Tierra del Fuego

Tierra Del Fuego. The Land of Fire.
Ah!

The memories the sole mention of this name brings are loaded with wild winds and fresh air, warm colours and warm people, dramatic panoramas and dense woods… and so much longing!

I was there with my ex-husband and our 2 year old son, who cared so little about the wind that was about to blow him away (literally) that we nearly thought he was possessed by something. But children ...
...was wrong.

Tierra del Fuego was named so because of all the fires that the natives used to light, either to send messages to each other or to warm themselves or cook, before they were murdered one way or another. The first Europeans who got there were intrigued by all this smoke and called the place "The Land of Fire".

For information, the natives of Tierra del Fuego were:

The Selk'Nam (also ... more

Tierra Del Fuego. The Land of Fire.
Ah!

The memories the sole mention of this name brings are loaded with wild winds and fresh air, warm colours and warm people, dramatic panoramas and dense woods… and so much longing!

I was there with my ex-husband and our 2 year old son, who cared so little about the wind that was about to blow him away (literally) that we nearly thought he was possessed by something. But children do remind you that nature is our true home. He was wrapped in so many sweaters, coat, scarves, hats, huge boots, but still managed to run about looking like the Michelin man, that we were rolling down in stitches.

But he was happy, and running wild and free.

We went there without any previous intention, which made the whole experience even more enjoyable. I had not read a lot about it at first, and when I went there, I was convinced that it had been named like this because of some vegetation, which I later learned is peat-bogs, which is visible in so many places there, and whose reddish colour is very reminiscent of fire indeed.

I was wrong.

Tierra del Fuego was named so because of all the fires that the natives used to light, either to send messages to each other or to warm themselves or cook, before they were murdered one way or another. The first Europeans who got there were intrigued by all this smoke and called the place "The Land of Fire".

For information, the natives of Tierra del Fuego were:

The Selk'Nam (also known as Onas), they occupied the centre and north-western areas of Tierra del fuego and were hunter gatherers on land only.

The Yámanas occupied both sides of the beagle canal in the south of the island and as far as Cape Horn. They were expert canoeists who spent most of their time on their canoes and always kept a fire lit in its centre. They were hunters as well, but at sea.

The Haush (also known as Manek'enk) lived in the Mitre Peninsula zone, to the south east, and were hunter gatherers on land as well, like the Selk'Nam.

Finally, the Alakalufes, who occupied Brecknock Peninsula to the south west of the island (mainly the Chilean south western islands and part of the mainland), also lived off mainly maritime hunting, and their big canoes (usually one per family) were their most prized possessions.

In fact the full name of the island is: "Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego" (The Big Isle of the Land of Fire). Half of it belongs to Chile (the western side) and the other to Argentina. We travelled mainly on the Argentinean side. It isn't so big at all, but Lord is it beautiful! Not very fiery, indeed in the middle of summer, winds can blow your voice away, but that does not matter so much when your breath has been taken away out of sheer JOY!

Tierra del Fuego is actually part of Patagonia (Argentinean Patagonia consists of 5 provinces: Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, including all the Argentinean islands of the south Atlantic), but it does deserve to be treated as an entity of its own, for when you get there, you do feel that you have reached the end of the world. You get a sense of achievement just out of being there.

There are many ways of getting there; the easiest and fastest is probably by plane from Buenos Aires. There are various daily flights to Ushuaia (Ushuaia is the capital of the province of Tierra del Fuego) from there, which last 3 hours direct and 5 hours with stop-overs. You can also fly from Mendoza, Córdoba and all the Patagonian provinces.

If you are going to travel down from Patagonia, you may prefer to drive (you need route no 3) or take a bus, but in order to reach Tierra del Fuego, you must cross the straits of Magellan, and to do this, you need to cross over from Chile. You can take the ferry from two places: the first is from a crossing called Primera Angostura, from Punta Delgada in mainland Chile, this takes about 30 minutes and takes you to Bahía Azul (on the Chilean side of Tierra del fuego).
The other way is to take the ferry from Punta Arenas, and into Porvenir, again on the Chilean side of the island. This takes 2 hours and a half.

We crossed from Punta Delgada on a "balsa", a sort of ferry, which moved a lot due to the strong winds, but the day was bright, the sky was blue, our hearts were happy.
We crossed by car, and stayed in the car for half the time we were on the balsa. Although there is a small communal area, most people were just standing on the balconies taking in the scenery.

From Bahía Azul, we drove a bit through Chilean Tierra del Fuego and crossed back into Argentina, down route no 3. The roads are okay most of the time; most of them are paved although some are dirt roads. We stopped in Río Grande, a picturesque little city, with a very colourful city centre. The people there are kind and friendly, and we ate the most delicious "empanadas" we have ever tasted in our lives (we bought so many to take with us, that the owners thought we were mad).

Empanadas are sorts of pastries filled with either meat and onion (and spices and other things), cheese, seafood, chicken, with other variations as well, depending on where you are. But this description does them no justice. Well prepared, as they were in this store in Río Grande, juicy and hot, with a nice glass of Argentinean red, they are un délice.

I must add a little detail which, turned out to be extremely important to us, as we were driving for thousands of kilometres from Santiago in Chile, into Patagonia and all the way down to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. We obviously had to stop many times in petrol stations, and frankly Chile and Argentina have amazing petrol stations. Not surprising for countries of this size, but the petrol stations in Argentina ended up being our oasis (oasises??). We stopped for fuel, food, drinks, water, toilets (very well kept), and all the attendants in the Argentinean petrol stations were amazing. Always a smile of their face, laid back and extremely helpful. I think this is worth mentioning for anyone who plans to drive down there, and I advise you to do it, if you can.

After Río Grande, we stopped for very little in smaller villages, but we drove slowly and stopped a lot, just to take pictures and discover woods and places we found on the way.

When you drive in Patagonia, the roads are long and literally empty. In Tierra del Fuego, they are just as empty, if not more. A thing which I found pleasingly funny is that, due to the fact that you are unlikely to meet many drivers on your way, when a car or truck does drive past, both drivers start sending signals to each other, and blowing their horns and waving at each other in a friendly manner. We ended up eagerly awaiting the next vehicle just to do that!

When we got to Ushuaia, we stopped at the entrance to the town, I will always recall, on a high promontory (well it all goes up and down over there) and stayed there for an hour looking at it and the crystal waters that outline it, and the mountains that crown it. It looked very colourful, but only when we drove into the city, did we realise how colourful it really is.

I must say though that, as we were driving towards Ushuaia, in the outskirts of the town, we saw countless houses, made of tin and other materials, looking like ghettos. I do not know how these people survive the extremely harsh winter there, but before describing the beauty, I felt it essential not to leave this point out.

I shall now get back to the beautiful side…

The city itself is colourful indeed; it is very modern, full of shops and restaurants and countless hotels and nice houses. But the light there has a special feature to it. We were there in the summer (December) and the weather is extremely unpredictable. It was not hot, but neither was it cold. It could be extremely sunny and suddenly become covered in cloud. So always carry a parka with you just in case.

Ushuaia is more expensive than all the other Argentinean cities I went to. But it is still relatively cheap compared to most European cities. Restaurants are very cheap in comparison and the food is exquisite and so is the wine.
There are many places to go to for shopping; however I found souvenirs to be quite pricey. But once you have got that far, you sort of know why and you are prepared to spend that little extra.

Accommodation comes in many shapes and sizes and prices, again, it is more expensive that the rest of Patagonia, but we stayed in a clean and comfortable Cabaña for 60 pesos a day (about £14). Booking in advance is rather important, we had problems finding a place, as we got there without planning to, and so ended up sleeping 2 nights in our car before we found something.

One thing to bear in mind is that most hotels and cabañas etc… charge a different price for Argentineans and Chileans than they do for foreigners. We got a good deal, as my ex-husband, who was travelling with me, is Chilean. But Argentineans would have got a better deal, and foreigners would have been charged more. Check this before getting there.

There are many things to do in Ushuaia, there are many bars and discos, and a few museums (The Museum of the End of the World (El Museo del fin del mundo), the Maritime Museum, Yamana Museum and the Museum of Maquettes. I think there are a few others as well). I will not go into too much detail about them but they are certainly worth visiting. If you need any information about Ushuaia or Patagonia, or indeed any place in Argentina, do check the website of the Argentinean consulate or better, go there, they are very helpful.

You can practice many sports, from skiing, to trekking, to fishing, climbing, canoeing, golf, diving… you can check this with the tourist centre, in the centre of town, which is full of useful leaflets packed with info about hotels, sports, excursions, restaurants and just about anything else. The people there were very friendly too.

I think that one of the best things to do and which you would be crazy not to do, is to take one of the many excursion that depart from the Bahía Ushuaia towards the Beagle Canal, the islands of penguins, "the lighthouse of the end of the world"… I cannot give all the details here, but there are many different daily trips you can take, usually on a boat called a catamaran, to visit different natural reserves and animals. We took one of these, which lasted 5 hours, after which, the boat dropped us in "Estancia Haberton" where a bus picked us up and drove us back to Ushuaia.
I wished I had taken the trip to see the whales, but it was too expensive for us, after all, we had not even planned to be here!

We paid about £40 for both (children don't pay, our son was 2) for the excursion we took, and I don't think this is expensive for all we have seen. Prices differ a lot depending on how long the excursion will take, what is included (food, etc..) and where it will take you and what you will see. But it is worth it. You don't got to Ushuaia everyday.

There is so much to say about Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, but I am not trying to write a book, only a review. So I shall only add a few other things before I end this.

Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego is a park you must not forget to visit. You can camp there and there are many facilities for this. We stayed in the car (we had a big car which we could easily sleep in). In the morning, we woke up and my son was chasing rabbits who seemed to be ubiquitous. Into the woods, silent, mysterious woods with lichen hanging from the branches ever so gracefully (this particular lichen "the old man's beard" (la barba de Viejo), although called a "parasite plant", actually does not harm the tree, it simply uses it as a support). Birds singing, flowers growing, majestic tree trunks solidly holding their swaying branches, swaying in hues of multiple shades of green, and the lake, looking like an ocean… magical. Thank goodness this is protected ground.

One more thing I must not forget is the Glaciar Martial, a glacier you reach first by help of a cableway, and then you trek towards it and upon it. During the summer, it looks more like a mountain full of snow, and so many people are disappointed when, after having climbed up for 2 or 3 hours, they still don't see the glacier, but in fact they are standing on it. I knew this before setting all the way up, as I had stopped at the refuge at the other end of the cableway. There, the very nice young woman who keeps it told me the stories of many a confused tourist. You can have hot meals and hot drinks there and a nice cosy conversation, it is all made of wood and through the window, you can see the glacier and some wild birds who seem to be at hand's reach.

It is worth climbing up Glaciar Martial, it is very steep though, and you need special shoes and preferably a snow stick. Once you reach the top, you get a fantastic view of Ushuaia.

Ah…. Well…

I love adventures, and while I love luxuries as well, I would dump them all for the utter inner happiness of discovering places like Tierra del Fuego. The luxury of having your heart filled with the beauty of a wild scenery, and your face beaten by the southern winds of Argentina while you are trying to look at a flower which you have never seen in your life, simply does not compare with being massaged and pampered in a 5 star hotel while you drink champagne or vintage wine. Tierra del Fuego feeds your soul, and your body just follows.

Have you ever had this feeling that your body has opened its gates and let in so much freedom (even if only apparent) and bliss that you can simply not stop smiling for days? If you have, you will understand what happened to me in this blessed land.

 

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