Arrived to Ushuaia, the end of the world...claims to be the last city/town in the south!
We straight take a boat trip on the Beagle Channel to see the penguins, imperial cormorants, and of course usual sea lions. They are often seen having a nap on isolated small rocks emerged in the middle of the lagoon.
Now is time for camping, break from the hostels. Once the base camp is established we plan our treks in the National Park "Tierra del Fuego", a.k.a. "Terre de Feu" in French.
The weather is a mountain type one, often changing from rain to very sunny. Landscape looks like the Alps. Why have we come there ;-) ? Hi hi.
We test the hitch hiking experience and it is successful. First time we got picked up by a pickup truck which was a fun ride!
Anecdote: We leave the park at around 5:30 pm. However at that time, nearly everyone has already gone from the park... No cars to stop, no cars at all...! We were mentally preparing to walk 20km to the town... Thank God a car showed mercy and stopped (after initially passing us) and let us in... Worth to mention that the car was already loaded with 6 ppl so we ended up being 8, was 5ppl ;)
After one day hiking under rain and wind in the official National Park and some commuting time, we discovered that there was a trail straight from the camping up to the so-called Martial glacier. No entry fees to the National Park, direct access, and great views on Ushuaia lagoon; we had a picnic at the top behind a rock not covered by snow.
Anecdote: Because we are so good at planning (LOL), we anticipate to do food shopping for our first 5-day trek in Chile in advance so we are just ready to go once arrived. We got food for 5 days... But when sharing our so engenious plan with other fellow backpackers at the campsite, we learnt that one can't bring food into Chile, due to border restrictions. We got mega upset that ALL our stock especially fruits & vegs would be confiscated on the border! What a mess/loss/fuck-up!
However after reading online we learnt that the restrictions are not so cruel ;) We managed to smuggle through x-rays: cheese, ham, sausages, alfajores (argentinian cookies-we got addicted to them), pasta, ravioli, tea & coffee, powder milk, marmalade, nuts!
We sadly lost about 3kg of apples, 1.5kg tomatoes, cucumbers and some bananas. Lesson learnt as long as originally packed it will go, but no fruits or vegeteables (seeds) allowed!
We tried to diminish the loss by having fresh salad the night before but after 4 apples we got sick ;)
Coach Ushuaia - Puerto Natales 15hrs, c. 800km