Cross­ing The Mag­el­lan Strait

Patag­o­nia? Neh. Not Far enough. We decided to reach Ushuaia, the South­ern­most city in the world, located in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.

Going to the fin del mundo is an adven­ture in itself.

We left from Punta Are­nas at 6:30 am. Another short night… Lit­er­ally, con­sid­er­ing it was only really dark at mid­night and that it was already very bright when we got up.

The bus was almost empty. I took two seats for myself and quickly fell asleep. I used to be unable to sleep any­where but in my bed — these days are long gone. I sleep in planes, boats, trains, long dis­tance buses, even bus sta­tions. Give me a few years and I will doze off in front of the T.V. Gosh, I´m get­ting old.

I woke up when the bus stopped, a cou­ple of hours later. “Pueden bajar”, said the dri­ver. One hand on my cam­era, the other one on my lighter (seri­ously, who would be crazy enough to stop smok­ing when cig­a­rettes cost US$1 a pack?), I looked around. We had stopped right in front of the Strait of Mag­el­lan, and a ferry was wait­ing, with already a dozen of cars on it. Cross­ing to Isla Grande, Tierra Del Fuego´s main island.

We stepped on the boat and mar­veled at the clouds. The ferry was going fast but we could see dol­phins and some kind of ray fish swim­ming in the clear blue water under­neath us.

We reached the shore half an hour later. Ben­venidos a Tierra Del Fuego, still in Chile. It was a long ride on an unpaved — there­for bumpy and dusty — road to the Chilean exit stop, San Sebas­t­ian. We com­pleted the exit migracíon and entered Argentina a few kilo­me­ters later.

In total, it took us over 12 hours to reach Ushuaia from Punta Are­nas, a city that is already in the south of the South. The scenery was beau­ti­ful around Ushuaia: we drove above lakes and moun­tains, and the sky was blue, for a change. We arrived in the evening, with­out any reser­va­tion (obvi­ously, remem­ber, we are back­pack­ers!), tired, starv­ing, and dirty. And we were in for a surprise…

On The Boat…

Patag­o­nia…

¡Ben­venidos A Tierra Del Fuego!

Another World…

Road To Ushuaia

Cross­ing The Bor­der Between Chile And Argentina

Related posts:

1. Ushuaia, The End Of The World
2. Buenos Aires By Night
3. The Food Saga: The Feast Era
4. Patag­o­nia — Punta Arenas
5. Ottawa At Dusk