Penguins!

Penguins! - Billed as the end of the world, Ushuaia, Argentina is the southernmost city of any significance on Earth. It's also the gateway to Antarctica. As a result, much like Calafate and Chalten, Ushuaia has a distinctly tourist feel to it. That said, I liked the city itself. A seaside town, it reminded me a lot of bigger cities like Halifax and San Francisco. With only one main street, orientation was pretty easy and they have a nice boardwalk along the water. The city itself sits on the Beagle Channel, the body of water discovered by Charles Darwin and company, aboard the vessel named, you guessed it, the Beagle.

The hostel I stayed at, the Freestyle, was very nice. Great rooms, huge lockers, the biggest breakfast I've seen so far, helpful staff and a lounge overlooking the whole city. I couldn't have asked for a nicer place to stay while I was here.

There are lots of things to do in Ushuaia (many of the people I met were staying for as long as a week) but I only had two days so I chose wisely. First up, walking with penguins!

In this part of the world, there is a lot of interesting marine life if you know where to look. On Isla Martillo, in the middle of the Beagle Channel, sits the breeding grounds for a colony of Magellenic penguins as well as one Emperor penguin who got lost (poor little guy, he stood out like a sore thumb).

My tour group consisted of myself and a group of 13 geriatric Italians. Woot, woot! In all seriousness, they were fun and made quite the effort to communicate with me in what little English they knew and include me in their group. Along the way to Estancion Harberton (an old working ranch that served as the launch point for the boat), we stopped at several viewpoints for pictures - at which all the Italians yelled Meeeeradooooor every time (mirador is Spanish for viewpoint) - and at an active beaver pond - at which all the Italians went nuts and started histerically shouting Castori! Castori! (the Italian word for beaver). One of the Italians on the bus sitting next to me started asking me why I wasn't girating over the beavers like everyone else to which I tried to explain why as a Canadian, beavers don't excite me. I think something was lost in translation though...

Once at the ranch, we boarded a large zodiac boat for the 15-minute ride across the Beagle Channel to the island. As we approached the island, you could see a sandy beach and hundreds of little black dots spotting the beach - penguins! As we beached, the penguins didn't budge, and just kind of went about their day, which pretty much consists of waddling, standing around and sleeping. What a life! We jumped off the zodiac, and spent 45 minutes walking the island, taking pictures and learning about the penguins from our guide. The penguins were very small, only about a foot tall. We were able to get very close to them, within about arms length of touching one (something we were advised was not a good idea if you enjoy the presence of your fingers). The penguins are marvellous creatures. All in all, it was an amazing experience to walk with wild penguins, something I will not soon forget.

The next day, I headed off to do some hiking at Tierra del Fuego National Park. Tierra del Fuego is the name of the island on which Ushuaia sits. It is split in half between Argentina and Chile. The name means Land of Fire, and was named so because the first Spanish explorers identified the island by the massive fires that the natives lit to keep warm and which could be seen from their vessels. The National Park was nice but the landscape was eerily similar to many parks I've visited in Canada. I enjoyed the hiking but didn't really feel the park was as special as many I had talked to found it. I think this is the difficulty coming from a country like Canada which has such a varied landscape.

Unfortunately, getting to and from the end of the world is very difficult. Needing to get to Chile next, my options were a very expensive cross-border flight, a very expensive multiday boat ride, or a very long, uncomfortable bus ride. Sucking it up, I opted for the bus. 1 bag of cookies, 1 chocolate bar, 2 border crossings, 1 ferry ride and 11 hours on the bus later and I finally arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile where it's time to start preparing for my trek through Torres del Paine National Park. Oh and what the hell, on the way I'll go see some more penguins...

More photos on Flickr

February 23rd, 2010

Billed as the end of the world, Ushuaia, Argentina is the southernmost city of any significance on Earth. It's also the gateway to Antarctica. As a result, much like Calafate and Chalten, Ushuaia has a distinctly tourist feel to it. That said, I liked the city itself. A seaside town, it reminded me a lot of bigger cities like Halifax and San Francisco. With only one main street, orientation was pretty easy and they have a nice boardwalk along the water. The city itself sits on the Beagle Channel, the body of water discovered by Charles Darwin and company, aboard the vessel named, you guessed it, the Beagle.

The hostel I stayed at, the Freestyle, was very nice. Great rooms, huge lockers, the biggest breakfast I've seen so far, helpful staff and a lounge overlooking the whole city. I couldn't have asked for a nicer place to stay while I was here.

There are lots of things to do in Ushuaia (many of the people I met were staying for as long as a week) but I only had two days so I chose wisely. First up, walking with penguins!

In this part of the world, there is a lot of interesting marine life if you know where to look. On Isla Martillo, in the middle of the Beagle Channel, sits the breeding grounds for a colony of Magellenic penguins as well as one Emperor penguin who got lost (poor little guy, he stood out like a sore thumb).

My tour group consisted of myself and a group of 13 geriatric Italians. Woot, woot! In all seriousness, they were fun and made quite the effort to communicate with me in what little English they knew and include me in their group. Along the way to Estancion Harberton (an old working ranch that served as the launch point for the boat), we stopped at several viewpoints for pictures - at which all the Italians yelled Meeeeradooooor every time (mirador is Spanish for viewpoint) - and at an active beaver pond - at which all the Italians went nuts and started histerically shouting Castori! Castori! (the Italian word for beaver). One of the Italians on the bus sitting next to me started asking me why I wasn't girating over the beavers like everyone else to which I tried to explain why as a Canadian, beavers don't excite me. I think something was lost in translation though...

Once at the ranch, we boarded a large zodiac boat for the 15-minute ride across the Beagle Channel to the island. As we approached the island, you could see a sandy beach and hundreds of little black dots spotting the beach - penguins! As we beached, the penguins didn't budge, and just kind of went about their day, which pretty much consists of waddling, standing around and sleeping. What a life! We jumped off the zodiac, and spent 45 minutes walking the island, taking pictures and learning about the penguins from our guide. The penguins were very small, only about a foot tall. We were able to get very close to them, within about arms length of touching one (something we were advised was not a good idea if you enjoy the presence of your fingers). The penguins are marvellous creatures. All in all, it was an amazing experience to walk with wild penguins, something I will not soon forget.

The next day, I headed off to do some hiking at Tierra del Fuego National Park. Tierra del Fuego is the name of the island on which Ushuaia sits. It is split in half between Argentina and Chile. The name means Land of Fire, and was named so because the first Spanish explorers identified the island by the massive fires that the natives lit to keep warm and which could be seen from their vessels. The National Park was nice but the landscape was eerily similar to many parks I've visited in Canada. I enjoyed the hiking but didn't really feel the park was as special as many I had talked to found it. I think this is the difficulty coming from a country like Canada which has such a varied landscape.

Unfortunately, getting to and from the end of the world is very difficult. Needing to get to Chile next, my options were a very expensive cross-border flight, a very expensive multiday boat ride, or a very long, uncomfortable bus ride. Sucking it up, I opted for the bus. 1 bag of cookies, 1 chocolate bar, 2 border crossings, 1 ferry ride and 11 hours on the bus later and I finally arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile where it's time to start preparing for my trek through Torres del Paine National Park. Oh and what the hell, on the way I'll go see some more penguins...

More photos on Flickr

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Keywords: Argentina Isla-Martillo penguin South-America-Trip-2010 Ushuaia