mike & rhonda's latest adventure: The End of the World

A reasonable person would acknowledge that the end of the world might happen at some point in time, perhaps another ice age, a large meteor strike, or if Donald Trump became President of the United States. But we have seen the end of the world and I am happy to announce it is a place and not an event. Fin del Mundo exists at Lapataia Bay in Tierra del Fuego National Park. It is the end point for the Pan American highway which stretches almost 18,000 km’s to Alaska. We will get to KM 0 some day. And one more thing.........if this really is the end of the world, why are we getting on a ship later today and heading further south?

We are now in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in South America (and the world). It is a cool, windy city (even in the summer) with a population of 60,000 people. It was once famous for its prison, where at the beginning of the 20^th century, the prison was built and Buenos Aires sent all the people they hoped to never see again. Fresh fruit and vegetables are hard to come by at this end of the continent since most of it is shipped in from distant places. There is plenty of seafood (especially king crab) and meat however so the non-vegetarians can easily survive. I had a wonderful mariscos (seafood) meal one evening but my stomach had a disagreement with it overnight (bad mussels?) which laid me low for a day but as soon as I recovered I went back for more seafood (paella) at a different restaurant and all is well again. We initially stayed at La Casa de Alba, a nice B and B run by a lady (Alba) who provided us with lots of local information to help us out (and a warm room to retreat to at the end of the day). The daytime highs have been in the 10-15C range but with the wind chill it feels much colder.

The town-city is very walkable so it is easy to get around. We did require a shuttle bus to get to Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) National Park which was 12 km’s outside of town. Tierra del Fuego, besides clearing up the end of the world worries for us, offered many hiking trails and the southernmost post office in the world. We hiked the 8km Coastal Trail (Beagle Chanel and mountain views) along with two other shorter trails during our day trip there. My sick day cost us a hike up to the Martial Glacier at the north end of Ushuaia. However, reports indicate that if you have seen the Perito Moreno Glacier (last posting) this one would seem like an overgrown ice cube. The real reward for the 2 hour uphill hike however was supposed to be the magnificent views of the surrounding area. We should get many of those in the near future.

We have now moved over to the Albatross Hotel, in the middle of town near the pier, where we will meet our Antarctica expedition team and fellow travellers before embarking later today. This is a voyage we have always dreamed of and we are very excited to have the opportunity to travel there (or perhaps more accurately, the finances to be able to afford the trip). We will be spending 12 nights on board the MS Expedition (Gap Adventures) and do not expect to have internet access during that time so we will be electronically silent for the next two weeks. Ciao.

Ushuaia - taken from the harbour area.

Tierra del Fego NP (Land of Fire) - named in 1520 by Magellan as he sailed around Cape Horn. He noticed all the wood fires on shore, maintained by the indigenous Yaghans, the first settlers..

The most southern Post Office in the world. The postmaster general was busy inside selling postcards and stamps to tourists for mail that will NOT arrive next week..

This picture was taken as we walked the 8 km Coastal Trail inside the national park. There were a multitude of mussels all along the shoreline of the Beagle Channel.