So, I didn´t realize that it has been about a month since my last entry! I´ve been down to the end of the world and back again in that time and have lots to tell...
Ushuaia is a beautiful city with lots to offer. It took me about 30 hours to get there by bus from Puerto Madryn, but we had a few problems along the way to make it such a crazy delay. There was a couple from Uruguay who were stopped at the border into Chile (we had 4, yes 4, border crossings to get to Ushuaia) because they had apples in their bag. Any type of plant or animal product is subject to hefty fines if brought into Chile, so we had to wait about an extra hour and a half for this couple to finally get all their stuff straightened out... I think they were fined about 800 pesos per apple (the total equivalent of about $800US). Craziness.
Then our bus blew a tire out somewhere in the middle of no mans land in Chile because the roads are all terrible bumpy gravel. Literally, there was no one around. I took a little wander and saw some sheep and I think one truck drove by in the hour that we were stranded there. Finally, we got to Ushuaia and stayed in a nice little hostel on the top of a hill (very, very bad idea to stay on the top of the hill) overlooking the amazing views of mountains and the sea.
I met a young german guy on the bus and the two of us took a lovely boat ride into the bay the next day to check out a little island with lots of indigenous flora and then to get super up close to some more sea lions and comorones (pretty little black and white birds that look a little like penguins from far away). The coolest part of the trip was when the captain noticed a school of fish under the water, somewhat close by our boat (the water is so clear!). He let us drift over to that area and we all had to be really quiet so as to not scare them away. All of the sudden, all of these sea lions started jumping out of the water and diving back in all over the place trying to catch the fish that scattered. It was truly amazing.
The next day, I went on a 7 hour hike through Tierra del Fuego National Park to the top of a mountain overlooking the city of Ushuaia and the surrounding waters and mountains with some people I met at my hostel. It was a beautiful, though very difficult hike, with a spectacular result... the first of many to come. Unfortunately, the top of the mountain was so cold and sooooo windy (the wind literally knocked me over while I was trying to take a picture) so I turned around soon after reaching the top.
The next few days of Ushuaia were spent eating delicious chocolates and wandering around the beautiful seaside... I was stuck there unexpectedly for a couple of extra days because of a holiday, but it was a wonderful place to get stuck.
