South America - Patagonia (Ushuaia - City at the End of the World)

Arriving in Punta Arenas, there was a little shock of cold at first. But we were mentally prepared for the fact that summer would be over for now.

In Punta Arenas itself, there isn't much. The city center looks quite nice in terms of buildings. And there is a large cemetery with many mausoleums, which is considered the main attraction of Punta Arenas. What was interesting here was that there was a special cemetery consisting of houses, with many square 'windows' lined up next to each other. Presumably, there is a coffin behind each window - you can't look inside. The window is set up like a tombstone and sometimes adorned with a picture or flowers next to the name. That seems to be typical in South America.

The hostel where we stayed was also very nice. From the common room/dining area, you could look out onto the water through a large panoramic window.

After 2 days here, we took the bus to Ushuaia. A 12-hour bus ride and practically 2 border crossings... Since the borders of Chile and Argentina are about 50km apart (actually maybe 20km), we had to get off the bus twice and queue for entry and exit. On entry into Argentina, we even had to take all our luggage off the bus and put it through a scanner - similar to at the airport.

In the evening around 8 o'clock, we arrived in Ushuaia and took a taxi to our first Couchsurfing accommodation (very curious how it will be). Without an Argentine SIM card, we thought it could be a bit complicated, but it was quite easy to find everything since the taxi driver knew exactly where we had to go.
At the door, we were greeted by dogs barking and sniffing.
I was expecting a dog and a cat, which I had seen in the pictures. In fact, there are 5 dogs and 3 cats :D Two of them are big dogs, 3 are Chihuahuas, and then there are the 3 cats. But surprisingly, all the animals (mostly) stay calm, unless someone rings the doorbell or it gets too boring.

We also more or less survived the first night.
Our bed was a saggy 90cm mattress in the living room that Tom and I shared :D So when one of us turned, the other had to go along! At least that's how it was on the first night. The second night was already much better, and from the third night onwards, we somehow managed to both lie comfortably on our backs next to each other :P

Well, but it was free :'D The alternative would have been to pay 200€ for 4 nights, which we were able to save and instead spend locally, as activities here are quite expensive.

It was nice that the bus was practically free. We took a 50ct bus ride to the other end of the city to go hiking in Tierra del Fuego. Here we had our next first: we hitchhiked. The girl who is staying with us is Argentine and said it's quite easy and 'cheaper' than taking the €20 bus to the park.

This went surprisingly well. We were picked up by the first car after only one minute and taken to the park entrance. Since we wanted to go further into the park, we waited for the next ride. And 2 minutes later, we were back in the car and drove the last 10km, which we later walked back - not along the road, but through the forest and along the lake.

First, we walked a small circular path that was located in the immediate vicinity of our drop-off point. Then we had lunch at the restaurant around the corner.

Afterwards, we walked the 8km back. The path was much longer than expected, but I didn't complain, even though I can be quite lazy when it comes to walking :D And there was a lot of uphill and downhill! Luckily, the wonder hiking shoes held up, just as I had hoped for (endurance walking).

In between, there were some very nice views of the surrounding mountains. In the end, we ended up in a different place than expected, the 'Post Office at the End of the World', if we assume correctly.

Since two guys were about to leave, we didn't investigate further, but hurried to get to the car to ask for a ride back. Fortunately, the three of us were given a ride and dropped off in the city center. So it was a successful day with a positive hitchhiking experience.

The next day, we wanted to give our muscles a break and just went into town to do as much as possible, like inquire about boat tours, buy a hat, top up our SIM card.. Well, unexpected for us, everything was closed today. After 6 months of everything being open every day, we were surprised that it's different in Argentina. So it was perfect that we wanted to go to the 'spa' in the afternoon.

This one was in a hotel and consisted of indoor and outdoor pools and, theoretically, a sauna. But for the 4 hours that we were there (for a whopping 40€ per person), we were completely occupied with the pools. And the outdoor pool in particular had an impressive view of the mountains!

With that, the second day was already over. On the third day, we caught up on all the errands from Sunday - finally found some internet! - and also picked up a stamp as proof that we made it to Ushuaia, to the 'End of the World' so to speak.

In the afternoon, we took a Beagle Channel boat tour, of course, Tom wanted to do the longest one, 4 hours... We didn't have any relevant experience yet.

During the excursion, we realized that this boat tour only took longer than others because the ship was much slower. But the 'tour guide' was super nice, and we got extremely close to the sea lions, which were lounging on rocks/islands.

We also saw a kind of penguin (Cormorant, Editor's note) (the bird has a different name, but looks very similar) and we even landed on a small island and walked around.

On the last day, we went hiking again, this time to Laguna Esmeralda.

According to the tourist information, it takes 1-1.5 hours... It took us 2.5 hours. I'm not sure if it's because of our company (the Couchsurfing girl again) or the conditions, but even together we wouldn't have made it in 1.5 hours. The path consisted of 80% mud, 15% swamp, and the rest was bushes.

Muddy path to Laguna Esmeralda

So it was quite difficult to reach the lake! We passed by a beaver dam, which is ultimately to blame for so much marshland... (that's what happens when you want beaver fur and introduce them and then lose control).

When we finally got there, Marina already had wet feet. Thanks to our good hiking shoes, our little feet stayed dry. Right before reaching the destination, we joined forces with two more groups. One of the Israeli girls got stuck in the mud up to her calves on the last 100m :( that was certainly not a nice way back!

Once we reached the top, we had a great view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. So the path was ultimately worth it.

The way back was a bit faster because we went around part of the swamp instead of wading through it like on the way there, jumping from patch to patch of grass.
On the way back, we were given a free ride by a taxi that had to go back to Ushuaia - so to speak, hitchhiking. So we were lucky again. Maybe we should try it more often if it's so typical and easy here. :)
And now we're in the apartment - no water, dirty shoes, slightly sweaty, and waiting for the water to work again, so we can get up early tomorrow at 6 o'clock for our 16-hour bus journey to Puerto Natales.