the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine

a curious guanaco on tierra del fuego
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we caught the 9.30 am ferry from punta arenas to porvenir on the chilean bit of tierra del fuego and then drove over flat grassland to the border.  we saw a lot of sheep and guanacos (see photos).  we also drove over one too many potholes and broke one of the shock absorbers, nevermind.  we ended up staying the night in a smal town called Tolhuin on the shores of lago fagano, not very exciting and very few places and saw our first snow along the way.  Ushuaia has a beautiful setting looking over the  beagle channel and backed by jagged , and now snow covered, peaks.   It is the city at the fin del mundo.  trademark.  although the argentines are a bit put out that the chilean naval base of puerto williams, which is on the other side of the beagle channel, has developed into a town in its own right.  still puerto williams is pretty hard to get to so they hold the crown for the moment.

ploughing our way through the sheep
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It snowed all of our first day we were in ushuaia so we spent our time in the internet cafe writing this fantastic blog, buying a new shock absorber and having the car serviced as we have done 3000 miles in it now.  we woke up the next day to a winter wonderland and headed off to the national park for a spot of walking and beaver spotting, he he he.  we walked along the coastal path admiring views of the beagle cchannel and looking for birds.   woodpeckers are mad aren´t they? always banging their heads against stuff.  we also went to look at a beaver dam, see photo.  the beavers were introduced to tierra del fuego by some canadians and they have run riot causing flood and wrecking patches of forest.  the locals are now encouraged to shoot them and they can be found on some of the more exotic menus in town.  the bbc had forecast sun for wednesday so we boked ourselves on a boat trip down the beagle channel to look at birds and seals and views.  it delivered on all counts and the bbc were correcto about the weather.  we went on a sailing boat, but used the engine as apparently you either get sun or wind here, but never both.  and alex didn´t get sick, which was a result.  we saw the last two magellanic penguins in the straits, the rest have headed north for the winter - to sip caprinhas on the beach in brazil.

doing my best capn jack impression on the pass into ushuaia
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today we are going be touristic at th efin del mundo museaum, apparently you can get a tamp in your passport!  we head back to chile tomorrow, to purto natales from where we will go to torres del paine and as long as the weather is kind to us will do a 4 day trek.