El Fin del Mundo

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
~ Helen Keller ~

Ushuaia, Arengtina Saturday March 8, 5:50pm

Greetings from Tierra del Fuego, El Fin del Mundo! I´m in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world at the very bottom tip of South America. This is the town where cruises to Antarctica are based out of, many people in the hostels and pubs have either just arrived from their Antartica trip, or are just leaving. The town is wonderful, a bit touristy (but in a good way for the most part) surrounded by the incredible mountains of Tierra del Fuego and sits on the Beagle Channel.

Last you heard from me I was in Lima. I spent over 25 hours traveling down to Ushuaia, and I visited 5 different airports during those hours! The Lima airport was terrific- clean, amazing food, very safe and nice. Lan Chile was once again amazing, with great food. I arrived in the internatinal airport in Buenos Aires at 9:30 at night, and killed time at a cafe, chatting with loved ones on the internet, and finishing my book (One down!). I took a 2:30 am shuttle over to the domestic airport. It was just me and the driver and he took the long way (since I had time, and it was a fixed price) and gave me a night tour of Buenos Aires (en español). He asked if I preffered Obama or Hillary and we talked politics a bit. It was lovely. Buenos Aires looks incredible, and I´m looking forward to getting back there. My flight left at about 6am and I slept for maybe three hours on the flight. We stopped briefly in El Calafate and then continued to Ushuaia.

The landing was incredible! The landing strip is right next to the Beagle Channel, so it looks like you are going to be landing in the water! The mountains were gorgeous, and a huge arco iris (rainbow) filled the sky. It was a beautiful sign and I took it to mean that I was indeed in the right spot. It was a gorgeous sunny day and stepping out of the lovely small Ushuaia airport I was greated with the sight of Ushuaia, the mountains, the port . . . my heart sang!!

I took a cab to my hostel where I was greeted with happy jokes of "anna banana" and questions about my availability (single? married?). The hostel (Freestyle Backpackers) is fun, friendly, and filled with people. Its also clean and my bed (in a dorm of six bunks) is comfortable. So I checked in, took a shower and headed out to buy my bus ticket to Punta Arenas, Chile for Sunday. Then it was off on a five our Beagle Channel boat trip. Everything was gorgeous, the weather excellent and the views stunning!
(here i am on the boat with Ushuaia behind me)
We saw a sea lion colony and an island filled with penguins.

I met a number of very nice travelers on the trip, and wound up having dinner and going out to drinks with Ondrej from the Czech Republic and Maya and Shai from Israel. I had Argentinean steak for the first time and it was delicious! We went to the Irish pub near my hostel (because there are two Irish pubs in Ushuaia!) and the place was hopping. The bar had an R2D2 replica and I couldn´t not take a picture with it!


I excused myself a bit after midnight because I was exhausted, only to climb into bed and have a lovely conversation with the other folks in the room (where are you from? what did you do today? what do you do tomorrow?).

I woke up early to head out on a all day adventure that the hostel had suggested and booked for me. The guide´s name was Sebastian, and he looked almost exactly like Jude Law (I will share pictures as soon as I can). He is dating one of the girls who works the desk at the hostel, and she says she is only dating him because he looks like Jude Law. Anyway. Adventure.

So!! Four-wheeling craziness of muddy roads, almost turning the truck over, driving right into the lake (maybe to two or three feet deep) and just generally scary exciting stuff. I had taken my dramamine and I actually really enjoyed it. Part of the reason I had signed up for it was because it was a very not-Anna activity, but it was great. We had an amazing traditional Argentinian barbeque by the lake (Lago Fondado?? the whole way there are incredible amazing mountain views), with steaks, incredible hot sausage sandwiches and all the Malbec you could drink. A family of foxes lived nearby and we saw quite a bit of them while we were there. We also saw a falcon, and some amazing damage that beavers had done (not native to the area).



We got to walk around a bit by the lake, and that was a great chance for me to take some time to myself and enjoy how absolutely stunning the lake and mountains were. I chatted a lot with a couple from South Africa who were the only other English speaking folks on the trip. They are at the begining of a full year traveling through South America. It seems almost every backpacker I meet is traveling for at least a year (except the ones from the U.S., the most I´ve heard is five weeks for an American . . .other than me obviously!).

After the bbq we headed to Lago Escondido and went canoeing. I was paired with the only other solo travler, a young man named Jose from Mendoza. He had never canoed before and although he was very strong we wound up quite directionally challenged. It was still great fun.

Oh! And I tried matè for the first time. It tasted like the herbal teas I´ve concocted for upper respiratory conditions that everyone refuses to drink. So, not great. Not completely undrinkable though, I think it must be an acquired drug. Jude Law says its, " the most popular drug in South America" although I can´t quite figure out what properties it has. If any.



After the trip I came back the hostel and went to pick up some groceries for dinner. I met Karla from Australia (Canberra actually) who is heading to Antartica tomorrow. She is on either her second or third round the world adventure, and she books as she goes. She purchased her one way ticket from Sydney to Rio and will head back when she runs out of money (at least a year she thinks). In between traveling she lives with her parents and earns money for her next trip. She´s only 23. Her and I headed out to the Irish pub where we met Andrej from the night before. Things were rowdy and people kept buying us Argentinan Malbec so we stayed out late. We met a group of 8 men, mostly in their 60s and 70s who had just returned from a month long trip to Antartica on a very small yacht. The boat had had all sorts of problems, and at one point the skipper had to dive underneath to fix something. The men were all stir crazy from only talking to each other for a month and from almost dying a few times. Many of them were grand adventurers and had stories about climbing Mount Everest and other impressive things. We enjoyed hearing their stories!

At 2:15 am we thought we would head to the big party that started at 2:30 but in the end the cold and rain changed our minds and we went back to the hostel and to bed. I slept till 11 this morning!

Today I have taken it easy, doing laundry, visiting the museums, walking around town, booking a hostel for tomorrow night. I found a place that sells delicious empanadas for 3 pesos each, wish I had found that the first day!

Tomorrow I take a 7:30 bus to Punta Arenas, Chile. It will take 12 hours and part of that is on a ferry across the Strait of Magellan.

Generally, things are terrific, making friends, exploring beautiful places and eating delicious foods. It doesn´t get dark here till past ten at night, so I´m off to check out a shop that claims to have Santerìa supplies. Should be interesting!! Much love, besos,
Anna