Ushuaia - January 5th

Ushuaia is surrounded by amazing scenery, so today we head out to the nearby Tierra Del Fuego national park to walk amongst this natural spectacle.  However the enjoyment of the beauty of this area is slightly affected by the weather conditions.  When we woke up it was raining, but a judicious use of an extra hour in bed meant that it had stopped by the time we got to the bus stop.  The bus itself was a bit expensive (like most things in Ushuaia) as it was only a 30 minute trip to the park (for 14 pounds return).  After paying the same to get into the park we get dropped at one end of one of the trails in the park.  Unfortunately by now it is raining again, but that’s the weather at the end of the world, totally changeable.

Which is just as well, because it was sunny not too long later.  We choose to walk a coastal trail along the Beagle Channel, and by some fluke every time we emerged onto the coast we had sun, and every time we were in the forest it was raining.  The walk itself was amazing, great scenery, and unlike other similar walks we have done we also got a lot of wildlife.  Amongst others were woodpeckers, foxes, rabbits and ducks (although none of them said what’s up doc or were black with an orange beak and feet).  We almost got a glimpse of a beaver, and saw all the destruction this invasive species has wrought on the forest.

After 3 1/2 hours we finished our 8km hike at the park headquarters.  We brought a picnic but it turned out there was a very nice café there.  We had a hot bite during one of the rain storms, and then when it cleared up we decided to forgo the 15:00 bus back for the 17:00 bus.  This gave us another 2 hours to walk to the end of national route 3, the road to Buenos Aries.  This walk of course featured even more amazing scenery and this time some black swans.  We made it for our bus, which is just as well as it was raining again.

In the evening we went to a nice local restaurant to have some Fuegean specialties.  We didn’t have too much as we had to go to bed early for our bus tomorrow is at 05:00.