Town of Ushuaia
This is really a story of two visits. The first time I arrived here was before going to Antarctica, fresh off the plane from Australia via Buenos Aires and the second was after returning from Antarctica.
That first visit I arrived by plane. At the end of my first roughly 14000Km and 24 hours of air travel. Flying in at 5pm there was still around 5 hours of daylight so it was hardly sunset but the sun hung low enough in the sky to give off that amazing golden light. And from the plane that light hit all the mountain peaks that surround and extend north from Ushuaia. It was a hell of an introduction to the so called End of the World.
It may not really be the end of the world but the roads definitely stop here. And even for thetourist town it is with all the "Fin del Mundo" branding they do in fact have the most southerly post office in the world (Short of Antarctica).
Fin del Mundo Post office
The town of Ushuaia itself is all geared up for the tourists. Every day multiple ships arrive and leave port, either from trips to and from Antarctica, or larger ships doing longer tours such as Santago to Buenos Aires around Cape Horne. The say you can buy pretty much anything in Ushuaia for a price.
Outside of town however there are some great things to do like visiting the Tierra Del Fuego National park. And on my first full day i headed out there to stretch my legs and get some sun.
Tierra del Fuego National Park
Though you could easily spend a few days exploring the national park, I decided to head back in the early afternoon so as to make my way to the local glacier.
Glacier Martial is walking distance from the hostel I was staying and given the long daylight hours it made a nice finish to a day of walking. The glacier it self sits about 800m above sea level and for the most part has receded now but you can still reward your efforts of the hike by stopping at a local tea house at the base of the walk.
Glacier Marital
The remainder of my first visit in Ushuaia was filled with all those little jobs that have to get done like organizing bus tickets and accommodation for when I returned. Those first few days, filled with sun and more warmth that i was expecting were amazing.
The return to Ushuaia was somewhat different. For poor Claire there was no sun once she arrived. We made an attempt to go back to the national park and really got to test out our wet weather gear. We ended up calling that hiking day early and came back to town to prepare to go north. By the time we left the next morning we were greeted with snow on the tops of the mountains that just a week or so before had been mostly dry. It was beautiful to see the early morning sun hit the snowy peaks just before we got on the bus to Puerto Natales but we hoped it would be warmer when we got there.