The End of the World

It's a tradition at this hostel that everyone gets a nickname, and mine is Honor Student, because I did more research than most people and spent half the night telling people they couldn't hike Torres del Paine without reservations. Literally everyone planned to go, and no one had reservations. However, a big group managed to put together the trek starting December 16 and ending Christmas day, and I was jealous and spent the day stressing out about whether to restructure my trip yet again and join them.

Today was a rainy day, but I wanted to go to the National Park anyway. When I told the owner of the hostel about my plans, he said, "good for you, you really are an honor student."

The rain wasn't an issue, but the low rain clouds blocked a lot of the mountains on and off throughout the day. Both the hostel owner and the people at the park recommended this long hike through the lake region, which was really lovely. It's nice being here in spring, everything is light green and all the flowers are in bloom. It's odd that this is spring but it's SO COLD.

There are many stray dogs in Ushuaia, they are all very friendly and funnily enough they all look well fed. I saw a guy try to give a stray a sandwich the other day and the dog just ignored it and asked for attention. So when I was hiking and I saw this dog trotting towards me, that's what I thought was happening.

Then I saw it's tail.

Then I got a closer look at its snout.

Yeah, not a dog.

I found out later that it was a type of golden retriever sized antarctic fox, but at the time I thought it was a young wolf or maybe a coyote.

He came with a few feet of me and stopped, watching me. He didn't look aggressive, but he did look hungry, and he was waaaay too close. My first thought was that I didn't spring for that rabies shot and here I was on day 5 facing down a wild animal alone in the woods. My second thought was of that scene in Disney's beauty and the beast where Belle gets chased by wolves.

I took a step back. The fox took a step forward. I ran a few steps, the fox followed. I was really scared.

I figured I either had to feed the fox or scare the fox, so I took a deep breath and waved my arms and yelled EYEYEYEYEY!!

The fox ran off. I took off down the path and kept looking behind me to see if he followed for the next hour.

The rest of the hike was uneventful, I saw some birds, peat bogs, and some great views.

Later in the trail was a sign for the end of the southernmost road in the world, excepting Antarctica.

I went to the end of the world today.Read more