Ushuaia: It's the End of the World as we Know It

And now for a bit of a backtrack to our stop in Ushuaia. After an incredibly long bus ride down from El Calafate that included a ferry across the Strait of Magellan and crossing both into and out of Chile, we arrived at the Southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia. It's where the Andes finally come to an end and it sits right on the Beagle Channel, where Darwin sailed through on his famous trip. It's where cruises to Antarctica leave from if you have a few thousand dollars to spare, which unfortunately we didn't, but it still has lots to offer besides that.

Ushuaia as seen from the Beagle Channel 

Our main goal in Ushuaia was to see some penguin, and to further that aim we booked a cruise of the Beagle Channel that among other attractions, such as sea lions and a light house, brought us to an island that several species of penguins inhabit. We saw a ton of Magellanic penguins and also a King penguin and a Gentoo penguin (all species identification is thanks to the informative guide). As stated before, penguins are the most hilarious of birds due to how awkward they are on land and the way they sleep like little logs. Additionally, it was very beautiful cruising through the channel and pretty interesting to think that the land which looks pretty identical on either side of the channel belongs to different countries (Argentina and Chile). Makes you think about what a human construct countries are really.

Magellanic Penguins hanging out 

We spent another day exploring Tierra del Fuego National Park then flew back up to El Calafate (turned out to be cheaper, not to mention much faster than taking the bus back) to get a bus to El Chaltén as detailed in the previous post. From here were heading North again to El Bolsón where craft markets and artisinal beer await us!