Ushuaia - The End of the World

Last week on Friday we had to be at the bus terminal in Punta Arenas by 8:00 am. This time, however, it was only my mom and me, as Emily and Mom's cousin flew to Santiago in the afternoon.

Mom's cousin continued flying from Santiago to Tucuman in Argentina to visit her family. On October 22nd, she met my mom again in Buenos Aires. Emily flew back to Germany from Santiago on Saturday, so it was time to say goodbye after 10 weeks of traveling together. It was then that I realized how lucky I am to have someone visit me and want to travel with me. It felt strange that Emily had flown home because we got along incredibly well and we could have continued traveling together without any problems (maybe with money problems😂).

My mom spontaneously decided to cancel her return flight and stay until November 6th, so I have another 2 weeks of company in Argentina.

Ushuaia - the end of the world, sounded picturesque to me, so I imagined a slightly larger village with a small harbor where sea lions and penguins live. I also thought we would drive through a snowy forest to the southernmost village in the world. Instead, we drove through a barren landscape without snow. There were many fallen or bare trees to be seen. When we drove into the CITY by bus, there were no sea lions, penguins, or birds at the harbor, but instead we had a direct view of containers with the inscription "Hamburg Süd". One had the feeling that Ushuaia consists of 70% tourists and 30% employees of the tourist offices.

No, it wasn't that bad. Despite having informed myself beforehand, the image in front of my eyes did not match my imagination. It was only after a few days that I realized how beautiful the city is, with the high snow-capped mountains behind it and the harbor in front of it.

On the first day, we hiked up the Martial Glacier. From there, we had a beautiful view of the city and the sea.

In the evening, we were picked up by a car. We drove along various lakes, and the guide explained to us that Ushuaia was threatened by a beaver plague. The beavers were brought in from Canada and destroy the forest by building dams. The trees (mostly southern beeches) are then in an environment that is too wet and die. To reduce the beaver population, the gray fox was introduced. However, if you compare the teeth of the beaver and the fox, it becomes clear that it does not eat or hunt beavers. Again, problems arise from the introduction of the gray fox.

The next day, we took a small transport to the train station "The End of the World". From there, we took the train to Tierra del Fuego National Park. The day after that, my mom flew to Buenos Aires, as she had already booked a flight. I arrived two days later and during that time, I took a very nice boat trip to Isla H.