Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Ushuaia - the End of the World

Ushuaia - "Fin del Mundo" (End of the World) was our last Patagonia stop - a little over 600 more miles and we'd be touching Antarctica. The town is a mix of new tourism and old village and the scenery went from mountains to lakes to farms to oceans.


The End of the Road!This is the end of the PanAmerican Highway inside the Tierra del Fuego National Park. It says Alaska 17,848 Km (roughly 11,000 miles)! (Our next road trip? Just kidding!)



Inside the park - Lapatia Bay heads out to the Beagle Channel.



Dramatic contrasts between the water, sky and glacier chiseled mountains.


A peat bog - spongy!


Lots of different type of birds - this seems to be a hawk of some sort.


4 groups of indigenous people lived here prior to Europeans - the Yamana were in Ushuaia.



A display from the Yamana museum showing how they lived in huts by the water- it was an egalitarian society (men and women shared power and duties) and only the women knew how to swim! It's only a little over 600 miles to Antarctica, but aside from a make shift loin cloth they never wore clothes! The guess is that their diet of seal (including it's blubber) helped to keep them warm.



We rented a car and drove out to see the Atlantic to a place called Cabo San Pablo - it was deserted and this eerie shipwreck lay on the shore.



Close up of the shipwreck - it had obviously been there for some time - very rusty.


As we were leaving Cabo San Pablo - it was a strange mix of farmland, forest, then coast - it was very windy and we felt very far away from the rest of the world.


The trees are green, but windblown at top - the branches are covered with moss and there is a fungus called "Chinese lanterns" that hang from the branches (see the bright green in the middle of the tree?).


These are guanacos - lama like animals farmers keep - they also are found in the wild high up in the mountains.



Our drive back - mountains rise up as you get closer to Ushuaia.


These guys were right outside the city with prime real estate viewing the mountains and the channel - they were friendly too!


A view of the Beagle Channel - it is huge! Massive cruise ships come and dock almost every day and tankers and naval boats are moored at docks in the bay.


The breakfast area of our hostel (Hostel Aonikenk) had a great view of the channel every morning.


Here is part of the view