16th-19th November: Last few days in Ushuaia

16th November: Parque National Tierra del Fuego

The bus to the national park (12km from Ushuaia) picked us up from the hostel at 10 a.m., which was very civilised: no need to rush or wake up early.  There was a quick stop at the entrance of the park to pay the fee.  We also got some useful information from the bus driver and the rangers as to which trails to choose.  They advised us to hike the Guanaco trail instead of the Pampa Alta one, where the scenery would be similar to the walk that we had already envisaged doing along the bay.  The bus dropped us at the pier in Ensenada Bay.

The sight of a few tourist buses had us slightly concerned that the path would be crowded.  Thankfully, it was not; we only passed a few groups.  At about halfway, we reached a quiet and pretty beach where we enjoyed a great view of Lapataia Bay.  On our right, 20 meters from the sea, were the remains of a Yamana midden.  The native Yamana used to dump their empty mussel shells and other rubbish outside of their tents. They would move on after a few days, but would go back to the same living area 6 months later and leave their rubbish at the same place.  They would thus create a little mound on which the grass would grow.  On our way we also spotted (after hearing) a very pretty Magellanic woodpecker, one of the emblems of the region but apparently quite rare.

Walking through woodland on the shore of the Beagle Channel

John with the Beagle Channel and Isla Navarino in the background

Mount Susana (especially for John's sister)

Standing by the shore of the Beagle Channel

Woody the Magellanic Woodpecker

Woody in action:

We stopped for lunch close to the visitors' center in  the middle of the park.  Our spot offered a great view over Lapataia River.  We were welcomed by a few very cute rabbits (one of whom was then hit by a car speeding right in front of us; trop triste).  We then walked to the beginning of the other trail, which was to lead us to a lookout on Roka Lake and surrounding mountains. After an easy 20-minute walk aroud the lake, we turned right onto the Guanaco trail. A signpost warned the visitors that the trail was closed.  However, the park ranger had told us that we could go until the lookout halfway up the trail.

Rabbit before the speeding villain arrived

View from the lake up to the lookout point to which we would be hiking 

After going up the steep slope for around an hour, we arrived at the lookout much sooner than we had expected. Our plan was to take the 5pm bus back to the hostel and we therefore thought we should hurry, so we nearly ran up the hill.  No need, it turned out,  but at least it was good exercise. The view on Roka Lake was beautiful and the effort was clearly worth it.  We met only 2 people as we were going back; it was great to have the view for ourselves.

Arrived at the mirador

Once back down, we realised that we had more time than we thought before the bus and thus decided to walk to the other side of Lapataia Bay.  The walk to the bay was very enjoyable as the landscapes were pretty and (more importantly) it was flat. We walked around a little island, crossing the Cormoranes Archipelago.  It was lovely scenery but we did not see any cormorants.  The lookout a few hundred metres further offered a great view over Lapataia Bay and the beginning of the Beagle Channel.

Walking through the archipelago

We eventually arrived at the end of the famous RN3 (the national road that runs along the east coast of Argentina from Buenos Aires all the way to the Beagle Channel, 3045 km in total). There were about 8 of us waiting for the bus, and we all stood up when we saw one arriving.  Interestingly, none of us had the right ticket to hop on that bus.  There are apparently 2 or 3 companies offering the exact same service, which did not seem very efficient.

End of the road!

For dinner, we cooked some fresh pasta with a mushroom cream sauce (made with Patagonian mushrooms and some beer), and some fine slices of parma ham on top.  It was very tasty!

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17th November: Laguna Esmeralda

The LP recommended a popular easy half-day walk to a lake called Laguna Esmeralda.  The name sounded promising and it would allow us to leave late morning and return early afternoon (we did not feel like walking a whole day).  A bit before 12h, we started walking to the city centre to catch a taxi-bus to the beginning of the trail.  The bus driver was a really outgoing and colourful character.  He told us that you can eat beaver during some kind of festival in Ushuaia. It is apparently a very tasy white meat.  He got us very interested but unfortunately the festival was not happening at the moment.  He dropped us at the entrance of a husky sledding school, called Valle de los Lobos (or valley of the wolves).  He told us to take our time and call him once we were back at the sledding school, assuring us that he would be there within the next half hour.  He insisted that we should take our time, relax, that's how it goes in Tierra del Fuego.

This all sounded very good, and after being given a few directions by somebody from the school, we set off. We passed in front of the smelly but cute dogs.  There were about 50 of them in a very small area.  They all had a little blue plastic niche and were tied to a rope, which was sad to see but they did not seem to be badly treated. The trail was very well-marked, but was pretty boggy, which was not always very pleasant.  We passed by a few dams, but no sign of any beaver, which are apparently sleeping until 5pm when they start working.

Beaver dam but no sign of the architects

View over the peat bogs

We arrived at Laguna Esmeralda very hungry.  We found a spot quickly and enjoyed tasty sandwiches (parma ham, avocado and tomato) in front of the emerald-coloured lagoon.  It is possible to keep on walking and reach the glacier overlooking the lake. We decided to have a look at the trail, but quickly gave up.  After walking along the lake to the other side of the shore, the path went up on instable stones, which was not particularly appealing.  Moreover, it was a little cloudy and it didn't seem like the view would be worth the effort.  Yes, after a month's trekking we were starting to get a little lazy.

Looking back over Laguna Esmeralda

Looking for a little adventure, we did not retrace our steps back and instead tried John's shortcut through the woods.  I was slightly nervous about it but John was very confident that he knew where it was going.  In the end, it was not what I would call a shortcut but we went through a pretty marécage before eventually reaching the trail (hourrah!).  Back at the sledding school, we had a cup of coffee while waiting for the bus.  We hopped off in the centre, went to the supermarket and bought some ingredients for a (tasty) soup: leek, carrots, potatoes, pumpkin, onion, tomatoes and green peas.            

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18th November   

The plan for the day was to walk up to Glaciar Vinciguerra (one of the glaciers around Ushuaia).  However, it was pouring rain when we got out of bed and lasted during most of the morning.  We thus decided to reconsider our initial program, and thought that it would be a good day to catch up on the blog.  After lunch, we walked to the city to visit the Maritime Museum, which was actually composed of several small museums.  The first room of the museum (the actual Maritime Museum) possessed a great collection of model ships, from Magellan's "Trinidad" carrack (1520) to the British "Discovery", which was used for the British National Antarctic Expedition in 1901.  Other famous boats included the Beagle, which gave its name to the famous Channel near Ushuaia (Charles Darwin was part of the second expedition with Robert Fitz Roy,  and it is also during that expedition that they brought back 4 Fuegian Indians to England); the "Allen Gardiner" (named after a missionary) which was used by the English missionaries in the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego; and the "Uruguay" corvette  which rescued the crew from the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (which the Swedish explorer Nordenskjöld led) in 1904.  More about the latter expedition below.

The second main room was located in the former prison of Ushuaia.  Most of the original structure of the prison had been kept and on the ground floor cells displayed information on the history of the prison and  famous prisoners.

Finally, cells on the first floor were part of the Antarctica museum and presented objects or ship models from previous expeditions to the great ice continent. One cell contained a reconstruction of the shelter (pre-fabricated house brought from Sweden) used by members of the Swedish expedition (1901-1904).  In 1902, the Swedish scientist Nordenskjöld and other crew members of the "Antarctic" boat were dropped on Snow Hill Island, Antarctica to carry out observations. The boat, which was supposed to bring them back after the winter got caught in the ice, was crushed, and eventually sank.  The crew, however, managed to join the rest of the expedition, and they were finally rescued by the "Uruguay" corvette.  The incredible story of the crew's survival can be found here.  We also learnt about other explorers who had been caught in storms and had perished.

We stayed for quite some time in this very interesting museum.  By the end, we were convinced that sailing to Antarctica might be better (safer and more comfortable) on a big boat, rather than on a sailing yacht.  We then went back to the hostel where we  had dinner.

The following day we spent the morning relaxing in the hostel and then caught our flight up to Buenos Aires, miraculously unaffected by volcanic ash or strikes.