Ushuaia - the most southern tip of the world -Patagonia

Travel Tips for Patagonia

• In hindsight we had done Patagonia all wrong. From Puerto Madryn we should have headed to Barricloche then took the Navi Mag (Ship) that takes you through Chile and lets you get close up to icebergs. Instead we went to Ushuia which was disappointing. The town itself is quite tacky and not at all as you would imagine. It has nice treks to do but if you want to see the real Patagonia the Navi Mag and Barriloche have much more to offer.
• Ushuaia is worth a visit if you have an extra money to catch a last minute deal to Alaska. We met people who did this and said they it was simply amazing. They saw all types of whales all day, everyday, not to mention other wildlife. 
• Prepare to get lots of stamps in your passport when getting down to Ushuaia. There is a lot of time waiting as you cross in and out the Chilean border. Look into flying, it will save you a lot of time. Or seriously consider giving it a miss, we wish we did.

It took about 30 hours to get to Ushuaia from Puerta Madryn. The long bus rides consisted of a lot of security stops. The bus would just be stopped in the middle of the night where the police would do random stops on vehicle. They had a portable luggage scanner which they used to check all our bags, we also had a scary policeman walking up and down the bus looking at our passports. This happened twice.

Because Ushuaia is nestled between Chile, we had to get off the bus and get our passports stamped leaving Argentina and entering Chile and vice versa. This was a ball ache as we were only in Chile for 2 hours until we crossed the border again and this took around 2 hours a time as you had to wait your turn amongst a queue of people. There you had your bags checked again, you were not a allowed to bring a list of foods in. There were 2 guys on our bus you had to eat a whole sausage and pot of honey on the spot as they were told they could not bring them through. They stuffed there faces in 2 minutes, it cant go to waste they argued.

F'in ham and cheese again. Notice the Swissroll ham and cheese, especially for me!
Oh and red wine in plastic cup

The Ferry in Chile on the way to Ushuia

As we juddered along the stone filled roads I looked outside and the arid landscape was now replaced with snow coated mountains as far as the eye could see. It was amazing and such as contrast to the rest of Argentina. Ushuaia has the beauty of Switzerland but the weather of Engand. You literally have to leave for the day prepared with clothes for the 4 seasons, one minute is sun shine, then rain, hail and snow.(Just like home ey) It was freezing!

We walked up to the Glacier which was a trek but really stunning. Michael was excited to use his Swiss army knife, even if it was just to cut up a pear. We hiked for about 6 hours, as far as we could climb without safety ropes. The view was spectacular, it was strange being around snow. The next day we were meant to go to the national park which was suppose to be stunning to but we decided to have a lazy day instead, plus it was raining and to be honest our bodies were aching from the trek the day before.

Instead we has a nice time cooking food from the local butchers and meeting people from the hostel in the communal kitchen. There were some Argentinians so we got to practise our Spanish a little bit, with help of the dictionary. Oh and like anywhere in Argentina there are lots of stray dogs. When we were cooking food this big dog came in the kitchen, we ushered it out only to find that this dog can open dogs so it just kept coming back in, nightmare.

The view from our hostel in Ushuia

Jo at the hostel

Nearly there.....

Shagged! 

First use of my Swiss Army Knife

Anyway our next stop after that was Mendoza which is the far north of Argentina. This was going to be a 60 hours bus ride! We ended up being on the bus for 3 days!!!! On the way back from Ushuaia we had the same border checks but this time when we went to take the ferry over there was no ferry. We had to wait 6 hours until the next ferry came because of the high winds. When the ferry did come it was a bit scary as the high waves were spraying over the ferry boat and the whole boat was swinging from side to side. We made it though! After that we got on another bus which broke down and we had to wait another 5 hours for a replacement.

We finally made it to Mendoza last night, we were starting to get cabin fever. The whole time in Argentina we have just been feed a lot of Jamon and Queso which is ham and cheese. Seems to be a staple Argentinian diet. Especially on the buses, as it comes with food majority of the meals included ham and cheese. I think last night I ate my 30th ham and cheese meal. As much as I like ham in cheese, to excess its not good. Safe to say as soon as we got to Mendoza we headed straight out and had a lovely meal, with veg and everything! Blog on Mendoza to come later. Bye for now.