Tierra del Fuego

On Monday I decided to get a bus down to Tierra del Fuego, el fin del mundo. It took fifteen hours from Puerto Natales, on a crowded bus that did the usual trick of blasting you with baking hot air for half an hour, followed by half an hour of wind chill via the air con. The perfect way to make yourself nice and ill. At some point during the journey the windows became so mud splattered that you couldn´t actually see out of them, so the fifteen hours dragged on even longer than it might have done otherwise. Unfortunately my plan to rely entirely on solar power for the duration of my trip has fallen flat on its face, given that the climate here is similar to the Lake District during winter. By pressing the solar panel right up against the window I was able to get just about enough light to ease the pain of the journey with some music from my Ipod. Hey, when else do you get the chance to listen to non-stop music?

So I arrived in Ushaia late at night, and checked into a nice hostel called Yakush, where one of the guys working there very kindly fixed me some food and gave me some beer - what a welcome. The next day who should show up but Marie! She´d left Natales a few days earlier than me, headed for Punta Arenas. Was great to see her, and we decided to head straight to the park, along with an Ozzie guy called Drouyn. We´d had enough of camping, and opted to stay in the refugio there instead, so she managed to sell her tent to Dougal and Jamie, the two poshest Essex boys I´ve ever met!

The park is huge, but only a small amount is open to the public, so we set off for a walk to Hito XXIV, a patrolled border point with Chile. It was a nice easy walk alongside Lago Roca, the banks of which are covered in the most beautiful, red leaved trees. It looks far more autumnal here than further north, and the air was really still, mist rising from the lake. The frontier is marked by nothing more than a sign that tells you you´re not allowed to cross any further, which of course, immediately makes you want to do the exact opposite.

We were the only people staying in the refugio - it had a lovely woodburning stove which we took turns to keep going throughout the night. Unfortunately it got so hot that the socks I was drying on top of it spontaneously combusted. Ok, that´s a bit of an exaggeration, but they now smell a bit odd and have holes burnt in them.

The second day we set off to walk to Cerro Guanaco, a look out point 1000 odd metres above sea level. It was a steep climb, and really slippery. It also involved peat bogs, and towards the top we were walking in six inches of snow. It got to the point where we could no longer see the path, and the weather was closing in with big snow flakes blowing horizontally at us, so we decided to turn back. It was annoying, as we were so near the top, but wouldn´t have been able to see anything anyway, and it was too cold to hang around and wait for the cloud to clear. We´d had good views of the lakes, and the Beagle Channel when the sky was clearer. You have to get a ferry across the Magellenes Strait (?) to get to Tierra del Fuego, as it´s a whole island that´s separated from the mainland, and I saw seals, and some little black and white dolphins on my way over. On the way back the sea was too rough for us to be allowed out of the bus, so it was a very surreal moment of being on a bus, on a boat, able to see huge waves out of the window, whilst having to listen to crazy 90´s house music and accompanying videos played at full volume. I think I paid more for the journey on the way home, as when I got to Ushaia I could find no trace of the company I´d travelled there with, so just booked with the only company I could find offering the journey. So think I was actually paying extra for the music, along with a couple of empanadas which mysteriously landed in my lap whilst I was asleep.

We had to change buses at Punta Arenas on the way home, and I had a very interesting conversation with a guy who was deaf and mute, which made me realise that perhaps it´s my sign language that´s been improving over the last couple of months rather than my Spanish.