Penguins in the Beagle Channel
Ushuaia touts itself as ‘the southernmost city in the world’, or alternatively ‘the city at the end of the world’. It would feel a bit more desolate and isolated if it wasn’t for the daily arrival of huge cruise ships full of large tourists in baseball caps and fanny packs.
As a result as the restaurants on the main strip seem designed to cater to huge tour groups and are worth avoiding. Instead head off down any side street or get well clear of the port entrance and you can find a plethora of reasonably prices places selling far better food.
The town fronts onto the Beagle Channel, which is the starting point for both huge ice-breakers leaving on Antarctic trips and our little catamaran which took us on a tour of the various islands in the bay. These are uninhabited and covered in the local flora and fauna, but mostly penguins and sea lions. We got five miles out from Ushuaia, as far as the iconic Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse.
The only real tourist attraction in town is the Maritime Museum, which includes the Antarctic Museum, Boat Museum, Prison Museum and a very confused gift shop owner. Some way outside town there’s also a “train at the end of the world” tour, which is expensive and according to those that tried it, deeply underwhelming.
Twelve kilometres to the west of Ushuaia is the Tierra del Fuego National Park, 630km2 of beautiful hiking. We hiked around the edge of a large lake, which was very attractive but needs a word of warning – the maps provided by the park rangers heavily underestimate either the walking speed or distance of the trails. We chose a 6km trail; supposedly easily walk able in 3 hours at a conservative 2km/hour. I know I walk easily over rough terrain at 4km hour, so was surprised to still be walking 4 hours later. We met a few other people who’d had the same experience so I think it’s most likely that the distance was far further than stated. Anyway, distances aside, the walk was beautiful, tracing alongside the lakes in the national park and ending at a very decent teashop for fresh cakes.
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