Friday, November 25, 2005

Ushuaia/Rio Gallegos - 25 Nov 2005


Hi, the 23th I spent the morning in El Calefate and in the afternoon I went to the airport to take
a flight to Ushuaia. Normally the flight should leave at 16.20 but it was delayed to 18.00 hr and
the 20.00 hr and finally the plane landed in El Calafate at around 22.00 hr. At 22.30 we took off
for the 1 hr 20 minutes flight so it was almost midnight when I arrived in Ushuaia. I checked in
at hostel A manecer de La Bahia where I payed 25 pesos or about 8 euro for a dorm bed.

As an aviation freak its a bonus that I have landed on the highest commercial airport in the
world as well as the most southern commercial airport in the world.

The next day I woke up early and walked around a bit in the centre of Ushuaia enjoying the
nice views over the Beagle channel, the port (with only Maersk containers) and the snowcapped
mpuntains as a backdrop. The town itself was a bit bigger as I expected but still small enough
to walk through it.

In the afternoon I went to Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego for a 5 hours hike on several trails in the park. The setting is really beautifull with lakes, lagoons, mountains and a lot of birds and
especially rabbits. If rabbit paradise exists then its there. At Bahia Lapataia route 3 stops which
marks the real end of the world or el fin del mundo, 3063 km from Buenos Aires.

In the evening I went out eating in a Tenedor libre restaurant for 24 sol or about 8 euro.
I met an American, Karl, from Colorado so I did not have to eat alone. At a tenedor libre
you can eat as much as you want, a cold and hot meat bar, salad bar end desert bar are
available plus a real fire grill and barbeque where the cook can offer you beef, sheep meat,
chicken etc... When you come out of such a place you dont need breakfast the day after.

This morning at 05.30 hr I took the one and only bus connection from Ushuaia to Rio
Gallegos, a 590 km trip. We started in the Andes mountains but soon the landscape
changed into grasslands. To make the trip we had to cross the Chile border for about
250 km and then back the Argentinean border so my passport is filling up with stamps.
We also had to cross the strait of Magellan by ferry and there a sea lion swam with us
for maybe 30 seconds as he or she was saying " see you back soon at Tierra del Fuego".

At around 17.00 today we arrived in Rio Gallegos where I will spend the night. Tomorow
afternoon a take a flight to Buenos Aires, hopefully without a delay.

Cheers
Danny