It just felt like I would never get there. It seemed like the longest bus journey EVER!!! Left El Calafate at 3am. We had to exit Argentina and enter Chile so that was 2 boarder crossings. Then we had to get a ferry to cross the Magellan strait over to Tierra del Fuego……

and then another 2 boarder crossings to get back into Argentina. These boarders crossing are killing me and my passport, I try to get them to stamp a tiny little corner which sometimes works but sometimes they get the hump and stamp in the middle of a new page!! Even though the scenery was great for the last hour or so on the bus,  I couldn’t wait to get off it, plus my legs were swollen out like tree trunks – boo to it 🙁

Finally arrived at 10pm and crashed for the night and the following day I decided to take a little bus tour around Ushuaia in this cuty little bus…..

It even has a bar downstairs. It was bloody freezing though, shiver!! Ushiaia is lovely as it is surrounded by mountains……

has glaciers and a fab national park. Apart from it being the end of the world and the gateway to the Antartic, there’s actually a lot to do here, you could easily spend a week, especially if you rented a car for a day or two. Later on I met up with Stefan and Nicole.

The following morning myself and Stefan headed for the Prison Museum……..

which basically has everything the other museums have and more, just in case you’re planning to visit. It was really interesting, everything from the ships that sailed here, to the history of Ushusia, to aviation, to art galleries, to the Antartic, of course the history of the prison itself, and prisons around world, even Kilmainham jail got a mention….

Myself and Stefan had to laugh at some of it though. One of the first exhibitions rooms details a note from Charles Darwin who described the inhabitants as sturdy on top, broad shoulders, long bodies but shorter skinny legs. He stated that at first he thought they were the “missing link” which myself and Stefan thought was just awful!!! We had to laugh though and hope that something has got lost in translation as we are talking about only over a hundred years ago!!

It was interesting to read the history of some of the prisoners and we wondered just how cold and miserable it was there in the winter time.

The weather here is okay during the day when the sun comes out but god does it get cold when it’s cloudy and all your warm clothes are in the laundry!!! Anyhoo I digress as always. Back in the museum, we were also amused by one of the letters written by a political prisoner. He told of how all his possessions were taken from him, his clothes, his books and then he even went on to say “they even took my mate cup”. Mate is a type of tea which is really popular in South America. The cup is a small wooden/metal bowl where the tea leaves and hot water are placed and then there is matching straw. 

The Argentinians bring their mate cups everywhere, on the buses or even walking along street – in case they meet some friends and a mate session is required!! It’s very social and one mate cup is shared in a group. I’ve taken up on a couple of mate sessions with the locals on bus rides and as this is considered somewhat of an honour, it’s been kinda nice – even though you have to pick the tea leaves out of your teeth after!! 🙂 Anyway we had to laugh at the indignance that this was taken from the prisoner. I’d say the books would have kept him entertained longer!!

We strolled through the museum and there is so much there, we couldn’t take it all in. We got our “end of the world” stamps in our passports and then we had a stroll around town.

In the afternoon, we headed off to see some Penguins accessed through a huge estancia. The penguins are fascinating and I took a heap of photos and videos which you can see on my flickr site. We literally landed on the beach and they were everywhere!!

They weren’t really bothered by us, they were more concerned with themselves. I thought they would be quite energetic but no they kinda save themselves (for what I’m not sure!!)

We strolled around the island and you could watch them for hours.

I took some videos too, these are my favourites Penguin 1  Penguin 2 and Penguin 3 Penguins waddling is just the best!!

So as I said they are not as active as you would expect. Some of them were waddling around but mostly they just started to stretch and flap their wings and you thought they were just about to do something energetic but mostly they just flopped forward for a rest….

The young penguins are funny too as they are covered in brown fluffy feathers – which they try to shed but they really just look like they’ve been caught in a pillow fight.

Awww just look at him!!! Penguins pick a mate and when we were there it was obviously tea-time because they were calling out for each other. Sounds a bit like a donkey?! Check it out….Penguin-Donkey

Afterwards we headed back to the city and decided to go out on the town. Now I came to the end of the world to find that there were not one but two Irish bars – The Dublin Pub and The Galway Bar. There was no Cork bar though – disappointing. Anyway I didn’t come all the ways down here for an Irish bar so we headed out to a local nightclub and had a good night.

So that ended my time with Stefan and Nicola who were staying on a few days but as for me, well it’s off to Buenos Aires!!!!

 

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157613868814408/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614077928900/