Arrival at World’s End

What is all that talk about the end of the world or as it is called locally: Fin del Mundo? Well it originates from the days when European explorers discovered our planet on large sail barges. They crossed oceans to the furtest reaches of our planet: to the Spice isles of Indonesia, to China and Japan to the northmost areas in the polar sea and eventually to the southmost areas they could reach. The southernmost area before getting to Antarctica which was in those beginning days of exploration not possible to reach because of the ice and the cold, was the tip of South America. The area we now call Tierra del Fuego or Fireland, with Cape Horn and the southernmost city in the world: Ushuaia. This was then named Fin del Mundo by the Spanish explorers and this is where The Wandelgek was travelling to…

After an early bird rise and breakfast, The Wandelgek left for the local El Calafate Airport and took a plane directly to Ushuaia. This far south the mountains looked barren but glaciers and patches ofvsnow made them look breathtaking nonetheless…

Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for “Land of Fire“, rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan.

The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 48,100 km² (18,572 sq mi), and a group of many islands, including CapeHorn and Diego Ramírez Islands. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Argentina, which controls the eastern part of the main island and a few small islands in the Beagle Channel, and Chile, which controls the remaining land area. The southernmost extent of the archipelago is just north of latitude 56°S.

The earliest known human settlement in Tierra del Fuego dates to approximately 8,000 BC. Europeans first explored the islands during Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition of 1520. Tierra del Fuego and similar namings stem from sightings of the many bonfires that the natives built.

Settlement by those of European descent and the displacement of the native populations did not begin until the second half of the nineteenth century, at the height of the Patagonian sheep farming boom and of the local gold rush. Today, petroleum extraction dominates economic activity in the north of Tierra del Fuego, while tourism, manufacturing, and Antarctic logistics are important in the south.

The Tierra del Fuego province is the southernmost area of Patagonia and of South America. Beyond Cape Horn is the Antarctic ocean and then the Antarctic peninsula, before reaching the most southern continent of our planet. The Wandelgek has this on top of his travel bucketlist, but it is not an easy goal to reach.

The plane landed at Ushuaia’s Airport which is directly bordering the Beagle Canal.

The surrounding mountains are the last stretch of the Andes, they are relatively low, but still are topped with ice and snow because of this southern location. After this the Andes actually goes on under water making a large curve and surfacing at South Georgia, then going under water again to resurface at the Antarctic Peninsula and to end where the peninsula reaches the Antarctic mainland.

From the airport it was a short drive to the city center and to the hotel…

The Wandelgek arrived at the Tierra Del Fuego Hotel and, after checking in, quickly dropped his stuff in the hotelroom…

Hotel Tierra del Fuego

Hotelroom

The room was large and clean and had a large window. There was enough cupboard space and a television to watch the upcoming Footbal World Championship matches of the Dutch team.

There was a comfortable chair and a small table as well as a door to the privat:

Bathroom

This bathroom had a bathtub and a shower inside of the bathtub as well. There was a toilet and there were electricity sockets for hairdryer and of courese also suitable to recharge batteries 😉

After having dumped his luggage, The Wandelgek quickly went towards the harbor area…

Ushuaia, Southernmost city in the world

Ushuaia (Spanish: [uˈswaja]) is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, Ushuaia claims the title of world’s southernmost city.

Collecting Passport Stamps

Some pictures to remember this visit ?

This is actually where ships to Antarctica start their journey (the other option is to start from Puerto Natales in Chile, but that is quite a distance north).

Argentina is one of the very few countries in the world that do not require a visa and do not stamp your passport either. However, for travellers this far south, there are other options. At Ushuaia there are several post office’s that provide passport stamps for visiting Ushaia, visiting Antarctica and more.

The Wandelgek visited the harbour area, where he found the post office and entering through its doors into the main hall, he entered the world of the Stamp Collectors.

This is quite a strange world. Some are a bit like The Wandelgek. They like to collect a stamp of the location where they have been to commemorate it later. Some are bit more fanatic, collecting all stamp of the location that were available. I think there were 2 or three.

But then there were also the real fanatics who wanted to collect every available stamp, also the ones of locations that were not visited. A passport can’t contain that many stamps, so they had blank papersheets or blank pages in a notebook which they placed on the large white round table in the center of the hall. Upon this table, 20 to thirty stamps were scathered and they started to grab those stamps, checking them for uniqueness and than stamping their paper sheets or notebooks, thus collecting all available different stamps. The Wandelgek watched them for a while in utter anazement, seeing how well trained and effective and fast tgey became at stamping dozens of images of penguins, icebergs, lighthouses, whales etcetera on their pieces of paper. Their faces became red of excitement, irritated whenever they grabbed a stamp already used and agonized when not finding that one missing stamp in the disorganized heap of stamps on that table?

The Wandelgek ignored his urge to join and begin to stamp in an unrestrained manner. He walked uphill into town, away from the harbor where he visited a local coffeshop and had himself a very nice cup of coffee…