So from Punto Arenas we made our way to our final destination in the South; the end of the world. The journey was a pretty exciting one (illustrated on the map below) as Tierra del Fuego (the southernmost point of South America and the inhabited world) is an archipelago so we got chaperoned across the Strait of Magellan by a collection of amazing black and white dolphins.
Tierra del Fuego is an area shared by Chile and Argentina and it got its name (Land of Fire) hundreds of years ago from passing ships. They noticed the shoreline campfires made by the Yámana people who inhabited the land at that time. The main city, Ushuaia was originally established as a penal colony and later became a key naval base (especially useful during the Falklands War). Nowadays it gets most of its money from tourism and is used as a gateway to Antarctica. The cruise ship we visited charged $1500-5000 a day for a 10-16 day trip so unfortunately I will have to wait for my rich husband for that trip.
Originally we were planning to spend a couple of days there, but the buses in this part of the world are pretty scarce and get filled up easily which meant we were stuck in Punto Arenas longer than we planned and only had a day and a half in Ushuaia before our flight back to Buenos. There is an national park in the area and a beautiful lagoon but we had seen a lot of those until now so we decided the most original thing to do would be to take a ride along the Beagle channel to see various flora and fauna of the area and the infamous lighthouse at the end of the world.
We knew we were back in Argentina because upon arriving at the boat we realised we had been accidently given VIP tickets we didn’t pay for and when enquiring what was going on the captain explained it is because “son lindas” (you are pretty). Obviously. We had super comfortable chairs and heating while the plebs/ugly people froze their butts off downstairs. Mwaahaahaaa. Another advantage of being lindas was the two free shots of whiskey we got in our coffee, a great way to get Monika in a great mood to celebrate her birthday at the end of the world. God I love this country.
We started off our trip seeing sealions and wannabe penguins but the really amazing part was when we stopped at one of the islands and got to walk around for a bit. The tour guide explained that we were standing right at the end of the world, with Argentina to our left, Chile to the right, the Atlantic in front of us and the Pacific behind us. The island in itself was not that amazing but that fact made it pretty special. We also got to see the lighthouse at the end of the world, the famous image of Tierra del Fuego, and all in all we had a lot of fun. It was a great way to celebrate Monika’s birthday, and the next day we left for the airport to catch our flight to Buenos Aires.
Southernmost point in the world
