So we had the great fortune of being able to meet up with our friends, Devon and Eric, that we knew from back when we were all working around Southern Alberta.
They had been traveling through Colombia and made a few massive jumps via Lima and Santiago to meet us in one of the most cosmopolitan spots in southern Patagonia- San Gregorio.
I'm kidding, the place was so remote that it didn't even properly come up on Google maps or maps.me! Luckily when we were driving (slowly) through one of the towns we thought it could be, we saw them walking along the side of the road!
It was actually listed on our iOverlander app as a shipwreck and ghost town, and the description was quite accurate. We wandered around the town, there was absolutely no one around. We found an old warehouse with 1000s of unprocessed sheep skins (kind of weird), an old dip for the sheep, a shipwreck, and a few old abandoned houses (one of which we chilled out in to make some lunch out of the wind). The wind around here is really not messing around. It's a good thing we all spent so much time in S Alberta and have experienced these gales before.
Jared with our buddies we found!
San Gregorio is an estancia, which Patagonia is full of. They are ranches, but compared to North America, they are huge parcels of land, like 100,000 hectares or more, with massive amounts of cows and sheep. The land down here is not that great, so there's just an endless expanse of land for the animals, pretty extensive management kind of stuff.
One of the first things we did once on the island of Tierra del Fuego was to visit a King penguin colony. They look very similar to an Emperor penguin, but are about 1/2 a foot shorter. There were about 50 adults here and maybe half as many chicks. The chicks are short, squat and fuzzy brown. Super cute!
Penguins and the setting sun
A fox to Jared's right. It kept coming closer and closer, not really scared of humans at all.
The wind howled like 60 that night but at least we had found a little tin shelter used by the gauchos that we could cook in and hang out.
The next morning we continued heading south. We felt pretty lucky to have the sun mostly shining on us as we headed down.
We weren't really sure what we were in for this late in the fall, but so far so good.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, and as such it's called 'El Fin del Mundo' or 'the end of the world.' As you can see, at this point we are over 3000 kms from Buenos Aires.
Making supper in an asado (an Argentinian outdoor stove for grilling meats). We're always running out of daylight, and we cool in the fading light a lot.
The next day we explored Tierra del Fuego National Park. This sign marks the end of Ruta Nacional 3, which is one of their major highways that courses down the country.
It was a really beautiful park, especially in the fall.
Here we are on the Sendero Costero, one of the day hikes in the park. We had lots of beautiful viewpoints of the Beagle Channel, named after the voyage of the Beagle, a ship that surveyed these waters and Charles Darwin served as a naturalist aboard.
This hawk was rifling through the seaweed and eating little bugs. He could care less we were walking by. I wish all animals were like the ones in national parks.
Inside the park, this was the southernmost post office in the world.
Gringa continues to be such a champ for us, we love her 🙂
The next morning we hiked up to see the Martial Glacier. This is actually the first snow we've seen down in Patagonia!
Standing up at the viewpoint, with Ushuaia down below
After this hike, we decided it would be prudent to shower. It had, after all been 6-7 days. So we drove into town and parked at a natatorio, which we thought was a swimming pool. Normally I don't go into these hum drum stories about daily backpacker life because they reveal how truly cheap/smellly/ridiculous we really are, but I figured I should throw this one in for some reason. So Devon and I get out of the car to check out the pool and the boys wait in the car. We walk into what seems like a community rec centre and ask one of the girls behind the counter for the pool entrance. Of course, this is all happening in Spanish, so as you can imagine not 100% sound communication. She tells us we need to buy a one month membership for 100 pesos each, get a photo id card and a physical exam by a doctor. Really?!?? We just want to shower, the pool was just going to be a bonus. She says maybe we can ask, and directs us upstairs to administration. They direct us downstairs to a different person. Then we're in the doctors office, and some old guy is telling us they only see 40 patients per day and we won't get seen. Really, that's ok, we just want to shower. Do regular Argentinians have to go through this whole rig-a-marole just to use this place? He says maybe we can ask the lady that runs the showers. Down another hallway and she tells us she needs to ask her Jefa (boss). Finally we meet the boss and they tell us there is no hot water anyways. Wow. Ok, back to the car, now to drive to a street corner a cab driver had told me, which turned out to be a hostel. This hostel wouldn't let us just 'buy a shower,' but she gave us the name of one that did. So after that, we finally showered! Why do I tell this story? I don't know, but maybe you will appreciate how easy some basic things in your house are now. Or you're just thinking you don't want to go backpacking with me because I am too cheap. Either way, we had four fabulous showers and got to chill in the hostel, using their wifi in the warmth for (relatively) cheaper than a nights stay in a hostel. Nothing in Argentina is cheap. With their out of control inflation, lots of people work multiple jobs trying to keep up. I really don't know how they buy or do anything.
On a happier note, here is an adorable Japanese man we talked to on the side of the road that had just finished walking from Buenos Aires to here, pulling that cart! He said he had done over 29,000 kms in his day, traversing continents such as North America, Europe and Asia, now South America.
And he was wearing flip flops!
This is what we drove out of the next morning, looks like we got out of Ushuaia just in time!! When you're camping out of a vehicle (and Devon and Eric in the tent), ain't nobody got time for that.
Until Next Time!
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