Monday, March 18, 2019 – Another day, another flight delay…
Not liking delays any more than ever, but sorta getting used to them. My already late flight to Buenos Aires this evening has been pushed out over an hour, so I won’t arrive until after midnight. Even with all the time I’m away on this trip, I’ve scheduled things pretty tightly in order to get everything in that I can while I’m here.
I had to be completely packed to vacate my room in Ushuaia this morning, as I wasn’t able to get a late checkout. So am currently camped out in the lobby with various and sundry other characters who are also waiting for something? The hotel lobby is nice enough for a short campout. There’s a panoramic view of the Ushuaia port and both the Argentinian and Chilean Andes surrounding the Beagle Channel with fresh snow on top.
I knew it was cold yesterday, and then the temp dropped overnight and the rain continued, so voile’, woke up to snow at around 1,500 feet. I’ll admit I had to look up the word snow for the title, but I knew Fresca! Too bad I wake up every day speaking only English again, so have to get a cuppa joe before I can even start to think about speaking Spanish!
The tour company picked me up this morning at 8:30 at the hotel lobby, and while I was anticipating being taken to a bus with 60+ other passengers, I was pleasantly surprised that the young Argentinian woman already in the car and I were the only customers for the morning’s trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park. However, I didn’t realize that there was a Celebrity ship in port today with over 4,000 passengers disembarking and going on day trips, many of them to the same destination as me, so the park was a madhouse with tour busses, etc.
The park is just a few miles out of Ushuaia, so it was just a few minutes ride to the train station. I recall seeing signs that said something like Entrenar el Fin del Mundo. This area was essentially occupied solely by indigenous people as late as the mid-1800s. When Charles Darwin discovered the Beagle Channel, the Brits attempted to seize control of the area, for obvious navigational “control” and other reasons. The Argentine president decided to keep it for his country, so following the example the Brits had set in Australia, he created a penal colony. There began the decline and decimation of the native population. The train was built to take the prisoners into the heavily forested Fin del Mundo area to collect wood for building and heating. It continues to run today as a tourist trap, I mean attraction, and they seriously pack people in 3x tighter than airlines.
This area is called Fin del Mundo (end of the world) because it’s the furthest point south that can be driven to — anywhere in the world. The road is National Route 3. Lots of motorcycles go to the actual final point on the road, and turn around to start north. It extends over 3,000 km (almost 1900 miles) to Buenos Aires and passes through multiple provinces between Tierra del Fuego and Buenos Aires. I’m just glad I don’t have to drive or ride that route today! Route 3 intersects with the more infamous Ruta 40, which goes from Rio Gallegos in southern Argentina to Anchorage, Alaska.
The park was beautiful, but due to the crowds, we sort of raced through. We did manage to see a couple of beautiful lakes, more beaver dams, and a few birds that frequent the area. When we finished the park tour, the driver suggested a restaurant, so I was dropped off near downtown instead of the hotel.
After a great lunch, I wandered around a little, then went to the taxi stand to go back to the hotel to wait for a few hours until it was time to catch my flight.
Travels with Nance 