Ushuaia – Day 1: The End of the World
USHUAIA
Day 1: The End of the World
March 01, 2023
Another early morning flight took me to the airport in Buenos Aires, one I was becoming all too familiar with by this point in time. A short layover led to a second flight – this one taking me to the end of the world. No, really, the literal end of the world: the city of Ushuaia.
In the course of one flight, I had crossed most of Argentina, entering the infamous Patagonian region, which encompasses the southern portion of the Andes mountain range, straight towards the main island of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago – an area that also includes a multitude of smaller islands. Located at the southernmost tip of the Americas, the archipelago is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan, an important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The north-eastern part of the main island belongs to Argentina, while the western part and everything south of the Beagle Channel belongs to Chile.
Perched on the northern shores of the Beagle Channel, Ushuaia is the largest city in the archipelago and is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world. In the past, the city was used as a missionary base, a penal colony, and a naval base for the Argentine navy. Today, the provincial capital, with its roughly 75,000 inhabitants, is a bustling tourist town, attracting people for its reputation as the city at the end of the world, for its extraordinary natural wonders, and for its proximity to somewhere else.
Winter Wonderland
The second I landed, I was met with a chilly breeze that had every single muscle fibre I had left twitching, the shivering almost uncontrollable. I had gone from 32-degree weather to four degrees Celsius and, being used to more temperate weather back home, I can’t say it wasn’t a shock to my system – one I gladly accepted, that is.
I don’t know what it is about the cold, but it makes me feel more alive than anything else. Not the overly humid Maltese cold though, nu-uh. That kind of cold just makes you wanna stay in bed all day. I’m talking about the dry, crisp kind of air that gets you up and going.
So yeah, I felt more alive than ever the second I stepped out of the airport and was met with the big chill and the incredible landscapes that lay right in front of me – big, beautiful, snow-capped mountains in all their glory. It was roughly 8PM and the sun had still not set, which, to me, seemed kinda crazy. And so, I could fully appreciate the mountain views right from the airport exit. I knew I’d fall in love with this place right there and then.
Alonso, my taxi driver and the first friend I made over there, told me all about the great treks I could do around the city – meaning Blister would be put to good use once again. Of course, having done my research beforehand and asked around, I already had a few ideas of what to do, ones that Alonso gave me the go-ahead for and others that he suggested I change. And who better than a local to take advice from? I asked him for his number partly to use his services again, and partly cause by now I was a bit smitten over him.
He dropped me off at my warm and cosy winter-wonderland hostel, where a flurry of Hebrew was flung at me relentlessly, the Israelis coming up to me thinking I was one of their own. As always, I had to disappoint, but this time round, I found it endearing. Looking back on all the Israelis I had met during this trip, I felt honoured just being considered one of them.
From Ethan and Hannah in Guatemala to Aviv in Nicaragua; from Noah, Aviv, David, Liam, Adah, Ahinoam, Levi, Elad, and Omar in Utila to countless others I met along the way, I had grown to respect their culture so much – their tight-knit community and their appreciation for nature and sports being an example for all of us (not referring to the military, of course). So yeah, my point is that I felt right at home in this hostel right from the very start.