The End of the World

We made it to the end of the world, at least as far as a person can go by land. We are in Ushuaia, Argentina right now. It has taken us longer than expected to get here because we attempted to take the road less traveled. I wanted to put a map on the blog so I could explain this better, but I couldn´t find one that was big enough so I am going to try to do my best without a visual aid. Last week we were in Punta Arenas, Chile, and we wanted to get to Ushuaia. To get here the more traditional route is to take a bus that circles around to the north and then to the east side of the continent and then heads straight down to Ushuaia. We thought we could bypass the circling around part by taking the ferry straight east from Punta Arenas to a little town called Porvenir. Nobody seemed to think there were buses that left Porvenir though, but we didn´t think this is possible since Latin America has such a great bus system. So we jumped on the ferry for a 2.5 hour ride across the Strait of Magellan. It was a nice ride until the end when the wind starting picking up, which caused many people to grab a bag to vomit in. We arrived in Porvenir to find all the businesses closed, and that is when we realized it was Good Friday. So there we were in this small town, and not one business open. We found a really really nice hostel to stay in, which ended up being the best part of the town. The lady that ran the place was extremely nice!! Her and her husband gave us food and even gave us a tour of the city and surroundings. They showed us this island that was used during the military coup for a prison, which we would have never known if locals didn´t show us. They also confirmed there were no buses in Porvenir, and the only way to get out was to hitchhike or ride the ferry back. We didn´t want to back track, so on Monday we tried our luck at hitchhiking. After 7 hours of trying we gave up. Only about 30 cars left the town, and most of them indicated they were just going a little ways. 3 cars stopped, but they were only going 6-30km, and we needed to go at least 150 km. So we gave up on this idea, returned to the hostel, and left the next day on the ferry to take the more traditional route. Live and Learn. At least on the ferry ride back there was a pod of dolphins playing with the boat for 10 minutes or so...that was really fun to watch. That is our long story how we got to Ushuaia. This town doesn´t have much to offer. It is built to be a tourist town with a duty-free street of shops. This island has a sad history. The Yámana were the first to live here, but similar to many stories the Europeans discovered the land and wiped out the natives. By 1910 there were less than 100 Yámana left. These people were quite impressive though. They lived in this rough environment completely naked or wearing just the hide from a sea lion.

I also wanted to add that the most surprising thing I have found about Patagonia is the prescence of flamingos! I guess as it gets colder flamingos come down south to hang out in the freezing cold lakes...who would have known they like colder weather.


The sun is very dangerous in the south since it is closer to the hole in the ozone, so they have a UV index to inform you of the level of danger.

Little town of Porvenir.

The Red Cross building in Porvenir. I thought it was a cute building.

Nick taking a rest from his shift trying to hitchhike. The dog was our new friend for the day. We named her Blackie. She followed us in the morning to this spot and stayed with us all day. She even followed us back to the hostel and waited out front for us. She was gone in the morning though.

It is hard to see, but this is the ferry we rode (twice).

It was hard to take a picture at the right time to catch the dolphins jumping out of the water, but this is one of them.
This little guy was a real trickster. He would jump and twist in the air.

This is the northern part of the island Tierra del Fuego. It is very flat!

Once we got to the southern part of the island the landscape transformed into beautful mountains and valleys.

This is Ushuaia. Located between the Beagle Channel and the beautiful mountains.

Nick standing by the Ensenada Bay in the National Park Tierra del Fuego.

We hiked a few trails in the National Park and saw many birds. We saw many of these birds. Nick thinks it is a type of falcon or hawk, but we cannot find the official name of it.

The valley in the park.

Lago Roca. The brochure says they have found a lot of evidence of the natives living by this lake. It seems like a wonderful place to live (in the summer).

Two Crested Caracaras. There are three animals that were imported here: the muskrat, the beaver (which is causing many problems now), and the European rabbit. The rabbits have done very well for themselves in the park. That is the back of a rabbit on the right side of the picture just standing by these two huge birds.

More rabbits!!
This is a peatbog forming. The water is much blacker than it looks in this picture.

The Upland Goose. These guys fly from Canada!!

The picture below shows the distance to Alaska from here: 17,848 KM (11,090 miles)!! I read an article in a paper that three or four guys just finished their dream of riding their bicycles from Alaska to Ushuaia totally unsupported a few months ago...Can you imagine!!!!!! The article says they went 26,000 km in less than 8 months!!

March of the Penguins

Today we went to the Magellanic penguin preserve in Punta Arenas Chile. They actually let you walk around with the penguins. This is the very end of the season and the chicks are almost ready to leave the island for warmer water, but there was still about 3000 penguins here.


This is us when we first got to the island.
Sara next to a penguin with a hurt foot so he couldn´t run.

These penguins actually burrow, they dig a little hole to get out of the wind.

Two penguin lovers

A curious penguin

This little guy is stealing feathers from his neighbor to line his burrow. He is not a very good role model!

We also got to see a sealion colony.

This is a large bull sealion, he kept wanting to fight with other males.

Torres Del Paine

We have completed our 8-day trek around Torres del Paine National Park in the southern region of Chile. They offer a couple of different hikes that are very popular that just hit the highlights of the park, but we opted to do the more difficult one called The Circuit. This trail includes the highlights of the park, and also gave us a chance to hike through the back part of the park. We made a complete circle around the small mountain system called Paine Massif. We hiked about 75 miles total, and we did it while carrying all our supplies and food. We were very lucky with the weather until the last two days. The second to last day the wind blew like I have never seen, and I grew up in Kansas!! It even blew me over once!! The last day it was really wet. We were soaked and cold!!! But the other days were absolutely beautiful!!
Just starting out on the trail! We are pretty excited!!

We found the first half of the back country hike to be quite flat. I believe this is the area that was burned by some guy that let his stove get away from him.

More flat land.

Now we are getting into some mountains. This was a lake and mountain covered in clouds by our second camp site. The clouds were just rolling over the mountain top.

This is the same mountain in the morning covered in snow. All those clouds were delivering a good amount of snow to that area.

A beautiful waterfall!

Woody the woodpecker.

One of the few ladders we had to climb on trail.

We made it to the top of the pass. This is supposed to be the hardest part of the whole trail. We found going down the mountain was much more difficult than going up it. Our knees were screaming at us going down!! We are very very fortunate to have wonderful weather the day we went through the pass. I can´t imagine doing this pass if the wind was blowing!

The view of Glaciar Grey from the top of the pass.

The back half of Glaciar Grey.

A closer picture of the huge Glaciar Grey.

The tip of Glaciar Grey from the side. As we were walking along it on the ridge we could hear it groaning and cracking. It was really neat!!!

In front of Glaciar Grey.

Nick standing in front of just a piece of ice that had broken off the glacier.

Far away picture of the glacier from the front.

Laguna Los Patos (The ducks lake) and the reflection of the clouds in the water.

Me standing in front of two huge peaks made up of two different colors of stone.

Walking across a big suspension bridge.

A river with Cerro Paine Grande in the background.

Cerro Paine Grande with the Glaciar Francés. We camped at the opening of this valley and during the night we kept hearing huge rumbles like thunder, but they do not have thunder down here. So in the morning Nick asked and the ranger said it was avalanches. As we walked up the valley the next morning we got to see avalanche after avalanche. It was really neat and loud!!

I caught just the ending of one avalanche. It looks like a waterfall, but that is snow and rocks.

Nick in front of the bi-colored peaks.

Neat little trail between the trees.

The view of the valley from the top of Valley Francés.

We woke up on day 6 to this wonderful rainbow over the mountain.

Lago Nordenskjold. It was very windy this day, and it made the lake seem more like the ocean creating small waves.

Nick rubbing his knee. We were worried for a day or so that Nick´s knee was not going to make the trip, but it seemed to adjust on the second to last day.

The only mountain in the park actually named a mountain. It is called Monte Almirante Nieto.

Funny looking clouds. It was really windy this day and the clouds looked really blurry and fake.

The view of the dry terrain coming up to the mountain range.

The towers of Torres del Paine. This is the most popular part of the park, but I think the tower at Fitz Roy was better.

The last day was the weather was the worst. It was raining, snowing, and sleating. This picture does not show how bad it is snowing, but it does show the snow accumulating.