Ushuaia, End of the Earth

(Click on pictures to expand)

Ushuaia calls itself “The City at the End of the Earth.” And it is. It’s 1500 miles south of Buenos Aires and about 700 miles from northern Antarctica.

We had previously been to Chile’s southernmost city, Punta Arenas (which I wrote about here), and that trip inspired us to risk going further south. I say “risk” because Ushuaia is notorious for storms, sometimes so strong that ropes are stretched along sidewalks to hold on to. We would be going in midsummer, early February, but even then daily highs average 55° F. and rain is expected on about half the days. But Santiago was having the hottest summer ever, including a record high of 100°, so cooler weather sounded good. 

We flew out on Feb. 6; 1 ½ hours to Buenos Aires and another 3 ½ to Ushuaia, dropped through the low cloud cover and rain into the modern airport. A 15 minute taxi ride took us to the Patagoina Villa, where we had reservations for 6 nights.  The Villa includes a large lodge and several cabins.  Our cabin, right, had a fully equipped kitchen and bath down stairs and a bedroom above.

Breakfast was self-serve with breads, cereal, milk, yogurt, coffee and coffee maker and spreads restocked each evening.  A well-stocked refrigerator, wine rack and snack basket with prices not much above local stores offered other temptations.

We enjoyed our time there and especially appreciated the friendly service and good advice on what to see from owner Luciana, her son Gino and manager, Manuel.

We got up the next morning, pleasantly surprised to see blue sky, dotted with white (not grey) clouds, and walked into town; about 15 minutes—downhill.  

Ushuaia, capital of the Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur, is a new city.  The area’s first European inhabitants were English missionaries who arrived in 1869 to Christianize the indigenous Yaghan population.  In 1873 the appropriately named Argentine President, Julio Argentino Roca, recommended that a prison be established there, and in 1896 it was.  The prisoners’ labor built the town, the railroad that delivered construction materials, and the prison which operated until 1947.  At that time the town had about 2200 residents. Today’s population is about 60,000, supported largely by electronics assembly, gas and oil extraction and tourists.

We only saw the tourism, but plenty of that. Our first day’s activity was a walk along main tourist street, Avenida San Martín and a return one block down along the street bordering the coast. San Martín is filled with the usual souvenir shops, restaurants, upscale clothing shops, tour agencies, etc.; worth a walk through but relatively uninteresting unless your stack of penguin t-shirts is running low—which of course, with 5 grandchildren between us, ours was.

Returning via the coastal street was more interesting.  We passed the Plaza Isla Malvinas honoring the Argentine heroes of the Falklands Islands war.

The text says “The people of Ushuaia to those who… watered the roots of our sovereignty with their blood.  We shall return!!!”  This 1982 war, which Jorge Luis Borges likened to “two bald men fighting over a comb,” took 749 Argentinean and 255 British lives.  

The walk along the Beagle Channel water front provides a nice view:

...of the cruise ships.  These were (left to right) Quark Ocean Endavor  (200 passengers) the Sea Princess (2400), the Fram (318), and the Hanseatic (127).  According to the port schedule 14 cruise ships arrived while we were there.  Over 100,000 tourists visit each year, mostly from cruse ships.

…their passengers waiting for bus tours

...and the tour boats.

 …and of the city and Glaciar Martial where we went the next day.

The next morning was clear and cool again, so we took a taxi to the start of the ski run/trail leading up to the glacier. One of us found the going a little slow, but the view was great.

And even better at the top… or almost at the top.  It was another strenuous 45 minutes’ walk to the glacier at 1,050 meters (3,445 feet).  We declined.

Fortunately there was a refugio at the bottom.  Does someone look tired?

Almuerzo, was next.  Ushuaia is known for its merluza negra (Chilean sea bass, aka Patagonian tooth fish), centolla (king crab) and lamb, and this was my day for lamb.

Unfortunately, food is expensive in Ushuaia, at least by South American prices.  Our lunch for two was $50 US with an order of lamb (delicious), a grilled chicken breast, salad, French fries, bottled water, a half bottle of wine; + tip (10%) extra. If you order Chilean Sea Bass or King Crab you can expect up to double that, or you can spend a little less, $30 to $40 for pasta, local trout, milanesas (breaded cutlets), etc.  Pizza, empanadas, burgers will be less, though expensive.  

After almuerzo we visited the Museo del fin del Mundo, an interesting if unremarkable museum with a good display of the fauna of Tierra del Fuego (photo Wikipedia) and a little video room with films of explorers and indigenous Fueguinos.  Good place to spend some time sitting instead of walking.

The next day we went to the National Park, west of Ushuaia a few miles and stretching to the Chilean border.

The tour began by taking us to the fin del mundo train station where we waited with an international crowd from the cruise ships: Japanese, Australians, Brazilians, French, Americans, Chileans, Germans and even a few Argentinians. 

Then it was on to the trains.  

The tracks follow the Pico River up the valley for 7 km

Stopping about half way for photos. 

The 1931 photo shows prisoners with the one of the original steam locomotives.  The train ran until 1952 and was reconstituted as a tourist attraction with rebuilt tracks and new steam locomotives in 1994.

 From the train’s end point in the we took a tour through the national forest ending at the Bahia Lapataia on the Beagle Channel at about the same time as a tour boat and a dozen or so tour buses.

This was truly the end of the road; in this case the Pan American Highway.

The following day we went to the prison. 

 With 5 two-storey wings and space for 540 prisoners, there is plenty of room for museum exhibits.  In addition to the actual museum and its inmates, there is information on prisons from around the world, a maritime museum, an Antarctic exploration museum, an art museum and an art gallery.

 

And of course, there are biographies of the famous prisoners; here (the thin one) is Cayetano Santos Godino, captured at 16, a serial killer who tortured and killed other children. He died in prison at 44. 

Saturday, our last day in Ushuaia, we went for a boat ride, east on the Beagle Channel, named after the HMS Beagle on its voyage of 1826-1830; the trip prior to Charles Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle.

(click on map for better view)

Our trip took us out into the channel, past locally designated:

 "Bird Island,"

(imperial Cormorants in this case)

 "Sea lion Island" 

and "Penguin Island."  (Humboldt Penguins)

We also passed Puerto Williams, "the town at the end of the earth."  It is on Chile's Naravino Island, and is further south that Ushuaia, but with a population of less that 3000 civilian and Chilean naval personnel it doesn't qualify as a city.  

Our destination at the end of the boat ride was Estancia Harberton, established in 1886 by Thomas Bridges, an Anglican missionary and author of a Yagan-English dictionary of 30,000 words.  After retiring from the mission, the Argentine government gave him a land grant and he turned the mission into a working estancia or ranch.  It is now owned by his grandson and run as a tourist destination.

Off our tour boat we had lunch and a tour of the estancia and visited the adjacent Museo Acatushun, a working scientific museum with a collection of 28,000 marine mammals and 23,000 birds.




















Our return to Ushuaia was by bus, on a gravel road via the valley of the Rio Larsiparsabk.




Our day was calm and bright but the few trees showed that the weather was not always so calm.

















We passed several areas of dead trees in beaver dam flooded valleys. Beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego in 1946 to establish a fur industry.  Unfortunately, the fur industry was not successful, but with no predators, the beavers were.  Today an estimated 200,000 beavers damage thousands of acres of forest. 

Leaving the valley we reached Argentine highway 3 and crossed the mountains to return to Ushuaia.  And it began to rain.