Three days ago we reached Ushuaia the most southern city in the world.
The days before we spent in and around Punta Arenas in Chile where the landscape differed a lot from the Patagonian desert: much more green, trees, hills and meadows. Several times we camped
directly at the Magellan Strait and were thankful for the heating system in our bus. The Bluebaer is now safely parked in Punta Arenas and a 12- hour ride in a public bus brought us to
Ushuaia.
I, Dorit, was little bit afraid of the weather: cold, wet and windy. But we were lucky, the last three days were sunny, warm and calm.
Ushuaia in the language of the Yamaná, the indiginous people of this region, means "the bay which goes through the land until the West" and is directly located at the Beagle Channel. It was
founded as a prison for criminals in the beginning of the 20th century and has about 65'000 inhabitants nowadays. To us it seems like a mixture between a Swiss mountain village, holiday resort
and trade harbour.
The location is unique and two nice trekking tours offered to us spectecular views over the city and the bay with its islands as well as of the partly snow covered mountains with deep blue lagunas.
No wonder that Ushuaia is more touristic than any other place we have seen so far on this journey. Every day smaller or bigger cruise ships come and go. In the afternoon we will go for the next
four days. on one of the smaller ones. It will bring us to Cape Horn (one of Holger's dreams in life), via the big glaciers though the Magellan Strait back to Punta Arenas.
We hope that also this time the weather gods will be in favour of us.