A little bit of history
So where am I some will have looked it up some will know.
This is where I am
The bottom end of South America which has a straight line between Chile and Argentina over Tierra del Fuego to the Beagle channel and is part of Patagonia and is also called the Magallenas. Are you keeping up......? Confusing no?
Punta Arenas sits on mainland south America in Chile and the rest the real bottom end of the Continent is a series of islands a bit like the Isle Wight to UK, ha ha ha. But the main island is called Tierra del Fuego and at the Southern end of that you have the town of Ushusia that looks out on Beagle channel. Beyond there is Chile again Isla Navarino and Puerto Williams and finally the Cabo de Hornos, Drake Passage and the Antarctica!
Tierra del Fuego
A whole world of this.......
Initially there were 4000 or so Selk'nam people, one of the indigenous tribes of this part of the world and they were giants up to 2M tall and the Japanese dude with me on my Spanish tour pointed out in Spanglish the familiarity by holding the corners of his eyes snd chuckling! Who roamed around hunting Guancos and Foxes but now the further you drive the more sheep and cattle you see and big Estanstio, ranches
In a tiny little town called cerro sombre was the black gold rush, petroleum and gas. It also had Chile's first cinema, cars, as there was no Panama Canal and so everything came through the Magallena Straits and this booming industry injected money here.
Interestingly as I sit sweltering inside in just a t-shirt when I need thermals on outside wondering why they don't just turn the heating down I am reminded the government heavily subsidise the gas. Roll on sweatbox!
I am here in Spring and it feels a little brutal at times, people still work here 2 weeks on 2 weeks off you can see kids running out from school. Never fails to amaze me how different everywhere is and precious each little bubble of world around that we create.
Across the fiery land we travel with miles and miles of nada dotted with sheep that even managed to turn themselves the color of the land and blend in! To be fair I did have the best lamb and Chile's version of muld wine ever at Patagonia Camp. Even Katie who doesn't like lamb said it was good, I obviously got carried away and gave myself the meat sweats! I think it's all too do with how they barbeque it.
Then after a few hours we are at the border crossing, ola Argentina my Spanish is improving.....!
Rio Grande is my destination of choice didn't really want to do a full day on the bus and I thought I would check out this fishing port!
As with most places I roll into that are waaaaaayyy bigger and more developed than I would have thought. Rio Grande, not instantly hit by it being a fishing port! New car showrooms plenty of outdoor shops and mountain bikes
I planned to stay about 24hours with 1600 bus the next day but confusion reigns and good job I checked my bus the next day when I got off as it goes at 1100 ther next day or actually 1040, good job I turned up at 1030!
Anyway I wander off to find my hotel which has an insanely strong smell of something designed to be nice but just so strong it's almost suffocating. I don't know what but if I was traveling with Sara or Gail we probably would've moved
I collapsed into my room, a day of doing nothing makes you very inclined to do nothing especially in what feels like the middle of bloody nowhere. A little bit of encouragement by what's app from Els to go get a picture of me with some wildlife and this is what I got brids can you see them.....
or a bit closer to a stuffed one in the local museum, where a version of brass rubbing was possible. Obviously I partook.
Rio Grande is a place to stop next month and go fishing fly fishing....too cold right now! Doh. But also was the place where the Argentina troops deployed from to the Falklands or Islas Malvinas as it is called and still has a strong pull here. So just under 40 years ago this town was the focus of the air deployments from Argentina in the war.
Final stop dinner nothing flash but first to acquire some cash everything is cheaper if you pay by cash however getting cash proved surprisingly difficult for me.
First of all a different currency and exchange rate boom go the brain cellls stood at the cashpoint with the pressure of a queue behind and multiples of 100s or 1000s on the screen. I got this I am going to enter my own amount.
Click goes the machine I take my cash, thinking nailed start looking at the notes and doing the maths and work out for a cost of 50p I managed to get about £4.50 out the cash point. You wouldn't have thought that was possible.
Heading to Ushuaia
After surviving the night in my super hot hotel and rather ingeniously using an upside down glass as a plug sooo i could have a bath. I failed to return my remote control when I checked out, I left it in the room much to their concern. But they are obviously a valuable commodity because when I checked in they gave it to me with the key, who knew that would ever be a thing!
Anyway I treated myself to a coffee and cake the pastry (I know that is not the correct term but it escapes me) shops here are just far too overwhelming
and rocked up to catch my bus again confusion reigned but eventually I got on a minibus soon to be rammed full of people and made the tactical error of sitting on the wrong side to really be treated to the scenery, though the grey sky today made it pretty bleak.
After an hour or so the world starts to change again and once more there are trees covered in the beardy lichen which apparently means the air is so clean, purified (not so on our bus!) and snow on the ground and the puddles are frozen.
Welcome to the uttermost end of the earth!
This is where I am
The bottom end of South America which has a straight line between Chile and Argentina over Tierra del Fuego to the Beagle channel and is part of Patagonia and is also called the Magallenas. Are you keeping up......? Confusing no?
Punta Arenas sits on mainland south America in Chile and the rest the real bottom end of the Continent is a series of islands a bit like the Isle Wight to UK, ha ha ha. But the main island is called Tierra del Fuego and at the Southern end of that you have the town of Ushusia that looks out on Beagle channel. Beyond there is Chile again Isla Navarino and Puerto Williams and finally the Cabo de Hornos, Drake Passage and the Antarctica!
Tierra del Fuego
A whole world of this.......
Initially there were 4000 or so Selk'nam people, one of the indigenous tribes of this part of the world and they were giants up to 2M tall and the Japanese dude with me on my Spanish tour pointed out in Spanglish the familiarity by holding the corners of his eyes snd chuckling! Who roamed around hunting Guancos and Foxes but now the further you drive the more sheep and cattle you see and big Estanstio, ranches
In a tiny little town called cerro sombre was the black gold rush, petroleum and gas. It also had Chile's first cinema, cars, as there was no Panama Canal and so everything came through the Magallena Straits and this booming industry injected money here.
Interestingly as I sit sweltering inside in just a t-shirt when I need thermals on outside wondering why they don't just turn the heating down I am reminded the government heavily subsidise the gas. Roll on sweatbox!
I am here in Spring and it feels a little brutal at times, people still work here 2 weeks on 2 weeks off you can see kids running out from school. Never fails to amaze me how different everywhere is and precious each little bubble of world around that we create.
Across the fiery land we travel with miles and miles of nada dotted with sheep that even managed to turn themselves the color of the land and blend in! To be fair I did have the best lamb and Chile's version of muld wine ever at Patagonia Camp. Even Katie who doesn't like lamb said it was good, I obviously got carried away and gave myself the meat sweats! I think it's all too do with how they barbeque it.
Then after a few hours we are at the border crossing, ola Argentina my Spanish is improving.....!
Rio Grande is my destination of choice didn't really want to do a full day on the bus and I thought I would check out this fishing port!
As with most places I roll into that are waaaaaayyy bigger and more developed than I would have thought. Rio Grande, not instantly hit by it being a fishing port! New car showrooms plenty of outdoor shops and mountain bikes
I planned to stay about 24hours with 1600 bus the next day but confusion reigns and good job I checked my bus the next day when I got off as it goes at 1100 ther next day or actually 1040, good job I turned up at 1030!
Anyway I wander off to find my hotel which has an insanely strong smell of something designed to be nice but just so strong it's almost suffocating. I don't know what but if I was traveling with Sara or Gail we probably would've moved
I collapsed into my room, a day of doing nothing makes you very inclined to do nothing especially in what feels like the middle of bloody nowhere. A little bit of encouragement by what's app from Els to go get a picture of me with some wildlife and this is what I got brids can you see them.....
Rio Grande is a place to stop next month and go fishing fly fishing....too cold right now! Doh. But also was the place where the Argentina troops deployed from to the Falklands or Islas Malvinas as it is called and still has a strong pull here. So just under 40 years ago this town was the focus of the air deployments from Argentina in the war.
Final stop dinner nothing flash but first to acquire some cash everything is cheaper if you pay by cash however getting cash proved surprisingly difficult for me.
First of all a different currency and exchange rate boom go the brain cellls stood at the cashpoint with the pressure of a queue behind and multiples of 100s or 1000s on the screen. I got this I am going to enter my own amount.
Click goes the machine I take my cash, thinking nailed start looking at the notes and doing the maths and work out for a cost of 50p I managed to get about £4.50 out the cash point. You wouldn't have thought that was possible.
Heading to Ushuaia
After surviving the night in my super hot hotel and rather ingeniously using an upside down glass as a plug sooo i could have a bath. I failed to return my remote control when I checked out, I left it in the room much to their concern. But they are obviously a valuable commodity because when I checked in they gave it to me with the key, who knew that would ever be a thing!
Anyway I treated myself to a coffee and cake the pastry (I know that is not the correct term but it escapes me) shops here are just far too overwhelming
and rocked up to catch my bus again confusion reigned but eventually I got on a minibus soon to be rammed full of people and made the tactical error of sitting on the wrong side to really be treated to the scenery, though the grey sky today made it pretty bleak.
After an hour or so the world starts to change again and once more there are trees covered in the beardy lichen which apparently means the air is so clean, purified (not so on our bus!) and snow on the ground and the puddles are frozen.
Welcome to the uttermost end of the earth!
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