The End of America! - El Fin Del Mundo - 26th February 2011

Ushuaia, at the bottom of Argentina, just by Chile, is the capital city of Tierra del Fuego Province and is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world (further south than the bottom of New Zealand and Australia, although interestingly, at 54 degrees it is at the same latitude as England is north!).  Its located in a wide bay on the southern coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, bounded in the north by the Andes mountain range and on the south by the Beagle Channel. Cape Horn is a short distance south and and the Antarctic is about 600 miles south.   Cruises to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia, so the small town changes in size when the cruise ships are in!



The original settler of Ushuaia were the Yaghan people.  They did not wear clothes but were able to survive the harsh climate! (I still can not understand this as we had enough problems bundled up in summer!)  Not having any cold weather clothes with us, Charlotte and I resorted to wearing many layers including every long sleeve top we possessed (even the fancy ones brought for the cruise! - and a couple more we bought for Charlotte while there!)

By 11am we were settled into the Bed and Breakfast in Ushuaia, after our 3.5 hour 3,000km flight, and ready to go exploring.  
King Crab is a speciality of Ushuaia, so we had to have this for lunch!

That afternoon we went on a 3 hour boat trip in the Beagle Channel.  We saw lots of wild life, including seals

(well, this might not be considered "wild life" as the seals just seam to lay around all day....)
and many types of birds, on the islands.
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Once again, the scenery was spectacular, very mountainous, with glaciers.