Ushuaia

Well worn out from a long day of walking around São Paulo, we packed our bags and gathered our documents for the next flight. Leaving the hostel we had to cross the bar, providing the strange experience of walking across a Brazilian dance floor in full hiking gear with a 15kg backpack. That was our farewell to Brazil.

Our 4 hour flight to Buenos Aires with Aerolineas Argentinas departed at 1:10am from São Paulo. We landed without having slept much and both beginning to feel the strains of such a long day. We now had to deal with a short stopover in Buenos Aires, however unlike most stopovers we were required to change airports from the one we had landed at (Jorge Newberry International) to one on the other side of the city (Ezeiza International).

Because we had landed at an airport normally reserved for domestic flights, finding the bus and buying tickets was no easy task... We walked to several different kiosks to find the SUBE transportation card (a card that would later prove itself invaluable for breaking into our AirBnB, but that's a different story). When we finally found one, we were told we could only upload credit using cash. After searching for various different ATMs that all refused our cards, we finally exchanged some dollars we had for Pesos. Triumphantly, we returned to the machine only to be informed that in our absence the machine had given up the ghost. Somewhat defeated, we headed to the kiosks we had tried earlier, where luckily it turned out they could charge our cards.

With the help of some friendly airport staff, we found the (unmarked) temporary bus stop and caught the first bus of our 2.5 hour bus journey across Buenos Aires. Driving through the empty streets at sunrise, our fellow passengers finishing off thier last beers of the night, we soaked up the city.

The flight to Ushuaia was breath-taking. As we descended, the red and black mountains suddenly cut through the white clouds and beautiful rivers, marshes and lichen covered forests appeared. It was immediately clear to me that this was one of the most wild, untamed and rugged places I have ever seen.

We hoped in a taxi with two fellow travels we had met at the airport and headed into town. Ushuaia is a beautiful, charming little city, but it's definitely strange. The Southern most city in the world, it feels extremely remote, but it also has all the comforts of modern life you would expect from a big city. Our AirBnB was a room in a cozy house with a fireplaces and view of the Beagle Channel. We had a good dinner, a drink with the people from the plane and got some much needed sleep.

The next day, after gathering the necessary supplies, we hopped into a taxi and headed to a free campground that happened to be at the start of a trail we wanted to hike the next day. We enjoyed the sunset over the mountains while we cooked sausages over the campfire.Read more