Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: As happy as I am that I made it to “the end of the world” I don’t think you have to rush out and visit Ushuaia immediately (pronounced oo-swy-ah). The town is not particularly attractive and they do not make anything easy for tourists. What attracted me was the novelty of being so far south.

It strongly reminded me of Maine and parts of Canada. However, instead of big trees There are forests of small beech trees and wispy lenguas that can withstand the wind. In some areas the wind is so strong the trees grow sideways.

The harbor is pretty: big snow capped mountains run down to the shore along the Beagle Channel.

The national park is a few kilometers away but the buses to get out there are not run with the customer in mind.

The park itself is nice. It has 7-8 walks that are pretty easy. I mostly wanted to send postcards stamped “fin del mundo.” I stood in a kiosk filling out my postcards next to a woman from South Carolina and listened to Cher sing “If I could Turn Back Time.”

I hiked along Lapataia Bay for a few hours and saw the local flora and fauna before heading back into town.

The next day I took a catamaran (they’re very popular in Argentina) along the Beagle Channel to a penguin colony.

We saw sea lions:

– Cormorants:

– And two kinds of penguins — the Magellanic and Gentoo:

The boat tour ended at Estancia Haberton, built by early British settlers. Samuel Bridges arrived early in the nineteenth century and worked as a missionary to convert the Yamuna indigenous people to Christianity. After Argentina’s independence from Spain the government in Buenos Aires made a big push to settle the southern end of the country. When it became clear that he would no longer get a salary from England, Bridges went to Buenos Aires to secure the land for the estancia.

The national congress was satisfied because Tierra del Fuego was claimed for Argentina: border disputes with Chile were already on the rise. He foresaw conflict between the settlers and the Yamuna and tried to help them, but they were eventually wiped out.

The Estancia was pretty and looked a little like a Scottish farm.

While it wasn’t the highlight of my trip I am still glad I made it all the way south.