TIERRA DEL FUEGO NATIONAL PARK

Ushuaia Streets

I was sad to leave Tierra del Fuego, which received us with open arms. Who knows if I will ever get to visit this place of cold natural beauty, and welcoming and warm hearts of its inhabitants? The 6 days that we spent in the land of fueguinos flew by as if they were minutes and not days. I guess it feels this way, because the days were filled with simply what presented itself on our way, and we took it all without any expectations.

Lapataia Bay

After the Martial Glacier trip we decided to check out the town a little more and make contact with one of Emi’s work contacts, who had just happen to move to Ushuaia 5 months prior our visit. Seba, a 20 something street-smart native of Santa Fe turned out to be a cheerful jokester, who welcomed us in his uncle’s (Carlos) windshield replacement shop, which we found easily, as it was the only shop in town offering this kind of service. 10 minutes after meeting us, Seba was already inviting us to his coworker’s (Leo from Chaco) house for dinner, where he was going to make his specialty – ravioli a la bolognese, which he learned to make from the owner of a hostel where he used to live his first month in Ushuaia.  The dinner at Leo’s turned out to be spectacular (and I don’t even like pasta), and also fun.  Leo, his wife and a daughter were the sweetest people, who told us all about their last three years they have lived in Ushuaia. Seba also did not hesitate to entertain with his stories about his father’s life of a truck driver, his endless questions about Russia’s socio-political past and present, and some bits and pieces of information he had accumulated about the peculiarities of an island way of life in Tierra del Fuego.

End of Rout 3 - End of the World

Tired but happy we got back to our tent and slept until 10 besides our intentions to get up early and depart for the National Park. We had been debating going to that park, as we were going to visit many others and we did not want to spend money on a rather expensive entrance fee for foreigners on top of a round trip bus fair to the place. Without much hesitation we decided to take our chances and try to bum a ride from Carlos, and skip the entrance fee by going to the park after hours. The plan worked out perfectly and by dinner time on Thursday the 4^th we were at the end of the rout #3 - the end of the American Continent, or the End of the World, as they like to call it here. As soon as we entered the park we realized that we should not be thinking of skipping national parks ever again. They are made national parks because there is probably something worth seeing there. The views were stunning! The harsh cold climate forests, turquoise-green lagoons, crystal clear rivers and rich in vegetation marshes unveiled their beauty between enormous snow capped peaks and mountain ranges. Speechless, we took photos for about an hour after Carlos and Seba dropped us off in the park.

Emi and the Rabbit

It was getting late and we had to set up camp for the night. Our home for the next 2 nights was going to be the Green Lagoon campsite, a peaceful island surrounded by a quick river with an excellent view of the Condor mountain peak. This fantastic view was only to be replaced by an equally impressive night performance of the “racing stars”, which displayed their brilliant beauty in all their splendor. It was the first time for us that there was not one cloud in the Tierra del Fuego sky, and it happened to be just the night that we were as far away from the lights of civilization to enjoy the Milky Way show as one could get without getting off the continent. I don’t think I have ever seen the stars shine so brightly, and their quantity made me mind spin with the thoughts of the infinity of the universe. After looking at the sky for a while, I started noticing that a whole bunch of those stars were really racing. It seemed logical to think that they were probably satellites, but how and why there were going so fast?! We decided that stars were like people, some liked to live put in one place, and some liked to travel discovering the hidden uninhabited places of the universe.

Chilean Border

Having watched the sky for a while we fell asleep in our little cozy Azul. Up until that night I slept perfectly fine in our tent without any discomforts of the outside temperatures. That clear night though, the temperatures must have dropped because I was woken up a number of times by a chill going through my body. Out sleeping bags are supposedly good for up to -10C, but I am, apparently, a special case and always need to have a backup plan to keep me warm. Thankfully, the cold did not have an effect on me and I woke up full of energy and ready to explore the trails of the park.

Laguna Verde Camp

We spent the most of the day walking the trail that lead to the border with Chile. It was not particularly beautiful, but I thought that the long steady walk like that was very therapeutic.  Besides meeting a number of other travelers on our way, we also stumbled upon many rabbits. These cute creatures just like otters, were introduced to the island sometime in the middle of the 20^th century, and now, as it happens in many cases like this, the tow species are a plague, which is literally eating to the ground the native fueguina flora.  Originally, we hoped to do 2 trails that day and also climb to the Guanaco peak, but unfortunately, our “trip to Chile” took us too long and we had to leave the peak unconquered.

Beagle Channel

Friday night we came back to camp at the Laguna Verde. The final day at the park we spent tracking back to the entrance through the Coastal Trail. Once again, the weather was beautiful, and at times it was even hot to be wearing long pants and a thermal shirt. I even saw some local kids swimming in the bay! The ocean water was actually warmer than the lagoon glacier water. Emi and I also dibbed in with our feet a little bit, but we were not nearly close to jumping in. Although, if just looking at the coastal transparent water without touching it, it looked like the Mediterranean in the peak of summer. The same deep blue and turquoise colors, with pine covered mountainous coast and stony beaches.

Concha Hunter

During a rest stop at one of the bay beaches Emi discovered mussels in the bay….

-         -  Valeria, let’s gather some for dinner! I’ll get in the water and be the “Concha (shell) Hunter!”– said Emi full of excitement.

-       - Ok! But we should check, because sometimes there is something called a “Red Tide”, and seafood is dangerous then. – replied Valeria.

-          - Nooooo! It is all cool and clean here. No pasa nada! – asured Emi with a smile.

Some Horses

We gathered about 3 kilos of those shells and were already thinking of what wine to buy to accompany our delicious seafood dinner. Well…after carrying them all day up and down, the owner of a local fish store told us that we were lucky to have checked with him, because we would have ended up with a food poisoning…..! Apparently, the end of summer is just the highest season of “Red Tide”! So…..no mussels. Emi got all upset and angry for having carried them in vain, and wanted to throw the creatures in the garbage. Of course, I could not deal with such cruelty and had to come to rescue and take the little guys back to the water, however now the Ushuaia city bay.  Anyways, this was the end of our National Park adventure and that evening we were to pack up and get ready for our 5am departure.

Us at the End of the World

Seba and Leo, once again were our hosts. They organized a good bye dinner at Seba’s and then took us to the local happening spot at the “Dublin” pub, where we stayed till it was time to go to the station at 4:30 am. Ushuaia was great to us and we were sad to leave that island, as well as to say good bye to the first act of our expedition.  

Good bye Ushuaia!! Hello El Calafate!!