Week 12 – Ushuaia (Argentina) and Punta Arenas (Chile)

This blog entry will be about what happens at the end of the world (or rather its more southern corner) and it will be very short because other than being stunningly beautiful not much happens here at all, especially in sleepy towns with lots of tourist infrastructure but not to many tourists at all.

How long are the days at the end of the world?

When we arrived in Ushuaia on Tuesday (3/1/2012) after a long journey via Madrid and Buenos Aires we were exhausted and went to bed rather early and woke up late so I had no idea that the sun sets close to 11pm. I discovered it the next day when we walked to the hostel from the Irish pub ‘Dublin’ in the daylight! The following day I was wearing sunglasses at about 9pm. Incredible! On Saturday we walked at about 4:30am to the bus station to catch the 5am bus to Punta Arenas in the daylight looking at the still slightly pink clouds over the Beagle Channel. I realise that this is known fact that the days are longer at the southern-most end of the world but yet it felt sort of out of this world. I guess the long days are also a reason why the locals do not seem to eat dinner before 8pm, with restaurants still filling up long past 9pm. We just have to adjust our bodies to the new schedule.

What did we do on the long days at the end of world?

I never thought of myself as the wildlife aficionado or worst a birdwatcher. Yet, I wholeheartedly enjoyed a visit to the penguin island and a costal walk in Tierra del Fuego national park. Unlike more tourists in Ushuaia who take a long cruise through the Beagle Channel (named after the ship that Darwin sailed on) and see the penguins only from the boat and considering my aptitude for the seasickness we decided to take a different option with Piratour. It involved 1.5 hour bus ride to Estancia Harberton and only 15 minutes on the small boat to the Isla Martillo, with the colony of some 14 thousand Magellanic and a small colony of Papua penguins. This is the only tour in town with permission to walk on the island among the penguins. Our tour guide, Marcia, was really wonderful. The penguin families were now bringing up their little ones that were about 40 days old. It was very exciting to walk among those little families of 4 (Magellanic penguins have always 2 kids) and even more so among the 1 year old youngsters, who unable to nest, are just hanging out on the beach. I had to, however, contain the excitement not stress the penguins!

The next day we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, mindful of being out shape after long hours spent at the table at home at Christmas and New Year, we picked costal hike on the banks of Beagle Channel that did not ascent too much. Strangely enough, as we were walking the sun always shone when we were crossing the beach and the rain came when we were in the shelter of the Fuegian forest. Other than the lovely landscapes we saw a fox, rabbits, and black-necked swans and some other ducks. We ended our walk at the end of national route 3. You could say that this was the end of any roads in South American continent. And like anything at the end of the world, there was not much happening there, just the end of the road with a parking spot.

When we went to Punta Arenas, a sleepy town in Chilean Terra del Fuego (I think it is southern-most city in Chile) we decided to rent bicycles for two reasons; (1) to get back in shape a bit, (2) considering our post-Ushuaia budget shrinking we could not really afford another trip to the penguins, even though here it was the major attraction in town. We decided to cycle up to the forest above the town but failed to find the way. We could not really ask the neighbourhood dogs which seemed to be the only creatures we saw on the way. Cycling steep uphill on the gravelled street only confirmed how out of shape we were! So we returned and ended up cycling through town and some 15km south of town in the sun and wind along the Straits of Magellan. We had pick lunch on some deserted beach nested between fishing villages or rather cemeteries of really old ships.

What not to do when crossing the border between Argentina and Chile?

We took a regular bus from Ushuaia that was supposed to get us to Punta Arenas at about 4.30 pm after 11.5 hours. As if the scheduled time was not long enough we arrived some 3 hours later. Luckily (as noted above), the days are long here so we still had time to check into the hostel and have a nice dinner at local treasure restaurant La Marmita. Some of the delay was attributed to the busy border crossing with several buses arriving there at the same time at least 1 hour delay was because of 3 fellow travellers who decided to ‘smuggle’ 1 apple, 1 orange and 3 tangerines across the border. The border guards turned out to be very strict about and ended up writing them up with warning and detailed stamped reports on the smuggling. I guess there must be good reasons to for protecting own habitats, so for future reference please do not try to break the rules for your own and fellow passengers comfort!

After the border the ride was smooth. We had to cross the Straights of Magellan on the short ferry ride at Punta Delgada. Just to reaffirm that nothing happens at the end of the world, there was nothing to see from the ferry, just long stretches of water and a lighthouse closer to the shore. Not much happened on land either; just big fields with sheep, cows, occasional guanaco and a newly discovered birdwatcher in me spotted one nandu (sort of an ostrich known as rhia in English).

This is it for my account of nothing happening at the end of the world. Next week we continue to travel north to the world famous national parks Torres Del Paine in Chile and Los Glaciares back in Argentina. Another border crossing is awaiting us, hopefully smother this time.