Wandertage am Ende der Welt

After a short flight, we landed in the southernmost city in the world - Ushuaia. The weather down here is significantly cooler and the wind blows around your ears all the time - but since the sun usually shines, it is quite pleasant. We have been carrying a good wind jacket and long pants with us for several months without using them.

We met Karin on the flight and we discovered that we all come from the small village of Switzerland, so we know each other from various connections. So the next few days we are traveling together as a group of three.

We immediately checked for last-minute offers to Antarctica - but even these offers exceed our budget. For example, there is a 10-day excursion in January for around 8500 Swiss francs per person - which is (significantly) too much for us. So the Antarctica remains on our bucket list for now.

The so-called Tierra del Fuego region around Ushuaia offers various hikes and excursions. On the first day, we explored the area east of the city by hitchhiking. After a leisurely walk along Lake Garibaldi and a picnic, we ventured to climb to Laguna Esmeralda. The two-hour hike through the vegetation here at the end of the world in this great weather was breathtakingly beautiful, and the view from the lagoon compensated for the efforts. The excursion was free, as no national park fees apply and only a few other people were attracted on that day.

The Tierra del Fuego National Park is a must-visit if you have traveled all the way down here. There are several medium to long hikes of varying difficulty levels, and so we - also due to a festive dinner the night before - chose a medium-length path along the coast. From here, you can see across to Chile from the Argentine part of Tierra del Fuego, and you usually don't know if it is a sea outlet or one of the many lakes and lagoons. Equipped with another picnic, we spent the day here and despite more visitors, we were able to enjoy the peace and the beautiful weather.

To round off the program, a boat trip through the offshore islands of Ushuaia was actually planned. Unfortunately, it could not take place on the last day as the wind was too strong and the port was closed for small excursion boats. So we spent the time in the city and took smaller walks before heading to a nice Parilla for dinner again, where we once again enjoyed the specialty Cordero (lamb).

Our next stop is Puerto Natales (Chile), which all three of us have decided on. More about that soon - first, we will take another long bus ride.