Ushuaia, Argentina

Ushuaia otherwise known as the Southern most city in the world was our first stop on our Patagonian leg of the trip. We flew three and a half hours from Buenos Aires to the Southern tip of Argentina. Our first glimpse of Tierra del Fugo was the snow capped peaks from the plane’s window as we came in over the Beagle channel.

Ushuaia is a small city and due to it’s location credentials is one of the main departure points for cruises to Antarctica. For those lucky enough to visit the 7th continent they prefer the term ‘expedition to cruise! 🙂 We visited here in early November at the start of the cruise season but even still there were two ‘last minute deals’ on offer at $4500 and $6000 per person. Aside from the cost we didn’t have the days in our itinerary.

Antartic hostel was our first dapple into dorm accomodation. The centrally located hostel had a chef style kitchen and a ski lodge vibe. The popular hostel dictated the duration of our stay in Ushuaia as we could only book two nights at short notice. Throughout our stay in South America we mainly booked just a day or two prior but more forward planning was needed for Patagonia despite it not yet being high season.

We spent our days exploring the “city” on foot and found interesting museums, shops, bars, and cafes where people awaiting their expedition departure, pass the time before setting off for the icy land mass. We really got a sense of being at the “end of the world” despite Ushuaia having a northern hemisphere equivalent in latitude to Monaghan!:).

For our own adventure we decided to take a boat tour of the Beagle Channel where new world explorers first found a safe passage around the Americas, and soon after Charles Darwin made his way to study the animals and botany of this unexplored land. The morning tour we booked was cancelled due to weather but luckily the winds died down and the afternoon tour went ahead. We took a boat out to the lighthouse at the end of the world via an island full of penguin lookalike birds called cormorants, and an island full of noisy sea lions. It was amazing to get so close to the animals as the photos can attest to and it was refreshing not to be surrounded by ten other boats all trying to do the same thing. The lighthouse itself is not particularly impressive and not even the most southerly located lighthouse, as that title belongs to the lighthouse at Cape Horn, but this is famed for being the end of world lighthouse due to the cover of an English novel based in the area. Though it is now automated, as recently as the mid 20th century a lighthouse keeper used to live on this rock for months at a time to help boats navigate the narrow channel safely.

On the way back we stopped off for a brief hike on a nearby island with amazing views of the city and Beagle Channel. Along the hike we learned about the Yamanna people (indigenous people of the region) who rather than making clothing from the animals they hunted, would use the animal oil to keep their skin from getting wet. They lived in hollows to avoid the harsh winds and moved from island to island throughout Southern Patagonia. They survived like this for thousands of years until European whalers, miners, and explorers came and brought with them diseases. At the time of writing this, there is only one surviving Yamanna woman who is aged in her late 80’s and is helping to write a dictionary to preserve her people’s language for future generations.

We finished off a cold and windy few days at the end of the world with a trip to the lively and cosy ‘Dublin’ bar. The authentic feel Irish bar is the nightlife of the city and despite the owner having no connections to the Emerald Isle he has perfecting encapsulated Irish bar culture on the Southern tip of Argentina. We drank craft beer and chatted to locals. We even got our first introduction to fernet and coke, a national institution with a strong medicinal taste. Unfortunately, for us it would not be our last encounter with the spirit but more about that later.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Patagonia is a geographical area South of the Colorado river that covers both Argentina and Chile. If travelling by bus it is inevitable that you will journey through both countries as you traverse the large area. After Ushuaia the next stop on our Patagonia tour involved crossing the border into Chile and the city of Punta Arenas. In order to do that by land it involves crossing the Magellan Straits by ferry. For us, what ensued was an ordeal of a bus journey as we were left waiting for over 4 hours on the Argentinian side of the strait waiting for the winds to subdue so we could cross. Apparently it’s a regular occurrence at the exposed crossing but high winds coupled with no food (the Chilean border is extremely strict on bringing in food stuffs so we had minimal snacks for what ended up been a 14 hour journey) made for an unpleasant wait. Luckily we didn’t have to spend the night on the bus and the gales stilled allowing us to continue on to our final destination. After a tiring day we arrived to the lovely and comfortable Hostal Aventura Austral. Located a bit away from the main centre, the family run establishment provided a homely stay for three nights (not to mention the breakfast was the best and most generous in our stay in South America). Most people bypass the Chilean city but we enjoyed a pleasant few days exploring the squares and the Museo Regional de Magallanes. We made sure to visit the statue of Magellan in the main square and rub his over-sized left foot to ensure we will return to Patagonia one day (that Antarctic cruise has made it onto the bucket list!).

The main reason for visiting the city is it’s proximity to one of the largest penguin colonies in the world – Isla de Magdalena. Unfortunately, the weather which had already disrupted our trip continued to cause ruckus as the trips were cancelled for two days straight. Intent on seeing the penguins and enjoying the comforts of our accommodation we extended our stay for another night in the hope that the weather would calm permitting the boat trips to resume. We planned to take the half day tour and then continue onto Puerto Natales in the afternoon. So, on our last day we woke up early and headed to the pick-up point only to be disappointingly told the trip had been cancelled yet again. Having already checked out we raced to the bus station and took the next available bus to our next destination – Puerto Natales. Despite the disappointment of not seeing the penguins we enjoyed our time in the small city and having guaranteed our return by rubbing Magellan’s foot, hopefully we’ll catch the penguins next time.

Puerto Natales, Chile

Onward we traveled to Puerto Natales, another Chilean town a couple hours North of Punta Arenas. The town itself was smaller than our previous destinations but like the others had quaint, manicured squares and was located on the water’s edge. Most people visit because it is the main tourist base for trips to the Torres Del Paine National park. The park which is most renowned for the Circuit trek and the W trek (so called for the shape the route takes through the park) is one of the most visited parks in Chilean Patagonia. This year was the first time that the treks had to be pre-booked, as they anticipate that the number of visitors to the park will increase from 250,000 to 400,000 this Summer alone. As we journeyed through Patagonia we saw lots of signs of construction and expansion in the region, a clear indication of the growth in popularity of the area as visitors swell year on year, ironic really given that people visit because of its wilderness.

Torres Del Paine itself is vast and full of diverse landscapes featuring glaciers, forests, lakes and waterfalls all framed by a mountainous backdrop. We didn’t have the time or equipment to do any of the multi day treks so instead we settled for a day trip to the park taking in the highlights. Geographically the park is one of the largest in Chilean Patagonia, so most short term visitors like us take guided tours by bus. Not quite the same experience or physical exertion as hiking the W or Circuit but it worked with our schedule.

We booked the standard day trip which picked us up from our accommodation. On route to the park entrance we stopped at Milodon Cave where prehistoric remains of the now extinct Milodon (giant sloth like creature) were discovered by European explorers. Personally we felt the large cave itself was more interesting then the replicas of the long dead animal for which the cave is now called.

After the brief stop we were back on the bus to head into the actual park. The weather of the day we visited was typical of early Summer in Patagonia – pleasant and temperate but easily changeable as we discovered. Unfortunately, the cloud cover meant that we didn’t glimpse the park’s famous three granite towers in the background at any point during the day but the rest of the incredible scenery made up for it. My lasting image of the park will be the incredible lakes -a changing kaleidoscope of greens and blues caused by the mineral content of the glaciers and the way the light refracts off the water. In the afternoon, after a picnic lunch on the shore of one of the many azure lakes, we got our first glimpse of a glacier. We hiked the short distance to the pebble beach on the grey lake and saw glacier grey in the distance. Floating in the lake was a number of bright blue icebergs that had cleaved from the glacier. We were in awe of our first encounter with a glacier and its off-spring (in the following days it would be easily overshadowed by the incredible Perito Moreno) and ignored the ominous clouds that had crept in. As we dashed back to the bus in the harsh winds and horizontal rain we were glad to be on the way back to solid shelter and hot showers rather than crawling into a tent!

We only stayed two nights in Puerto Natales. Our park entrance ticket was valid for three days which we would loved to have made use of but although Puerto Natales is the closest main town it still is over 100km from the park and takes two hours by bus. Rather than make a four hour return trip to do a day hike we continued on to places like El Chaltén which have more easily accessible trails, this and the rest of our Patagonia trip is detailed in the next post…