In 30 hours to the end of the world

After the hot days in BAires, the cool, windy air feels really good when we arrive in Río Gallegos! We already know the city, so we just walk to the beautiful spots by the water and admire the rusted ships and trains again. The next morning, we continue our journey to Punta Arenas, Chile, in 4 hours. The border crossing is unspectacular, we don't even have to open our backpacks. When we arrive in Punta Arenas, we are once again surprised by how big the cities are here in the south! With over 125,000 inhabitants, it is even larger than Río Gallegos! The rest of the afternoon is spent organizing the next destination. The next day, we want to take the 30-hour ferry to Puerto Williams, the southernmost place in the world, at 6 o'clock in the evening. We already reserved the tickets in November and received a confirmation email. When we call the tourist information office (because there is no office in the city), the lady explains to us that reservations are only valid for one week, after that you have to pick up and pay for the tickets. What? How does that work? Mentally, we already see the ship sailing without us, but we are lucky again: the ferry is not fully booked and we can still buy tickets! Phew, we don't want to imagine what we would have done if it had been fully booked! Because the next one only departs a few days later and all the remaining accommodations and return flights are fixed. We would probably have driven to the port and made quite a fuss, which the employees would have ignored with Chilean calmness. But luckily it didn't come to that. We decide to pick up the tickets early the next morning and take care of something nicer: penguins! There is an island inhabited by penguins that can be reached by excursion from Punta Arenas, and you can walk with the penguins on the island. We have already heard about that and don't want to miss it! But as so often, our enthusiasm wanes when we hear the prices. There are providers charging between 70 and 100 euros per person, 2-hour drive to the island, 1 hour on the island, and 2 hours back. We don't think it's worth it to disturb the penguins for nearly 200 euros together with other tourists. Okay, no penguins. They are not that great anyway. When we try to find information online about the crossing from Puerto Williams to Ushuaia, we are faced with another outrageous price. Apparently, there are only small providers who demand a whopping 120 USD per person for a 1.5-hour bus and 30-minute boat ride. We are shocked and can't see why we should pay so much. Our 30-hour journey including meals for 140 euros per person is the deal of the year! We don't book anything yet and hope to find another solution on site. When we pick up the ferry tickets the next morning (after asking), we also learn that the ferry arrives in Puerto Williams after midnight (we knew that), you have the option to stay on the ferry until morning (we knew that), but that costs another 30 euros per person (we didn't know that!!). 60 euros for a probably uncomfortable night in a seat (no bed) on a ferry that is already in the harbor? Oh, and you can only pay in cash on the ferry. We don't accept that. We write to our accommodation, which we have booked from the day after, asking if there is any possibility to come a day earlier. A sofa is all we need. However, we don't receive a reply until we leave the WiFi and go to the harbor at 5 o'clock. Well, it'll work out somehow, we think.

At the harbor, we are greeted by a modern and quite luxurious-looking ferry. Wow, we didn't expect that! We are looking forward to it, but then we see another older, rusty ferry next to it. That can't be.... But a look at the ticket reveals: Name of the ferry: YAGHAN. Damn, that's the other one! It would have been too good to get something decent for our money.

But in retrospect, we have to admit that we misjudged Yaghan. The seats are actually comfortable and can be reclined quite far back. After changing seats, we have a view of the sea and everything seems quite clean. We set off promptly at 6 o'clock! For the next 30 hours, we are on board with our new friend Ron (see photo). Surprisingly, the temperatures are not as low as expected, and we spend a lot of time outside. Less than 30 minutes after departure, we can hardly believe our eyes when we see water spraying in the distance several times. Whales!! They are far away, but clearly visible! And there are a lot of them! During the voyage, dolphins (right in front of the boat, but too excited to take a photo), penguins, and seal families join in! The food is better than expected and we even get a freshly prepared vegetarian version! We spice up the quantity and variety with the supplies we brought with us, we are well prepared after all! And after dinner, during the "digestion walk", we even have the first fun with Ron. After all, you have to be prepared for the (not so strong) cold! :) (Thanks again to Tanja & Borni for the tip!) The night is relatively restful and the next day flies by with eating, going out, reading, eating, going out, reading, eating, going out, and reading. The landscape is beautiful and we pass several glaciers. At the largest one, the captain even stops and turns 360 degrees so that we can admire the majestic piece of nature for a long time. In the evening, we doze off again before we arrive around midnight and have to leave the boat in pouring rain. Damn, we really didn't need rain right now, we still have to find a place to sleep! We line up to pick up our luggage and the unimaginable happens. A local person walks onto the ferry and addresses us: Lisa Laurösch? We can't believe our eyes, it's Julio from our accommodation! We can come with him, no problem at all! Together with a Dutch couple, he takes us to the hostel and shows us our sleeping place for the rest of the night: 2 large white sofas in the living room. He just quickly gets the blankets! Wow, we are thrilled! We never thought that this night would be so warm, cozy, and restful! We are really lucky! Happily (although a bit stinky and gross), we sleep through until the next morning and start the day with a fantastic breakfast. We have actually arrived at the destination of our journey. In Puerto Williams, the southernmost place in the world!