Tierra del Fuego

The remote setting for Ushuaia, the town at the end of the earth, is best appreciated from the plane. Ushuaia, is separated from Chile´s Isla Navarino to the south by the Beagle Channel and surrounded by mountains and fjord-like scenery. The first European to discover the region was the Portugese explorer Magallanes in the 16th century who gave the islands their name after seeing the fires made by the native Indian´s which lit up the land. Early European attempts to settle the region failed and its only really in the last century that more permanent towns have sprung up.




I spent a few days hiking in the area, the highlight of which was the walk along the coastal trail in the nearby national park, through forests of lenga and ñire, offering great vistas across the water to the surrounding peaks. After a few days out in the fresh air, a long bus journey along the desolate treeless plains awaited me. However I was lucky to make it out of town in one piece when a car pulled out in front of our bus leaving our driver no time to manouevere and we crashed into it and spun off the road. Amazingly no-one was hurt and a replacement bus soon arrived. We continued north, spotting some guanacos (a south american camelid related to the llama) and rheas (a large flighless bird, bit like an ostrich), which livened up the journey into Chile and over to the mainland via ferry, to finally arrive in Punta Arenas.




The next day, I took a trip to visit the nearby Magellanic penguin colony at Seno Otway. The penguins are nearing the end of a 6 month breeding season at the colony before they migrate north to warmer waters. Although there are some 10,000 penguins here, they aren´t quite so densely populated as I had imagined and you only get to see a few hundred as you progress along the walkway past some nesting sites and up close and personal to these fascinating creatures.