Friday
April 27th- Day 58
I got
up nice and early to get in a taxi to the bus station by 6:30am since our bus
to Buenos Aires left at 7:15am. In Buenos Aires we grabbed a taxi to the
airport and waited around for our flight to Ushuaia. We were lucky ours was on
time, the other group left earlier and their flight was delayed out of the
other airport in BA. We arrived in Ushuaia around 6:15pm and our tour guide
Ruben picked us up, showed us a little scenic spot, and took us to our hostel.
He had already picked up the other group and talked with them for a while and he
offered to have us over for an asado at his home. We were all for it and he
picked us up a while later so we could get settle and then we hit up the supermarket
and get everything we needed. We had a great night at the asado and probably
stayed up a little too late for how early we need to be up in the morning.
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| One of our first views from the airport |
Saturday
April 28th- Day 59
We got
up early and ate breakfast in our hostel right away at 8:30 so Ruben could pick
us up around 8:45 to take us to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego (the
province where Ushuaia is located). We stopped at the train station first and looked
around and a few people took the Tren del Fin del Mundo (train to the end of
the world, everything here is ‘fin del mundo’ for the end of the world), and
the rest of us hopped back in Ruben’s van and he took us to one part of the
train track and we messed around for a while and then walked up to where the
train ends to wait for the girls on the train. After that we headed down to the
shore to a little bay area called Ensenada where the southernmost post office is
located and we took a little hike there and got some of our first gorgeous
pictures. It is crazy that in all our pictures some of the mountains are in
Argentina and others are in Chile. The morning was pretty chilly, so we liked
to keep moving in the different places. While at the shore we saw a red fox and
lots of sea lions. We then drove to the end of Route 3 with is a highway that
goes from Alaska to Ushuaia and there was a lookout point there we walked to
there as well. We stopped in at a little museum thing and saw some exhibits
about the Yaman people which were the natives of Tierra del Fuego and
unfortunately have all died out due to a variety of causes. After finishing up
in the park we drove back to the port to find out when our boat to sail the
Beagle Canal left and after a short wait we were ready to go. Ruben used to do
some of the boat tours so he was friends with the guys and got us a good deal
on a smaller boat so we could see more instead of being on one of the big
catamarans with a ton of other people. We first went to Isla Alicia where there
are a bunch of sea lions and then we saw the lighthouse at the end of the
world. I got some of my favorite pictures from the boat here. Then we sailed
past another island with sea lions and then went to another island where we got
off and hiked some, learned more about the Yaman people and then we headed back
into Ushuaia. Our group made spaghetti for dinner in the hostel and we hung out
for a while, but we were pretty well spent after the full day of things to do.
Maddie and I met another Kappa in our hostel and ended up meeting another one
after that, what are the chances of four Kappas being in the same hostel in
such a faraway place?!
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| Inside the National Park |
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| At the bay |
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| The lighthouse & of course the gorgeous background! |
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| On the boat sailing through the Beagle Canal |
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| All the group with our awesome guide, Ruben! |
Day 60-
Sunday April 29th
We got
to sleep in a little bit longer today and Ruben picked us up around 10am, we
stopped and got some food from the supermarket, and then we headed out to the
mountains. We stopped near a ski resort first and took a look at some peat moss
and then drove on up to a lookout point. Then we drove further up and Ruben dropped
us off to take a trail down to the lake we were headed to. We took our time
down and took a lot of pictures and climbed up to a waterfall and eventually
made our way down to Lago Escondido where we ate the lunches we packed. Instead
of going to a second lake like we planned, Ruben asked if we wanted to go
somewhere else cool and we all agreed to off we went through the mountains
again and then we parked in a lot and took a short walk to a viewpoint. It was
a gorgeous spot and the weather was perfect and we sat there for probably about
an hour. We made a game of throwing rocks at a dead tree and just chucking them
over a ledge and we all had a blast. As we were almost ready to leave we saw a
big bird flying and we were all hoping it was an Andean Condor, it got closer
and it turned out to be an águila mora (a kind of eagle), then suddenly we saw
and even bigger bird and it was a condor! We were really lucky to not only see
one, but two condors right before we left. When I was in Ecuador for May Term
last year we were looking for the Andean Condors on our bird hikes and never
saw one, so it was cool to finally get to see one here. Then we loaded back up
and Ruben took us back to the hostel. Maddie and I went on a little hunt to see
if we could find somewhere to get seafood, but there were a lot of places that
were closed and we weren’t liking the prices of the places that were open too
much so we went back to the hostel to share that information. Some people went
out to eat and the rest of us got pizza and empanadas and ate in the hostel
before playing some cards and turning in for the night.
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| Lago Escondido |
Monday
April 30th- Day 61
We
slept in a little today since we didn’t have any definite plans and it turned
out to be a rainy day. We went to the supermarket to get our groceries for the
next couple days because basically everything will be closed tomorrow for the
holiday which is like labor day. We walked around the shops again for a while
scoping out what we might want to buy before we leave and then we went back to
the hostel and made some noodles and soup and ate bread and dulce de leche for
lunch. Three of the girls had to leave for their flight home today so our group
went down to five in the afternoon. It was still raining so we camped out down
in the living room area of our hostel and plaed cards pretty much all day. It
finally stopped raining at one point and we decided we wanted to go climb the
glacier and got all ready really quick, but some people at the hostel told us
it was closed before we left so then we just changed back and played more cards
and journal in the living room. We made chicken stir fry for dinner and a fruit
salad for dessert and then we played more cards before bed.
Tuesday
May 1st- Day 62
We got
up early and rented bikes from our hostel so we could ride to the National Park
again for a little adventure. We left the hostel around 9:30 and made it to the
entrance of the park around 11am with some sore butts. It was a tough ride, but
all the fresh air felt so good to breathe after spending two months in the
city. We went down to the bay again and ended up running into Ruben with a
group of tourists. Unfortunately, it was a very steep downhill to the bay, so
to get back to the road it was a very steep uphill. I walked my bike up that baby,
because it was not gonna happen! Our mountain bikes were not too high quality,
but I don’t think I could’ve made that one on my bike from home either. When we
made it back up to the road we rode a little ways and then parked our bikes and
took a trail up to a nice viewpoint. It was about a 45 minute hike or so and we
ate our lunch up there. Unfortunately during our packing process we forgot most
of our lunch when we switched bags so we had a banana for a snack at one point
then realized at the top of this view point we only had plain bread and orange
juice. We forgot all the cookies, granola bars, and the dulce de leche. Fail.
After taking in the view for a bit we started to get cold and hiked back down.
We were tired and running out of time so we decided against riding our bikes to
the very end of Route 3 so we started the trek back to the hostel. It is 12km from
Ushuaia to the entrance of the park and we’re not sure how much we biked into
the park, but we’re guessing we biked about 30km in total. We got back around
3:30pm and we were worthless at night. We made some delicious burrito bowls for
dinner since the store didn’t have tortillas and we headed to the living room
to use the wifi and journal.
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| Maddie, Susan, and I (Nathan as photographer) on our way to the National Park on bikes! |
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| A look down Route 3 |
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| The hiking trail we took to Pampa Alta |
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| Ushuaia |
Wednesday
May 2nd- Day 63
The day
we were all dreading, having to leave :( We got up at a decent time for
breakfast and then went down to the shops to get our souvenirs and things since
all the shops would finally be open after the holiday weekend and then we took
a cab up to the glacier and hiked for a bit and then came back down. The
glacier in Ushuaia isn’t too spectacular, in a different part of Argentina
there is a really beautiful glacier, but we didn’t have the time and money to
make it there. My version of the glacier here: it used to be covered in ice and
was a glacier, but now there is just a small remnant and it pretty much looks
like a mountain with a little extra ice. We took a cab back down to our hostel
and we got everything packed up before we had to get to the aiport. We flew out
around 6pm and just missed the sunset like we had coming in on the plane. We
landed in BA at 10pm and waited for our bags and took the taxi to the bus
station and bought tickets to Rosario to finish up our nice vacation!
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| Glacier Martial |
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| Vey last view of Ushuaia from the airport :( |
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