Ushuaia is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world and is located on the archipelago of “Tierra del Fuego”. We spent three days in Ushuaia, exploring the town and its surroundings along the Beagle Channel. We were amazed by the snow-capped mountains that encircle the town and by the fascinating play of light: the scenery reminded us very much of what we had seen in Iceland. After having hiked various treks in the Andes, it was thrilling to see the birthplace of this majestic mountain range. The appearance of the town itself is rather industrial – especially around the port and marina - and the center looks similar to a ski resort in low season with much of the same kind of shops. Today, Ushuaia is mostly starting point for cruises to Antarctica. Prices for hotels and also hostels are high and we opted for airbnb accommodation, which was great. During one night, though, we could enjoy the treat of staying in a beautiful hotel and Spa thanks to a birthday present from Philipp's brother Roger and his wife Nicole. It felt heavenly to admire this landscape out of the Jacuzzi! One day we walked along the coast of the Beagle Channel in the east of town. We were told that the landscape is similar to, if not more spectacular, than in the national park “Tierra del Fuego” and we were not disappointed. It was a windy day and various birds were cruising and diving between the cliffs. Another evening we walked up a hill (Cerro Alarkén) and enjoyed the view over the bay and witnessed a gorgeous evening twilight. Ushuaia always magically appealed to us as it also represents the end of the commonly known "Panamericana" - the route along the entire Pacific Coast -towards which we oriented our travel plans and after which we also named this blog. Mentally, arriving in Ushuaia always meant arriving at the end of our travel adventure. Now, we have slightly changed this. We firmly believe that Ushuaia is not the end of the world and that Aristotle was totally right in stating that the world is a sphere and not a plate :-). We will soon find out as we are heading further south in the coming days…
21 Comments
Since we are travelling in South America, you might have noticed that we widely interpret the term "Panamericana" (we don't stick to the Pacific Coast) and for the remaining weeks we are going to stretch it even further :-). Having realised that time is starting to get short, we have decided to move on to Argentina and skip most of Chile. We are now in Northern Argentina, in Salta, and will then fly southwards directly to Ushuaïa. Thus, we hope to be in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia before the main season starts. Salta is an extraordinarily pretty city in the Llerma Valley. It's nick name is "Salta, la linda" due to its old, colonial architecture and also very pleasant, mild and dry climate year-round. When walking through its pedestrian zone and numerous plazas, we often felt like being in Andalucía: Jacaranda trees were in blossom and orange trees carried fruit. As the region of Salta belonged to the southernmost part of the Inca empire, Andean folklore is still present; mostly in form of textiles and traditional music performed in "peñas". Also, we perceived the people as exceptionally friendly and helpful towards tourists! The only thing we need to get accustomed to is that foreigners need to pay a significantly higher price than locals in Argentina. This is a common practice and openly communicated (i.e. for transportation tickets or at hotels). As soon as we had entered the mini-bus of the Chilean operator at the border, we could literally feel that we were in a different country: the car was brand new and had seat belts, streets were tarmac again and flanked by road signs that were actually (!) followed. Our hotel room followed the highest craftmen standard we had experienced in South America so far and we could walk on the sidewalks while carefreely chatting to each other and not needing to watch out for potholes or various leftovers we didn't want to step into.
After one night in town, we packed our tent, some food and plenty of water and headed for a three-day-trek in the Atacama Desert. We walked through the "Valle de la Muerte", admired it's fairytale sand and stone formation at sunset and camped once more at the most stunning spots with million-dollar-views. Unfortunately, the moon was extremely strong and thus we could not see the stars so well, but it was nonetheless an awestruck sight. For the second night, we accidentally camped on Inca ruins, which we found out only the day after while hiking back to San Pedro... Of course it was forbidden to camp on the site of Catarpe, but the sign was posted only 5 km away and we frankly did not recognize the ruins to be Incan. We thought it were stone rings used by shepherds for herding of sheep or llama, as we had seen in Peru :-). By all means, we had a fantastic campsite (of course we left without traces!) and a friendly, straying dog kept us company during the entire night. We called her "Sucia" - since she was all dusty - and we admit that she got the entire pack of the soda crackers that counted as our emergency ration. Thankfully, she posed for some pictures and escorted us back to San Pedro. On the way, about five of her doggy friends joined in, so we must have looked like vagabonds when we arrived in town! Back in the hotel and after a hot shower and delicious "menu almuerzo", we felt ready to spend the afternoon in the shady patio planning our trip into a completely different climate zone: Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. Did we mention, that it feels fantastic wearing shorts and sleeveless tops in November???
The bus ride from Potosí to Uyuni counted amongst the most spectacular we have made. Soon after the stony hills of Potosí the first fields of cacti appeared and smaller salt flats stood out from the colorful desert landscape. Uyuni was originally erected as a military base, but nowadays mainly lives from tourists staying there before heading to the famous "Salar de Uyuni" or "Tunupa" salt flat, which is its actual name. Not surprisingly, the town consists of a few hotels, dull restaurants and over 60 travel agencies that all offer the omnipresent 3-day jeep tour to the salt flat, lagoons and volcanic landscape. From the beginning, we were aware that an independent visit of this impressive landscape was not possible (although on tour we saw a few touring cyclists – Philipp’s heart was bleeding). So we considered a few agencies and finally opted for the offer of "Perla de Bolivia"; an agency which had been recommended to us already in La Paz. And for once we were extremely happy with our choice! Nadia, our English-speaking guide, Carlos, our driver and DJ, as well as our two fellow traveller girls from the UK, Sara and Susanne, all made for a great and unforgettable trip! It certainly helped that we were all about of the same age and we simply had a lot of fun. As we followed the same program as all tours, we will just give you a daily overview of our itinerary. Anyways, the pictures will speak for themselves - we have never seen a comparable landscape before and were simply astonished by its beauty. Day 1 After visiting the locomotive cemetery just outside Uyuni (a British company had simply left all steam locomotives in the desert, as soon as the transportation of silver from Bolivia to the sea access in Chile was not lucrative anymore) we headed for the immense salt flat "Tunupa". The first impression was stunning: a glaring white surface with polygonal patterns as far as the eye could reach. We expected it to be slippery, as we could only compare it to ice :-). Obviously it was not, but wet and sticky instead. We had lunch directly on the salt flat with picnic table and chairs (super cool!), before visiting the first hotel built entirely from salt; it's a museum today. Taking some funny pictures by playing with the perspective and optical illusions followed next. The walk on the sacred island "Incahuasi" with its hundred years old cacti was a welcomed alternative to sitting in the car. Before watching the sunset on the salt flat we visited a calm cave with stalactites and stalagmites. Day one was crowned with a delicious dinner and a stay in romantic bungalows created entirely of salt. Day 2 The second day, we visited a handful of differently colored lagoons; one was more astonishing than the other. Flamingos were gabbling in the lagoons for algae and plankton (that's where they gain the carotenoids which yield the pink color of their feathers) and contributed to a very calm and idyllic impression. This impression could be deceptive, though, after all we were on the Bolivian Altiplano well above 4000 m height and the volcanic landscape and desert account for a harsh climate. Wind and erosion formed rocks into wondrous shapes. At our second, more basic, accommodation a fire kept us warm while enjoying a traditional Bolivian dish and a bottle of red wine for dinner. Talking around the warm oven rounded off the second day and last evening before our group was separated: while we were heading to Chile, Sara and Susanne would be returning to Uyuni after tomorrow’s program. Day 3 We started the third day by watching the sunrise at a field of fumaroles/geysers, hence called "sol de mañana". Warming our feet in the natural hot pools afterwards and having the morning sun shine upon our faces just felt perfect. The last leg through the “Reserva nacional de fauna andina Eduardo Avaroa" led past colorful mountains where the occasional vicuñas could be spotted (did you know that they can drink the salty and mineral water from the volcanic lagoons?). From the green lagoon, we could see the volcano "Licancabur” for the first time. Its shape is like a perfect, multi-colored cone and it stands out from the neighbouring volcanoes thanks to its remarkable silhouette. Soon afterwards we had reached the border and waved good-bye to the others. Our pre-booked bus arrived promptly (it was an eerie feeling to stand in the desert, totally depending on strangers) and drove us to San Pedro de Atacama where we had to endure Chile’s rigid immigration policies. Potosí is one of the highest cities in the world, lying in the south of Bolivia's highlands at 4090 m. It gained historical importance due to the silver mining from the mountain Cerro Rico by the Spanish during colonial times (60% of the world's silver stemmed from here). Potosí became the richest city of all South America and was the location of the Spanish colonial mint for centuries. Due to its wealth, beautiful palacios and numerous churches and convents were built, which are nowadays protected by UNESCO world heritage. Today, tin, copper and silver are still mined at Cerro Rico, but the city's population is poor and working in the mines is dangerous (still today there are children working underground and life expectancy in the mines is only 15 years). We arrived in Potosí from La Paz by night bus in the early morning. Unfortunately, Fabienne had caught food poisoning and was grounded for three days. Philipp could in the meanwhile climb the Cerro Rico mountain (4’800 m) and witnessed the dusty, strenuous workplace of the miners. Local travel agencies offer daily tours into the mines - including a dynamite explosion -, but we didn't go. We were rather shocked how money is made out of this poor people's struggle for a living and it offered us a lot of food for thought. Next time we consider buying silver ware (same goes for other precious metals), we might think twice! Once we had found out, that in Bolivia, close to La Paz, there is a mountain of above 6000 m altitudes that can be climbed also by beginners, the seed was planted. We felt confident fulfilling all necessary conditions – being physically fit and well acclimatized – and were ready for our next adventure. In La Paz there are numerous agencies offering a three-day expedition to Mount Huayna Potosí. We had chosen the company “Refugio Huayna Potosí” because it has its own camps and it was the only agency that enquired about our health and level of fitness before selling the tour to us. The guides and the cook did an amazing job during our expedition and contributed significantly to this fantastic experience. The owner, however, is best to be avoided: we had an outrageously bad encounter with him and were treated disrespectfully. On the first day we collected our material (harnesses, ice axes, crampons, plastic climbing boots, gaiters, clothes, helmet, etc.) and were driven to the Base Camp at the foot of Huayna Potosí on 4700 m. After lunch, we walked up to the Potosí glacier, where our first guide Celestino, trained us on how to walk on the glacier with crampons and how to climb steep passages. As a final treat, he took us on the rope and we could climb a wall of ice. This was a lot of fun, despite the foggy conditions! The evening was at our free disposal. After dinner, we tried to light a fire in the chimney, as it was humid and freezing cold. We succeeded only partially and thus opted soon for our bunk beds to catch at least some decent sleep during the first night. On the second day, we were spoilt with an abundant and yummy breakfast (the best we have had since travelling in Bolivia, who would have expected this in this remote location!). Unfortunately, Philipp could not fully enjoy it, as his stomach was rebelling – we still don’t know whether it was the dinner or the altitude. However, after an easy and relaxing walk along the dammed lake of the hidroelectrico in the warming sun, he started to feel much better and we were confident again to tackle the ascent to the High Camp on 5300 m. After lunch, we met our guide for the summit, Esteban, and mounted together to the High Camp. It consists of three huts, which were only built a year ago. Surprisingly, it was warmer here than at the Base Camp! Esteban cooked soup for all of us and after 6 p.m. we had to try to catch some sleep until midnight. We were so happy, when we could finally get up at midnight! Due to the height and surely also due to a certain nervousness, we couldn’t sleep at all and were impatient to start the climb Huayna Potosí. After “breakfast”, we walked to the glacier and mounted our crampons. We started our climb at 1 a.m. and the ambiance was magical: the sky was clear and we were gazing at the stars while we could see the lights of La Paz in the distance. Like a lantern procession we saw the other rope teams from the lower camps of the other agencies. The ascent was steep but continuous and although we were breathing hard, we didn’t feel any complicacies due to the height. Just around 5800 m there was a steep passage to climb and the last part to the peak was technically more demanding as it sometimes lead over rocks covered with ice. After a narrow crest we were there: “el cumbre”! Esteban congratulated us (as a nice detail we were also the first rope team to reach the peak that day), it was shortly before 5 a.m. and the sun was about to rise. As the actual peak is very narrow it only allows space for a handful of people; we therefore had to start descending soon to make room for others. Scenery wise, the descent was even more rewarding: by daylight, we could now see the fairytale beauty of the glacier landscape, we had passed before in pitch darkness. We felt incredibly happy to having achieved this! It was a beautiful morning and the descent came nearly for free. At 10 a.m. we were back at the Base Camp and after lunch we were driven back to La Paz. Exhausted, but still enchanted by this experience we opted for a hot shower and long sleep! That’s how bus operators praise their destinations at the bus terminals. After listening to this melody for 30 minutes in Copacabana, we were glad when the bus finally left. Laid out in a canyon on 3200 to 4100 m, La Paz is the administrative capital and seat of government of Bolivia and counts over 2 million inhabitants. Two majestic mountains overlook the city, Mount Huayna Potosí and Mount Illimani. We entered La Paz by bus through the neighbourhood of El Alto and were very pleasantly surprised by the ambiance of the city. We perceived it as extremely lively, vibrant and authentic. The Aymará people dominate the streets and countless markets take place daily. While we were there, the festivities of “el dia de todos los santos” on November 1 and 2 were to be prepared and celebrated. We noticed that something special was about to happen, because on the markets large varieties of flowers, pastries and bread in the form of men, women, horses and Ilama with porcelain or plastic masks as faces were sold. We then read up on the festivities and found out that in La Paz they are a combination of Aymará culture – where the deaths are believed to descend amongst the living family members during 24 hours and are welcomed to a richly decorated table – and the Catholic practice of “All Saints”, where the deaths are remembered. If you are interested further, we have found this movie, which explains it quite well. As traditional and colonial La Paz is at first sight, as progressive it can be as well. Along the main axis – El Prado – one can find all global players of big companies as in any other big South American city. Since 2015 La Paz is proud owner of an urban cable car network (built by the Austrian/Swiss Doppelmayr/Garaventa group). The lines are red, yellow and green (representing the colors of Bolivia’s flag) and intended to free the city’s streets of the heavy traffic. Considering the difference in altitude of the city, a cable car really seems to be the best choice. We walked up the manifold stairs to the neighbourhood El Alto one morning and took the red cable car line back to the center – for the Swiss, it felt like being in a mountain resort at home. |
Blog Archive
December 2016
World Clock
|