Ushuaia is that last bit of civilisation before you get to Antarctica, the tourist industry calls it the end of the world, and it certainly is the end of the road, the pan American Highway 3 starts or ends here depending on which way you are heading.
Ushuaia is a wild and windswept place surrounded by towering snow covered mountains all around it, with the Beagle Channel separating Argentina with Chile just across the straights. Coming into land was a bit of an experience with a 70mph wind behind us and no sign of land until you hit the runway, in our case, with a bit of a bump.
We had a nice little place called Hotel Austral the room even had a heated floor to keep us warm, and it was no coincidence that our hotel was located next to the Dubliner Irish Bar, this seemed a great idea until they all piled out at 2am singing.
I’ve now been to the most southerly point of 5 of the 7 continents and this is without doubt the wildest, Cape Horn is on an island about 50 miles away on one of the myriads of islands they provide the barrier between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, Antarctica is about 800 miles south and there are winds that reach 150mph.
Ushuaia is the capital of the Malvinas, part of which includes the Falkland Islands, so we were not too sure how Brits would be greeted in this area. However, we had no need to be concerned as the locals were very friendly and welcoming, that having been said, I wouldn’t advise wearing a Union Jack t shirt and we left our England rugby bobble hats at home. The war is basically a subject to be left alone and generations tend to move on.
Ushuaia has found it’s way into the global tourist industry by virtue of building a cruise liner port that is the stop off for trips to the Antarctic, it has also built an amazing airport on a spur of land that juts out into the Beagle Channel and is very exposed to the elements.
The end of November is the start of their summer, and it is cold and windswept, so it is difficult to imagine how desolate it must be in the winter. It is a major skiing centre, nearly all the shops are dedicated to skiing and outdoor sports, but the Argentinian skiers must be hardy souls as this is the equivalent of skiing in the Arctic, like the Norwegians!
Ushuaia is basically one long waterfront, which has been adapted to cope with cruise visitors near the key. Unlike Mediterranean cruise ports, there is no bargain gold or watches shops, a few souvenirs are about it. The cruise clientele coming through are made of hardier stuff as they are on their way to Antarctica.
It is also home to a very dull museum and a Hard Rock Cafe, that wasn’t exactly bouncing either.
Running parallel to the waterfront is the main shopping street, another very long street with all the shops interspersed with coffee and cake shops, eating to stay warm seems to be the local pastime.
There is a notable lack of bars anywhere. Apart from our local Irish Bar we only found one other proper bar, and that was our old favourite from El Calafate the Patagonian Brewing Company again.
We worked out that, due to its location, it was almost certainly the most southerly bar in the Americas, so we grabbed the table in the window, which made it the most southerly table, and had a beer to celebrate drinking in the most southerly, place and followed up with more beers and a lamb burger to fully celebrate reaching the end of our journey south.
To be honest, there isn’t much to do in Ushuaia other than walk along the waterfront and get a few photos. We visited a museum that was utterly boring and reflected a history of hard labour as a penal colony and the indigenous people who were largely wiped out by the arrival of the Europeans and their ailments.
There is a poignant reminder of the Falklands War, with images of the Argentinian troops occupying the islands. For me, it was very sad to see the images of young conscripts, brave and totally ill equipped on a mission to regain what they saw as their national territory. The problem was that the British naval forces, supported by some of the best paratroopers and commandoes in the world were on their way to reclaim it, so there was only ever going to be one outcome.
The main trips are the Beagle Channel and the Tierra Del Fuego national park, which I will cover in a separate blog.
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