Tierra Del Fuego

I disembarked from the ship a mess after the final night of drinking aboard the ship. I was back where I started the voyage in Ushuaia, Argentina the so called Tierra Del Fuego (land of fire) at the fin del mundo (end of the world). This would be the start of a different kind of journey in this place, I would actually make an attempt to get out and see it as opposed to waiting to get on the ship. I was also meeting one of my oldest and my best friend who I would travel with until I flew home.

Luckily for me, he was in no better condition than I when we met up as he had been bit with a vicious case of food poisoning. We spent the better part of the first day sleeping and hydrating. Over the next couple of days however, we would ramp up and see a lot as well as spend a lot of time catching up with each others lives. It was clear that the next few weeks would be great because as with all true friends the conversation flowed easily as if we had spent more than a total of weeks together over the better part of the last decade.

We rented a car in order to see as much of the region as possible for one of the days and we covered a lot of ground. We found the not so hidden Lago Escondido, visited the famous Estancia Halberton (the first european style estate in the forboding land that has been now reduced to tourist trap status), drove and hiked to the “glacier” overlooking the city that seems to have melted since they had a chance to change the signs from glacier to glacial valley, and finally drove the next morning to have a early day hike along the shores of the beagle channel in the Tierra Del Fuego National Park.
After returning the car, we had one more afternoon to spend in the area before we were to catch a plane to Chile and the next phase of our adventure. We decided to take the advice of a friend and go on a hike to Laguna Esmerelda. It was a short shuttle to get there and an hour and a half hike to reach it. When we arrived it lived up to its name, the glacial lake was certainly green like a emerald and though over the coming days we would see many more lakes and streams of vibrant green, it was an enjoyable warm up hike to the time we would spend in the Patagonian mountains. Finally, when we returned to town, we were both feeling up to getting a nice traditional Argentine meal and meeting some people we had met at the local watering hole before getting back to the hostel to catch a few Z's.

NOTE: Pictures for this part of the journey are courtesy of my good friend...I had to steal them from Facebook because I didn't bring them with me on the road.