The End of the World!!!

Greetings from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world! We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, after a pleasant flight direct from Buenos Aires. The descent was absolutely beautiful, as we passed over the tiny islands and channels of southern patagonia. Ushuaia, itself, is a tiny town nestled in a little nook surrounded by the Andes. These mountains run north to south, creating the border between Chile and Argentina, except at the very south of the continent, where tectonic plates have caused them to run east-to-west.

After arriving yesterday, we checked into a very friendly little hostel, dropped our stuff off, and went for a hike up to a scenic lookout point just north of town. As we ascended, we noticed that the snow-covered mountains seemed to be getting closer and closer, and all of a sudden it was indeed snowing--quite the contrast from the muggy 80 degree weather in Buenos Aires we had experienced just earlier that day! However, all the precipitation in Ushuaia, be it rain or snow, only seems to last about five minutes at a time, so conditions cleared up soon enough.

From the top of this lookout point, we were treated to a marvelous panoramic view of the whole city and The Beagle Channel upon which it is situated. The Beagle Channel was made famous by Charles Darwin's book "The Voyage of the Beagle" and is a gateway to Antarctica, as well as many of the surrounding islands. Since the sun rises about 5am and sets about 10:30pm this far south, we had plenty of time to enjoy the view before hiking back into town.

Today, we went on a fantastic boat tour of the Beagle Channel, and tomorrow morning we're getting up early to go camping in Tierra del Fuego National Park, a short bus ride from Ushuaia. Saturday morning, we'll be departing on a 16 hour bus ride to a town called Puerto Natales, across the Chilean border. This town is the gateway to Torres del Paine national park, where we'll spend three or four days camping amidst beautiful lakes and gigantic granite towers carved out by glaciers. Originally we planned to leave here on Friday, but all the buses were booked up and we couldn't get a ticket for anything sooner than Saturday. Fortunately, this is not such a bad place to be "stranded" for an extra day so we have no complaints. :)