Date of Entry: February 4th 2016
Date of Writing: March 12th 2016, Hostal 53 Sur, Punta Arenas, Chile.
I’m heading to Antarctica in just two days now, and that fact is becoming a bit frustrating as I’m having a great time exploring Patagonia with David and Henrike from Germany, but I do still remain excited for that journey. I’m also happy that we decide to make the most of our next two days together, starting by waking up early and getting on the 8 am minibus to Tierra Del Fuego National Park, a 40 minute drive from the centre of Ushuaia. (250 ARS round trip). You can also take a taxi or try your luck at hitchhiking which is said to be very easy, and I do have nothing but positive experiences hitch hiking in Patagonia.
Either way,since there’s three of us and we want to maximize our time in the park for the day so we hop on the bus which leaves on time and soon enough were paying our 170 ARS (12 USD) entry fee which is good for up to 2 nights and 3 days if you are camping in the park (where camping is free) but only for a single entry. We climb back on the bus and get dropped off right along the coast line where we’ve decided to do the easier of two possible day hikes, hiking the costanera trail and opting out of the more challenging ascent of mount guanaco. But first comes breakfast, as we settle in on some rocks looking out at the impressive southern edge of the andes looming across the narrow inlet of sea water that will help mark our path for the day. Not bad in terms of breakfast views.
We make it a quick breakfast not wanting to let new arrivals in a tour bus catch up to us on the trail and plunging not a beautiful windswept forest which traces the coastline of this beautiful end of the world National Park. The trail is a little roughshod but easy enough to follow and much to my joy keeps us close to the coastline. I’ve been missing the ocean badly the past few months and it’s nice to finally spend some time beside it these past few days in Ushuaia.
We’re very lucky and get a beautiful day with mostly blue sky, the sun mixed with wind reminding me of that blissful first week of spring in Canada where every bit of sunlight is swallowed up by famished skin. We laugh and joke and Henrike also takes some turns with my camera, yielding most of the good photos you’ll find in this entry.
We continue along the mostly flat trail ducking in and out of the thick noisy forest as the wind makes the branches creek and cringe with startling regularity and David tells us the legend of how the wind came to inhabit the island of Tierra Del fuego so strongly. Along time ago, upon seeing european ships arriving at the island, a chief of the native people of the island called to the wind with the hopes of convincing it to blow the european ships out to sea, but shortly after calling it he fell down a crevace never to be found and so to this day the wind roams the island, searching for him desperately but without success. Perhaps not entirely true, but the winds here are remarkably strong and constant.
Together the three of us enjoy the rising sun over the stunningly blue water and even take some self timer photos, though I do manage to almost knock Henrike over in the first one.
Walking along the path takes us past many unique wonders, some sort of berry that looks stunningly like a mini tomato and some huge cancerous tumours covering trees which turn out to be a type of fungus which apparently the local people used to eat. I’m going to give it a try, but an experienced birder from Denmark suggests against it. The sun sparkles through the verdant green of the trees in stunning bursts, and I’m again reminded of how very similar Patagonia is to parts of Canada. Sometimes it’s nice to feel almost at home despite being at the other end of the world. And this feeling is buoyed by skipping some rocks off the beach, though the waves and my height make it more difficult than when I was young.
As we keep going along endless rocky beaches and up small hills into thick forest David shows us our first glimpse of his special travel pose and I find myself wishing i’d done more gymnastic training in my youth, as handstand photos look pretty cool.
We also come across a few truly beautiful birds lurking just a short distance from the water. They are surprisingly calm as we approach and later looking at the photos I’m able to identify them as kelp geese thanks to a poster at Los Lupinos. Either way they are beautiful and it’s not the last time I’ll see them on this windswept island.
Next comes something I’d not really planned for, but as we climb out onto the mussels covered rocks towards the sea the subject of potentially swimming comes up and soon enough David and I are down to shorts and wading out into the freezing cold water. Henrike has the good sense having just gotten over a cold to stick to documenting the moment which yields some strange photos. The sea water here is bone chilling but I’ve certainly swum in colder, still we don’t linger more than a minute or so in the water, as we’ve still got a lot of walking to do on the day. I walk on in my boxers, having failed to pack an extra pair, which earns still more surprise from the few hikers who stopped to watch us swim and take photos.
We continue along the trail coming towards the end of the coastal inlet and climbing up away from the sea and going up the biggest hill of the day deeper into the forests of this stunning national park.
Thinking back to David’s go to pose I decide that it’s long past time to wow my new friends with mine, and by wow I mean shock, humiliate and terrify them of course. Still it does yield some beautiful photos and also spurs David into a few more handstands on a giant boulder.
We end up quickly back on one last set of rocky beaches along this part of the trail, enjoying the surprisingly warm rays of sunshine still beaming down on us, me putting on some sunscreen as we stop for lunch. Ushuaia has one of the highest UV index positions in the whole world so you have to be careful with your skin here. It’s never really hot but I can already feel myself burning. I end up skipping lunch knowing that my diet is going to be hard to maintain on a small boat in Antarctica and trying to make the most of my last few days on land.
We continue, now finished the coastal part of the walk and heading inland towards a myriad of mountains, lakes and rivers which are a whole different kind of beautiful. Before long we’re walking between stunning lakes backed by mountains and as we cross a bridge over a river we’re lucky enough to catch sight of a fox with some garbage in t’s mouth likely meant to help build it’s den. Foxes are common here and quick to adapt to human influence, which seems too bad really as eating what we leave behind can’t be the healthiest of diets for these beautiful creatures. We also find a section of the river where it has thinned creating some impressive rapids where I take a few gulps of the crisp water before a national park officer finds us and tells us with a smile we’re not allowed to be at the river. She’s not mad and we end up chatting amicably as we head back to the little access road.
After some consultation with the basic map given to us upon entering the park we walk further along the river and eventually rejoin the small access road and also find some old dock structure built out into the glacier river and decide to have a climb and chill session on the only minorley rotting wood. Still it might not have been the smartest idea though nothing bad occurs.
As we keep walking we come to more incredible glacial rivers snaking through the mountains at the southern edge of the world and I can’t help but swim again, climbing off the oath and down a steep hill before slipping into the icy waters. It’s very cold but not quite as bad as the ocean and I end up actually swimming around for a few minutes before climbing back up to the lookout point and enjoying a late bite to eat. On the way to the swimming point we also find a few more kelp geese, a bird that I still find special, the multicoloured feathers making them strangely beautiful.
Now nearing the 6pm time when our companies last bus leaves the park. (Several companies run shuttles to and from Ushuaia and you have to go back with the one you arrived with. Some companies first bus leaves at 9 am from Ushuaia and return at 7 but we’d opted for an 8-6 day. Still as we wander along the access road towards the pick up point after some brief detours through swamp land and halfway up a hill where we are warned the tail is closed up ahead we do get one last view of the ocean, buoyed by some beautiful horses grazing in lush green pastures.
As we meet up with some of the people who shared our bus into the park and look for our companies vehicle a very strange but beautiful hawklike bird with a strange beak wanders up towards us at the edge of the parking lot, clearly curious and quite comfortable being close to human beings.
The bus back has been overbooked but everyone is friendly as we squeeze a few extra people into the minivan and head back to Ushuaia. That night I meet a friendly trio of very Canadian Canadians who I play cribbage with before David and Henrike join me at Cruz Del Sur hostel where we play a game or two of exploding kittens (a strange perhaps overrated game) and talk deep into the night. The next morning I have some last minute things to get ready for antarctica but I can’t resist one more outing with David and Henrike in the afternoon to Laguna Esmeralda.
