Heading south
To conclude our time in Buenos Aires we dedicated a full day to the classical arts. During the day we visited The National Museum of Fine Arts. The museum houses a beautiful collection of classical and contemporary art. Entry was for free so the value for money was surely an A++. In the evening we enjoyed a classical concert performed by one of Argentina's youth orchestras. An enjoyable evening and with free admission, it was a steal! Buenos Aires pleasantly surprised us. We’re not really city people but we enjoyed our time there. The people are friendly, the food is good (though not cheap) and the streets feel safe even at night. We especially loved the city’s many well-maintained parks, clearly enjoyed by the locals.
After yet another broken night, we made it to the most southern city on earth: Ushuaia. As a welcoming gift, or a warning not to forget where you are, it was raining when we arrived. After a few hours of soul draining rain, the sun finally pushed through the clouds and shed some sunlight on the place. It’s impressive what a bit of sun can do to positively change your perception of the surroundings. It’s difficult to describe the end-of-the-world feeling but it’s for sure a thing. It has this self-reliant, last frontier feeling. There is not much further south from here apart from a few small settlements of which Puerto Williams with its less than 2000 inhabitants by far is the largest.
We pitched our tent on a small campsite run by a local family on the outskirts of the city. The site can best be described as a garden with space for tents. There is a nice common area for cooking, hanging out and sheltering from the ever-changing weather. The sanitary building is heated to a degree only outperformed by the Sahara desert at lunch time. All in all, a good place to use as our base.
In our first few days here in Ushuaia we walked some shorter day hikes. Ushuaia lies at the foot of the mountains so there’re plenty to explore. The campsite is located along a gravel road leading to the trailhead for multiple hikes so it was obvious to start walking from the campsite. We hadn’t, however, anticipated the amount of dogs roaming the streets in this part of town. Some are pets while others are strays. Some seem friendly while others are less keen on hikers passing through. The hike itself was beautiful but muddy which led to funny moments with other tourists trying to keep their white sneakers somewhat white. Heading back down from the trailhead to the campsite we hitched a ride with two local trail runners. Half-laughingly they told us that this piece of road is the worst in the town when it comes to street dogs… Would have been nice to know in advance, I guess… Adventure, right?
The past few days we spent inside Tierra del Fuego National Park. Apart from the cruise ships leaving for Antarctica, this park is the main reason that people travel this far south. Most people experience the park on an organised day trip but if you take your time and bring your tent, you’re in for a special kind of a treat. The park is beautiful in all senses of the word and at night it’s as quiet as can be. The only sound breaking the silence is the noise made by the wings of the bats flying overhead. During the day you’re treated to astonishing landscapes and beautiful wildlife. While washing your dishes in the nearby river you’ll be accompanied by curious semi-wild horses who roam the park freely. We had a truly amazing time in the park.
Heading out of the park and back to Ushuaia, we hitched a ride with two Argentinians. A boy and his (grand)father visiting the park. Eventhough we don’t speak Spanish you can get quite far with Google Translate and lots of hand gestures. They were visiting from Tolhuin, the next bigger city up north along highway 3. They were happy to take us to Ushuaia and drop us off at the supermarket. Ideal as a resupply was needed after the days off-grid. The boy told that he was an avid coin collector and asked very politely if we might have any small coins from the Netherlands. “Nothing big, only a small one”. Luckily Britt had been carrying around a 10 eurocent coin in her pocket since we left Europe. In exchange we got a 20 Argentinian pesos bill as a souvenir. With the rampant inflation in Argentina, it’s euro equivalent value is 0,2 cents. It’s for sure going up on the wall when we get home.