Having spent ten fantastic days aboard the MS Expedition on a cruise to Antarctica, we were now ready to get our land-legs back. So, we decided to do a hike in the Tierra del Fuego National Park with its 63,000 spectacular hectares of forest, lagoons, glaciers, and mountains.
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| Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
The National Park is around 12 km from Ushuaia where the MS Expedition was docked. So, after disembarking, we left the port and headed for a hotel in Ushuaia as we'd planned a couple of nights there in order to access the Park.
Ushuaia, is the southern-most city in Argentina and in the world. Also known as the ‘town at the end of the world’, it is located on the southern coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, squeezed in between the Martial Mountains and the Beagle Channel.
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| Ushuaia, the town at the end of the world, Argentinian Patagonia |
It has steep streets and colourful buildings, many of which overlook the water.
We’d stayed a couple of nights in Ushuaia prior to our Antarctic cruise, so had seen most of the sights except for Tierra del Fuego National Park. So, the next morning, we took a shuttle bus to the Park.
It's located at the southern tip of Argentina and, similar to Ushuaia, is known as the ‘park at the end of the world’.
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| Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
The whole park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and much of its mountains, glaciers, lakes, and coastline are off-limits to the public to protect it. However, there are some good public walking tracks and we wanted to do at least one of them in the time we had available.
Once we arrived, we found the park information centre, and after picking up a useful map, we embarked upon one of the shortish walking routes.
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| Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
We had a lovely day, walking through beautiful and haunting forests of Antarctic and lenga beech trees, crossing interesting peat bogs, and circling pretty lagoons.
The Park wildlife was interesting. Because this park is protected, the environment remains relatively unspoiled and so offers a healthy setting for many species.
As we walked, we spotted steamer ducks with chicks, geese, petrels, condors, and a woodpecker with a very bright red head.
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| Beaver dams in Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
We even saw a beaver dam, but thankfully, we didn’t see any beavers as they have had a negative effect on parts of the native forest.
Fifty non-native species of beaver were released into Tierra del Fuego National Park in 1946 by the Argentinian government, as a potential source of commercial fur trading. However, having no natural predators here, the beaver population has expanded hugely, and they are now considered a pest.
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| Beaver damage at Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
Beaver activity has left a whole area of ghost trees and lifeless land. It’s not pretty.
Apparently, the government has initiated a programme of control, but the beavers have now spread far beyond this park and sadly, threaten native tree species throughout this southern area of Patagonia.
Moving beyond the beaver dam, our walk took us to Lapataia Bay lagoon.
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| Pretty Lapataia Bay lagoon, Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
We sat there for a while, munching a sandwich, contemplating the animal life, and admiring the view of the beautiful lagoon.
Near the lagoon, there was a sign saying that we had reached the end of Argentina’s national Ruta (route) 3, which in effect, is the southern end of the Pan-American Highway (PanAm).
This impressed us, as we had driven Ruta 3 in our motorhome Vdos before arriving in Ushuaia. We’d also been on it several times in a bus through Peru, Ecuador and Colombia last year.
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| At the end of the road, at the end of the world, Tierra del Fuego National Park (UNESCO), Argentinian Patagonia |
The
South American portion of it begins in Buenos Aires. We began our road trip in
our motorhome Vdos almost 4 months ago, from Buenos Aries on Ruta 3. We then
drove the length of Argentina to the Magellan Strait in Argentinian Patagonia
in the south. However, we skipped Tierra del Fuego at the time, and crossed
into Chile instead.
It
was nice to be here now, at the end of the road, at the end of the world.
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| Ushuaia, getting ready for Christmas |
Before long, it was time to move on, so we caught a bus back into Ushuaia. As it
was the 23rd December, Ushuaia was adorned with Christmas decorations in shop
windows, giving it a festive air.
The next day, we caught a flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, glad that we’d spent a bit of time at the Tierra del Fuego National Park. But now, we were looking forward to landing in Buenos Aires in time for Christmas eve festivities.
The above blog is part of our 4-month tour of South
America. The first blog on this tour is called "Buenos Aires here we come".