Rare Adventures

Tag: ushuaia

  • Exploring “the end of the world” around Ushuaia

    Exploring “the end of the world” around Ushuaia

    Having travelled to the most southerly point in the Americas, it feels like you should so something significant to remember it. When I first planned the trip, I was hoping to stand on Cape Horn and see the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet as I had done in Africa. The problem with the southern tip of America is that it littered with little islands, so Cape Horn seems to be a bit more of an area than a specific point. 

    The same applies to the most southerly point, as the Beagle Channel is 200km long it is it along there somewhere. As the channel and surrounding mountain are the border between Argentinian and Chilean territory, there is a general disagreement on most things, so the Ushuaia claims the prize of most southerly point, but Chile has a village on one of the islands with a similar claim, but as it is an island it doesn’t count in my book.

    There are lots of tour companies in Ushuaia offering pretty much the same packages, either a cruise or a trip to the Tierra del Fuego national park. It is quite difficult to make sense of it all through Tripadvisor as the companies are all offering different sounding packages but they are the basically the same thing.

    The Beagle Channel cruises, this is the channel that separates Argentina from Chile, and giant catamarans ply the waters to 2 destinations. The first is the cruise to the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse out in the middle of the channel, the most southerly lighthouse in the world, then there are the all day cruises to the penguin colony way down the channel towards the Atlantic, so we chose the one to the lighthouse which was 3 hours.

    The Tierra Del Fuego national park trips were dressed up in many different ways, but basically it is minibus trip around the national park with something else. The big attraction if the “Train at the end of the World”, so we chose the 5 hour trip and the train ride. Other options included, canoes, rafts and even a game of golf, but it was still the same national park.

    Beagle Channel Cruise  

    We set off at 9am in a freezing cold wind blowing along the channel that separates Chile from Argentina.  The trip was sold out, mostly to  Germans doing a South Atlantic cruise, seemed a bit odd to get off a cruise ship and then go back up the same channel in a smaller ship.

    After bouncing around in the waves running down the channel, our first stop was a remote island and the last bit of land owned by Argentina, everything south of here is Chilean apparently. The landing was quite a surprise, the huge catamaran just ran up on the beach, and we all marched down the gangplank for the professional photo opportunity.

    Apparently, some guy decided to live on this island 100 years ago, and he must have been a very hardy soul, because it was freezing and very exposed even in spring or nearly summer.  We concluded he must have either been very unsociable or was kicked out of Ushuaia by the locals.

    Then we were back on the boat, with the wind behind us it wasn’t so rough as we ran with the waves. Next stop was a remote rock occupied by a range of seabirds, mainly cormorants and penguins, they made a spectacular sight. If you couldn’t see them, you could certainly smell them as the rock was covered in seabird poop that even the elements couldn’t clean up, we circled the rocks, so everyone got a good view and plenty of photos.

    The views along the channel were spectacular, the visibility improved as the day went on and we had a great view of the snow covered mountains on both sides of the channel.

    Next stop further up the channel was the most southerly lighthouse in the world. Once again it was a spectacular display of wildlife with the main difference being the sealion colony with occupied the rocky outcrops.

    The trip was about 3 hours in total and pretty good value for money as the views are unique.  We were very glad we didn’t commit to the 6 hour cruise to see the penguin colony, that must be a very long day in those conditions unless you are desperate to see a penguin colony.

    Opinion – must do having come all this way

    Here is a video of the highlights

    Tierra del Fuego national park.  

    This is the southern tip of Patagonia, and the tour took in some interesting places, but in general it was very similar to a lot of the other national parks we have visited in Patagonia, lakes and snow topped mountains and border disagreements with Chile.

    There are constant reminders of how remote this national park is, at the limit of civilisation and due to the wild conditions, the limit of human habitation. There were indigenous people here for thousands of years surviving in this wild climate, but they didn’t survive the arrival of the Europeans and their viruses.

    The start (or end) of the Pan American highway is one of the stops, it is difficult to imagine that this stretches all the way to the tip of Alaka, anyone cycling or driving to this point would probably wonder if it was all worthwhile, as it ends as a rough track, the last sign for the Highway 3 and a little plaque to commemorate your arrival.

    To be honest there isn’t a lot else to see, we dropped in to see the last Post Office at the end of the world, but apparently it is now shut. The postmaster is in his eighties and doesn’t turn up for work much, so wouldn’t recommend posting a card to anyone.

    The main event is the “Train at the end of the World”. Apparently, this was built by convicts who had been despatched to the penal colony back in the day. It wasn’t entirely clear why they built this railway as it doesn’t seem to go anywhere particularly useful other than the old prison, but it would certainly have kept the convicts busy for a few years.

    It is just a small gauge railway that trundles along a river, through some woods, stops off to look at a waterfall, and then tracks around the edges of a peat swamp that they are careful not to disturb and let off methane.

    If you have ever been to the Highlands of Scotland, you have seen everything this national park has to offer, in fact, one of the local jokes is that the Brits travelled all this was around the world to find the same weather conditions and scenery that they already had at home.

    Opinion – expensive, symbolic but not essential

    Here’s the video of our train ride

  • Highlights of a day in Ushuaia

    Highlights of a day in Ushuaia

    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.

  • Destination Argentina

    Destination Argentina

    Patagonia and Ushuaia here we come

    Nearly time to pack our rucksacks for the next adventure. This is a big one on our bucket list and has taken a lot of planning over the last few months.

    Anyone in their right minds would be using a travel agent, but that is too easy for us. It would hardly be Rare Adventures if we had someone organising us, just think of the things that could go wrong.

    This idea first came up from the BBC series “Race across the world“, when they travelled the length of South America. The scenery was so remote and beautiful that we decided we had to see Patagonia and the most southerly point at Ushuaia.

    In an ideal world we would like to have been doing more by road to enjoy the scenery, but the distances are so vast we will be using internal flights as our main form of transport. Wooksie has put a 1 month limit on the trip and we had to be home for Christmas, which apparently starts on the 1st December in her world, the schedule was a bit of a challenge,

    It is quite difficult to filter though the information on the internet, there is so much to trawl through and evaluate, but eventually we came up with this route. Driving or train would have been more fun but would have constrained us too much, and by using flights we can spend more time as the destinations.

    Image of the Lonely Planet guide to Argentina

    After all these years, and with all the online information, we still end up buying a copy of the “Lonely Planet” as a simple point of reference.

    Argentinian itinerary

    Here is our plan, or maybe more of a list of things that might happen!

    • 29th October fly from Bristol to Rio– with a change in Amsterdam with KLM, we spend 3 days enjoying the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, bars and having a look at Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain.
    • 2nd Nov we fly to Iguazu Falls – for trekking, 4×4 offroading and speed boating around the spectacular falls, it’s going to be a spectacular day.
    • 4th Nov we fly to Bariloche via Buenos Aires – this could be a bit tricky as it’s not a through flight but with a bit of luck we will arrive in the northern part of Patagonia and the Argentinian Lake District in the early evening. Trekking and adventures at altitude await us.
    • 9th Nov we fly to Buenos Aires – we then have 3 or 4 days getting to know the place and popping over to Montevideo in Uruguay.
    • 13th Nov we fly to El Calafate to spend 4 days trekking around the glaciers and mountains in the southern part of Patagonia.
    • 16th Nov we fly to Ushuaia to head to the most southerly point in South America and cruise around the Beagle Channel, unfortunately Wooksie didn’t fancy a cruise to Antarctica which is a disappointment.
    • 20th Nov we start our trip home with more stop overs in Buenos Aires and Rio before getting back for the end of November.

    We have lots of adventures and and scenery to explore d and will be posting regular updates on what has happened – onwards and upwards.