ve ever seen. A bagful of beef and vegetable empanadas and sweet pastries came back onto the bus with us. Lupins seem to grow well in these parts – they were everywhere.
On another day we visited the nearby Tierra del Fuego national park, but the weather was so bad we could barely see outside the bus windows, let alone any of the scenery. A much more rewarding afternoon was spent in the excellent large Ushuaia Maritime Museum, housed in an old jail (in its early days Ushuaia, like several Australian cities, was a penal colony). The museum has extensive displays and exhibits relating to the local history and fauna, early whaling industry and Antarctic expeditions, and the more recent gas industry. It has many beautiful, finely-crafted model ships from bygone eras on display. Well worth visiting.
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And yesterday, our final activity in Ushuaia was a day-long boat journey 50 km down the Beagle Channel, named after the boat used by early explorer in these parts, Fitz Roy. On board Beagle with Fitz was scientist Charles Darwin whose observations and thoughts during the voyage helped to fashion his theory of evolution. Our own boat trip down the channel was great; it was superbly photogenic with a lot of interesting wildlife. The highlight came at the farthest point from Ushuaia; a beach teeming with Magellanic penguins. Then we spotted two King Penguins, a much larger penguin species, emerge from the bushes and join the throng. A fantastic end to the trip. It’s easy to spend a week in Ushuaia – and we did.
