Fin del Mundo

We have arrived in the most southern city in the world, Ushuaia, on the island of Tierra Del Fuego. Suddenly (well as sudden as 31 hours on a bus can be) the landscape has changed from baron flatland to snowcapped mountains. We thought we´d better start getting some practice in for the Inca Trail and also wanted an excuse to use our new thermal underwear, so on our first day we decided to hike up to Glacier Martial. Unfortunately there was no glacier to be seen and we had to negotiate steep climbs in one foot of snow. The views from the top however were stunning as was the bar of chocolate we´d packed in case of emergencies!

We had an unexpected surprise when we got here as we found out that we were still in time for some skiing and snowboarding. After some deliberation (around 5 seconds) discussing the possibility of broken limbs at the beginning of a 7 month holiday, we trotted down to the hire shop and got ourselves kitted up for a day on the slopes. The resort was quite small but conditions were good and after an excellent day we both came off the slopes unscathed and exhilerated!

The next day, with aching legs, we took a stroll out to the National Park of Tierra Del Fuego. We had a walk around a beautiful lake that took us right up to the border with Chile, the sun was shining so no need for the thermals!

Today we took a boat along the Beagle Channel stopping at Island H (cleverly named as the island is H-shaped) to see Rock Cormorants, King Cormorants and Seals. We also saw where the native Yamana people used to cook and eat their food, noticeable by all the discarded whale and bird bones. Somehow they managed to cope without thermal underwear, instead smearing themselves in whale fat but we´re sticking with thermals for now!!

Flying north tomorrow, unfortunately Antarctica is beyond our budget. Aiming to get to El Calafate where hopefully we will have a slightly more fruitful glacier experience.

Hope you are all well

Lots of love

Jo and Al xxxx