USHUAIA means well with us

The first highlight of our trip is Tierra del Fuego and here of course Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world at the end of the earth. (We stay out of the dispute between the Chileans who claim that the village of Puerto Williams is even further south and the Argentines who counter that it is just a village and not a city). Ushuaia is not beautiful in the usual sense, but exciting, colorful and lively, and with a kind of 'gold rush atmosphere', the city is rapidly expanding. We stay several nights right on the promenade of the Beagle Channel and enjoy the breathtaking view of the harbor and the foothills of the Andes. In between, we spend several days in Tierra del Fuego National Park and take a long boat tour on the Beagle Channel. We found it indescribable, so we refrain from many words and let the pictures speak for themselves.

During our drive through Tierra del Fuego, we keep noticing dead trees. In some cases, we pass huge areas with hundreds of dead trees. A ranger informs us that these are beaver damage. In order to boost the fur trade, a supposedly resourceful politician imported fifty beavers from Canada and released them. Unlike in Canada, the beavers here have no natural enemies and reproduce unchecked. Today there are over 200,000 animals. The tree population in Tierra del Fuego falls victim not only to the beavers' gnawing pleasure, but also to the stagnant water and does not recover as quickly as the Canadian conifers. It can now be called an ecological catastrophe, which could only be stopped by completely eradicating the beavers.

We also met nice and open-minded people in Ushuaia, such as Edelweiss and her brother Erwin, who owe their nostalgic names to their German great-grandmother.

Tierra del Fuego spoiled us with one of the rare periods of good weather for five days, so the farewell was very difficult for us. Hasta la proximal Ushuaia!