Argentina 2019 - Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego

View from Cerro Guanaco Summit, Tierra del Fuego National Park

    

Getting to Ushuaia was hard work. I took a train from Valencia to Madrid and stopped over for the night. Then flew from Madrid to Buenos Aires, where I had to traverse the city to get from Ezeiza to Aeroparque for the flight down to El Fin del Mundo. Two sentences in a blog post, but 48 gruelling hours in real life! It was a relief to arrive, get showered, change clothes, and go out to eat. Close to my accommodation was Pizza Hot which did excellent empanadas, and had a wide selection of the locally produced Beagle and Cape Horn beers. Fed and watered I went to get some much needed rest. I'd wanted to visit Patagonia for many years, but the sad truth is by the time I actually got there I was less than enthusiastic about the whole trip. I get to see my closest friend once a year at most, and back in spring we'd made plans for him to visit Spain during the summer. For that reason I'd decided to spend the Christmas period in Argentina. However, our plans fell through at quite short notice, and it was too late for me to cancel my flights. So there I was in the southernmost tip of South America surrounded by strangers, when I'd really have preferred to be in Canada with friends. But as things turned out, I met some good people who refused to let me mope about in the hostel. I got talking to a German economics student, and we hiked out to the Laguna Esmerelda. I realised en route we'd likely encounter muddy sections as a result of recent rain. It was too late to acquire wellies, and the only thing I had on me were two Ziplock bags and the remnants of a roll of cling film (left over from preparing a packed lunch). I proceeded to put the bags over my socks, and wrap my ankles. My companion thought I was being over the top, until we were navigating our way through a bog and his boot got sucked off, leaving him with a muddy, wet sock for the rest of the day! Next morning I took the bus out to Tierra del Fuego National Park, where you can hike trails of varying difficulty. I knew that I wanted to do Cerro Guanaco (the longest and most difficult), but was wary of doing it alone. As it happened I teamed up with a young Isreali, who was on a break after his first year of military service. He was fit and confident, plus had a handheld GPS so we headed for the summit. It was a difficult climb for me. He set a blistering pace and insisted on shouting out the altitude every few metres of elevation gained, ensuring I was always aware that we were nowhere near the top (we knew the summit was at 973 metres). The pay off was stunning views of the Beagle Channel, Lago Roca, and an encompassing stretch of the Fuengian Andes. By the time we completed the descent, my legs were like jelly and I was struggling to walk. The following day, having sworn I was done with hiking for the rest of the trip, a group of us went to eat at the highly recommended Estancia Parrilla. It's an Argentinian grill room whose menu offers an all you can eat option. The quality of the meat was amazing, and the parrillero isn't stingy with his cuts. Despite being ravenously hungry I only managed a serving of lamb, and one of beef. With renewed strength, in the course of the second week I managed to climb another mountain, and walk along the Playa Larga before leaving Ushuaia.  My flight home was on New Year's Eve, and I was in the air over Buenos Aires at the stroke of midnight. From the plane I watched the city below as it erupted into a sprawling fireworks display.

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