The rises just kept on coming. The wind was getting stronger and stronger as I winded my way along the gravel trail up the steep rock face. 1 Km left said the sign. 1Km is not much walking on flat ground, but on a heavy inclination, with gravel that falls away under each step making it twice as hard to put one foot in front of the other. My calves began to burn and my arms began to freeze. I looked back and saw the two figues behind me only 50 meters away. I had to get to the top before them. I had to be look out on this view alone, just me and view. The End of the World! Each turn that I came around only revealed more of the climb. As I passes others coming down, bundled up in warm jackets and hats while me, the Canadian was walking up in a t-shirt and pants. I had brought extra clothes for the summit, if it would ever come! I had walked through forest and marsh and now was too high for any of it to grow. Only jagged, flacky rocks inhabited this steep rise. When I finally reached the summit there was still a group there, having lunch, huddled behind a rock, out of the strong westernly winds. I was cold by this point. I quickly threw on more layers and sat down to refuel myself. The two figures behind me arrived and turned out to be a pair of americans. They didn´t last long. ¨Lets just get the photo and get down¨ they said. I laughed as everyone left and I casually stayed. I would get my peaceful panoramic view afterall. Afterall, what is the point in working that hard to climb something if you are just going to leave immediately after you arrive at the climax. Cold and wind is temporary, views and experiences can be burnt into your mind forever. Walking around the plateau-like section on top of this spine of rock almost 1000 meters above sea level. Down, far below, almost at sea level lay Ushuaia With its big cruise ships and airport peninsula curving out into the Beagle Channel. Over in the opposite direction lay the Chilean side of the island. Snowcapped mountain all around, Blue and green lakes and rivers winding there way between hills to spill out into the Channel. The view was fantastic. The entire National Park could be seen below. The Tierra Del Fuego national Park. Here I was on Tierra del Fuego. The end of the world. As I began to come down Cerro Guanaco huge dark clouds and fog destroyed the once splendid view. Wind increased tenfold and I had to take great care not be blown off the side of the face. Pouring rain began to wash my clothes and skin rather thoroughly. Half-way down the rain let up as I entered the wooded part once more. As I passed other on their way up I felt extremely sorry for them. What a poor day to do the climb. I myself was rather lucky. If I had arrived 30 minutes later there wouldn´t have been much to see. Once getting to the bottom the clouds reasserted themselve showing that they were not finished yet. When I arrived back to my camp and found that rain had entered my cheap, aweful tent and got several things of mine wet. I quickly packed up my things and just as I was finishing the sun came out. What perfect timing, right after I finish packing up! I took the next bus out of the park back to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is a small, colourful city. All the buildings are relatively plain with sheet metal rooves of blue, green, orange, pink and all other colours. The streets rise away from the large port at the base always full of enormous cargo ships and rich cruise ships full of people that have the money to do the multi-day cruises down to Antartica. Ushuaia is a very touristy city. Full of many languages and old folk (with money), tourist shops, and tour agencies. Everything here is more expensive. It costs almost twice as much for a general hostel. I havn´t even bothered to check restaurants... The island called Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina. It was given the name Land of Fire by the first explorers who, upon arrival, saw enormous clouds of smoke rising from all over the island. This smoke came from large fires that were constantly maintained throughout the day and night by the indigenous people populating the island at the time. These people lived completely without clothing and used the fires, along with sea lion fat all over the skin, to stay warm through the cold winters. There was about 3000 of these inhabitants living on the island when the white man arrived. Within a few years after their arrival theirs number had depleited down to a few hundred!
Much of the northern part of the island is flat, lacking beauty or vegetation. Once the highway leads south and gets back into the Andes mountain range things start looking up. Mountains dominate the scene with hidden, untouched lakes lieing in the valles, with rivers and stream connecting them. The tranquility of this place is astounding. The absolute purity of the scenery and nature here is a wonderful sight. Such few inhabitants live on this island, between the 2 main cities (Rio Grande in the North and Ushuaia in the South) there is practically nothing, just farm land and animals. These two main cities are growing though especially in the tourist industry. Many people living up north where work can be scarce move down to Tierra del Fuego and find work with ease and stay for years. The temperature here is relatively mild believe it or not. It never gets extremely hot or cold compared to at home, which is the opposite. Right now in summer it is an average of about 15 degrees throughout the day with sun. During the winter it only goes slightly below 0 degrees although there is lots of wind off the ocean. This being said, even now in the summer the weather is extremely erratic, changing several times a day save snowing. Often a day can start quite sunny with lots of wind, by the afternoon clouds come in and begin to rain at times like mist other times torrential downpour as was explained earlier in this entry. This means that going out for a day trip one must be extremely prepared for any. Just because you can go out in a tshirt now doesn´t mean it will stay like that!At night it doesn´t exactly get dark per se, just extremely cloudy. The sun sets yet a weird sort of light stays in the sky except the light does not always come from where the sun has set. A blue sort of inconsistent colour of afterglow pokes through the clouds that always build up at night and take over the sky. The winds that may have blown all day long all of a sudden stop and the night is always very calm and quiet. In the park these tanquil nights were very calming, backed with a soft sound of flowing water all around and the movement of rabbits running about chewing on grass.
My first day in Ushuaia I directly went to the national park and stayed for 2 days. There I met up with Mark, my Catalán friend from Bariloche and we spent the night together in a free campsite. The day after this Mark left to El Calafate and we agreed to meet in Puerto Natales in another National Park there. I spent a day taking a boat along the Beagle channel to different islands and to see some wildlife, mainly sea lions and birds. I have decided that sea lions are a disgraceful and disgusting animal. They never do anything, just lie about on top of each other, they smell of waste and fish and are constantly making belching and vomiting noises as they try to clear their bowels of the rot that they feed themselves on. I have no desire to ever see another sea lion in my life. Penguins can be seen here although it is heavily overpriced unfortunately, like everything else in Ushuaia. For the next 2 days after this I visited 2 different glaciers and natural lagoons, camped out for one night and did some exhilerating and slightly dangerous rock climbing to reach beautiful heights on the glacier and be right next to the ice. This provided me with fantastic views of course so you can be sure that my photos will be the best, don´t bother looking anywhere else!
Ushuaia was an awesome stop, while slightly expensive, the location was definitely worth it to see. I would like to come back when I have enough money to take part in all the seriously fun stuff! I was heading next to Puerto Natales in Chile where the Torres del Paine park sits right outside of the town. This park is said to be the best in Patagonia. Although just before new years a large forest fire started which spread and burnt a large portion of the park. When I was in Valparaiso I was with a volunteer firefighter when he got word of it. He would have missed new years to go! Alas his station did not specialize in putting out forest fires so he was given the grand opportunity in going. Just a few weeks ago the fire was successfully snuffed and the park is now open once again to the public, although what percentage of the park, I do not know. I will find out and let you all know of course! :D
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