We're in Ushuaia, Argentina presently, which bills itself as the end of the world. Technically not true, because standing at the harbor looking south, you can see more land. The sticklers for syntax that they are, this is the southernmost city in the world, as defined by population. There is apparently also a small town/military outpost somewhere south of here that belongs to Chile, but its technically not a city, so technically, Ushuaia wins.
When it comes down to it, you can't go any farther south than this and still get pizza delivered or go to the grocery store or drive on paved roads. Everything south of here is a "hunting for seals and living off the land" kind of place.
Ushuaia (pronounced oos-WAI-uh) used to be a penal colony back in the day, similar to Australia, Siberia, the state of Georgia, or North Adams, MA. It's cold (average yearly temp around 40F), bordered by Arctic oceans, towering snow-capped mountains, and dense forests for hundreds of miles in every direction, so there really isn't anywhere to go should one have been sent here for some sort of wrongdoing. What on earth are we doing here, then? Well, I'm not really sure. We get to check it off the list, I guess. I kid. Sort of.
It is a beautiful place, for sure - we spent a day in the Tierra del Fuego National Park, boasting stunning views of the afore-mentioned snow-capped peaks, the previously noted dense forests, some emerald-green (and amazingly cold) rivers and lakes, some non-native but amazingly adaptive beavers, rabbits, weasels and fox(es?), a few peat bogs, and miles and miles of trails to take it all in. Check out the pictures, it really is some crazy landscape. There is also a glacier nearby, but as we're heading to another (and by all accounts more impressive) glacier tomorrow in El Calafate, we passed on the fun that is walking around on miles of ice.
Ushuaia also serves as a port for adventurous types rounding the continent in either direction (presumably having missed the Panama Canal a few miles North), as well as the crazily adventurous types desiring to take the relatively small jaunt south to the Antarctic continent. Prohibitively expensive, Antarctica will have to wait until some other time.
So today we're hopping a short one-hour flight to El Calafate, and slowly but surely making our way by bus back to civilization and warmer climates. We updated the picture archives with the remaining Buenos Aires shots, as well as from our current location. The map is updated as well, so you can see just how far South this place really is.
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