One Month in Patagonia (4th November - 7th December 2009)

Chapter II: Welcome to the end of the World

2am, Buenos Aires downtown; Friday 6th November.

There is potentially nothing worse then an early wake up after a sleepless day, that is especially true when that early wake up is really at the middle of night, not the early hours of the morning.

So here we were, dragging ourselves to a 2nd Buenos Aires airport that is a hub for internal flights, and by 530 am we were on our way to our first destination in Patagonia - Ushuaia, in Tierre del Fuego (the Island of fire), the tip of the world, the most southern city in the world on the southern tip of South America, and the place from which cruises leave to Antarctica (sadly I wouldn't be joining, I'd love too!).

It was another 3 hour flight, for most of the time the view was good, there was a memroble moment when we saw in the distance the Pacific ocean and then below us the Atlantic ocean and all that is between the two. We also had a steward who could easily find work as a Barack Obama look-a-like. He was so similar, he even had the wit

and all conquering smile to go with it to. I have a feeling he knew he looked like Obama and was there for happy to play the part! joking as he was with the passengers.

We got to Ushuaia, at around 11 am, it reminded me of Tromso in Norway.

As it is nestled between snowy mountains, while having a

canal as access (Beagle channel, side note 1) and it is a town

that is becoming more and more of a tourist hive - with Antarctic

tourism its centrepiece in reality and being "the end of the world"

in marketing terms.

We walked the length and breadth of town and my travel mate

caused an car accident... Ill explain - We saw what is probably

the single traffic light in Ushuaia and my travel mate said -

"why on earth do they need a traffic light here", I replied -

"Maybe because some drivers tend not to be careful when you

drive down this T junction", Ran replied - "no way", one minute

later there was an accident for that percise reason (no one was

hurt, but the cars were damaged) - I immidiatly laid the blame

of the accident on my travel mate and told him he brought bad

karma... he couldnt really argue with my accusation and

admitted guilt.

After causing road accidents, we decide to look at what other

activities to do the next day, there were a number of options

such as going on a cruise to an island with much marine life on

it, climbing up a mountain to get a good view of the beagle canal

and walk up to a glacier or just visiting the local (and small)

museums. Our original plan was to leave Ushuaia on Sunday in

order to be as early as possible in Puerto Natales (Chile) and

prepare for the long hike we planned in Torres del Paine,

However - we discovered that there were no buses on Sunday,

so it would have to be Monday. "Armed" with an extra day in Ushuaia, we decided that on Saturday morning we would climb up the snowy mountain to get a glimpse of the Beagle canal and on Saturday afternoon we would take the cruise, leaving us with a whole day in Sunday to spend the day hiking at the local national park. Last but not least, an early night was in order as it was to be a first proper night sleep after two half slept nights.

8pm, Ushuaia (Tierre del Fuego, Patagonia, Argentina), Saturday 7th November

After working out a schedule the previous evening, we set about to undertake it. The first thing we did in the morning was reserve our place in the cruise, then we set about to walk up the snowy mountain. We were beginning to realize why we were warned from the weather at the southern parts of Patagonia - it is indeed unpredictable, it changed from wet to dry, cloudy to clear at a five minute pace it seemed. By the time we came back down from the snowy mountain, the canal became rough from the wind and the cruise was cancelled. We decided to postpone it to the next day once we heard that the national park (which was planned for the next day) was not a good option either as due to the wet weather it had become bogged and difficult to walk in. The cruise only taking one half of the day, we decided that the other half we would spend on a different activity, that wasn't planned for Ushuaia - looking at Penguins. We became obsessed with the idea as we arrived in Ushuaia and discovered there were some penguins around, it would also save us time (as otherwise it would mean spending a day in Punta Arenas, Chile) and we just had to see them - I mean, if your going to travel all the way to "the end of the world" you might as well... not to mention the fact that my friend's grandfather told him before he left "don't go chasing penguins" which off course meant he had to go chasing penguins! (though to be honest, between us I was the main pro-penguin watching motivator, and as soon as he told me what he's grandfather told him, I told him - "you realize it is a matter of principle now that you must chase penguins").

8am, Ushuaia, Sunday 8th November

There is nothing quite impressive as waking up to a rude amount of snow downfall. We woke up to find Ushuaia covered under a blanket of snow. Our first thoughts were that all cruises for the day would be cancelled and that we would leave Ushuaia the next day without seeing penguins or other marine life. The snowfall began to slow, and we went to the harbour area to discover that as a matter of fact, not all cruises were cancelled - those with large vessels were still very much going. The cruise we were booked for was cancelled and so we went on a different cruise, with more people and a different destination but one that would cover the marine life we wanted to see and would include Penguins.

The vessel, a medium sized catamaran, left at around 10am, soon enough we were out of Ushuaia harbour and heading east on beagle canal. Our first stop was a rocky island which was home to a large colony of Cormorant's, or as I like to call them - fake penguins due to the similarities (I'm pretty sure evolutionists have looked into this). The next stop seemed not that far ahead, a symbol of ushuaia (even though not in its city limits) - the ushuaia lighthouse. However, just short of the lighthouse, we "met" another local marine life - sea lions, living on a rock no bigger then an average living room, they didn't seem to care much for us cruising in, instead they went on with their routine "work day" - resting on the rocks, swimming and looking for food or just playing. The stench the sea lions have is quite staggering - we we're 30 meters away, it was raining with strong gusts of wind and yet we could still smell their awfull stench quite well.

We cruised on to the ushuaia lighthouse and found there another Cormorant colony - this one a much smaller one of rock Cormorant's. We then went on cruising for around 90 minutes, passing on the way, Puerto Williams, which is on the Chilean side of Tierre del Fuego and is in fact a more southern spot then self dubbed "end of the world" ushuaia, I guess the ushuaia city council simply employed some marketting people to turn itself into a "location" and the fact that ushuaia is also a port for vessels leaving to Antarctica no doubt helps.

Finally we arrived at a beachy island, home to a small colony of magallenic pinguins just back from Brazil for the Antarctic spring in order to mate and take care of the newly born. There is indeed something extremely "cute" about pinguins - the way they walk, or get close one to another or just their shape. We spent around 15 minutes with the penguins, which wasn't enough really and then and cruised over to a nearby ranch built by an Englishman that settled here over 100 years ago , the ranch was nice - had a small forest home to a wood pecker, and then some old farmhouse sheds but quite frankly I would much rather had spent longer with the pinguins and at the expense of ranch time. I guess the fact the ranch owns the land that the pinguins use has to do with the travel schedule and with the fact that they "force" penguin visitors to go to the ranch.

We got back to ushuaia in the evening in time for supper, as it was our last night in ushuaia we went out to, what was, an empty restaurant. The owner got chatty with us and once she learned we we're Israeli's she turned enthusiastic as she liked Mediterranean music and told us a couple of belly dance students are booked for dinner later. Indeed, these belly dance students arrived and I'm not sure if they planned to or if they were asked, but they started belly dancing near our table... I only had question to ask (which wasn't asked) - how on earth, do you find belly dance teachers at the end of the world.