ushuaia! and more!

29 de enero. rio gallegos.

after just two hours of flimsy sleep, i ate some leftover pizza and downed some coffee before being dropped of at the ypf gas station on san martin. no luck throwing the thumb. at the roundabout i had better luck as a car of mendocinos pulled over with jack the dog. we made a quick stop at windy laguna azul and continued to the monte aymond border crossing.


complications arose with jack the dog´s papers and the mendocinos had to return to rio gallegos. i finished the aduana alone. my tierra del fuego sign made an appearance and i flagged down a truck. ariel the truck driver mildly sketched me out at first. but after making some small talk, i figured out that he was just a quiet intense guy and i ignored the frown wrinkles in his brow and his hardened look.


at the estrecho de magallanes we waited 3 hours for ferry service to start up again. plenty of time for mate and for me to meet a lost new zealander with no passport. he was of the lonelyplanet-toting, hostel-frequenting, no-spanish-speaking variety of backpacker. we made small talk, but really had not much in common. i amused myself by hanging around the port´s playground.







once on the boat, i stretched my wandering legs and talked my way into the main control room. edu, the ferry driver, taught me how to navegate.

here´s a quick videoblog for your viewing pleasure... !

gravel roads for 130 km. it was slow bumpy going in the anonimal-owned semi-truck. bump bump. talk talk. silence silence. bump. talk. silence.

we passed houses, sheep, and a few rolling hills. the border to argentina posed no threat.


i stayed with nancy in rio grande. a frantic chainsmoking woman who stressed me out. but she did heat me up a plateful of food and offer me a glass of wine upon my arrival. i had been hitchhiking for 14 hours by that point. i was very grateful.

30 de enero. rio grande.

the menocinos messaged me in the morning. they were going to tolhuin and there was room in the car!!

tolhuin is a small town of which i saw nothing because there were no windows for the back seat of the mendocino car. we went to the campgrounds alongside a lake. i set my tent up in a teepee and quickly heated up mate water. roberto, the crazy owner with the guanaco-dented pick up, invited us all (2 argentinos, 2 chilenos, 1 italiano, 2 ingleses, 3 mendocinos, 2 frances, y yo) into the main house where we set about preparing the party.

highlights included: sitting in the back of the pickup with cold wind and rain in my face. everyone-grab-an-instrument-and-play party until 2am. hot mate. moon rainbow. playing (and cheating at) chancho. what a fantastic night!


31 de enero. tolhuin.

after the morning mate and friendly chat with some porteños, i set off around midday to do the laguna negra hike. i was inexplicably happy to see trees for the first time in many weeks. trees and snow covered mountains. super super excited.


nice tranquilo hike with pájaros carpinteros taktaktaking and scurrying.




roberto dropped me off at the ypf and i started thumbing. 2 minutes later a car pulls over. friendly couple and french hitchhiker. USHUAIA!!


mountains and tourists everywhere. couldn´t get in contact with couchsurfer even after spending 4 pesos for 15 minutes of internet. yikes.

got my ushuaia passport stamps and sat outside the oficina de turismo eating what was left of my bread. saw ariel the trucker eating popcorn and checking out girls. dom, the french hitchhiker, passed by. talk talk talk. neither of us wanted to spent 22 pesos to put up our tents so we heard of a place outside the city where we could camp. free.

quick stop at anonima and ariel, the super awesome trucker friend, drove us 6km to the river. we walked down away from the highway and found a nice place to put up tents and started a fire. salty rice was ready and was accompanied with boxed wine. i slept fantastically with the river playing the background music.



1 de febrero. ushuaia.

ham and cheese. ham and cheese. dom, the french artisano, watched the stuff. i hitched into the centro with a camioneta. the driver sells the biggest crabs ever.


wasted time in centro. got a lot of thinking done. mate with couchsurfer. decided to stay on his floor that night. dom and i moved our stuff into his house. in total there were 6 couchsurfers.

2 de febrero. ushuaia.

called a remis for 7am. french dom, canadian meghan, and i got dropped off at the entrance and snuck in. walk walk walk. think think think.


walked along the shore and stared at the beautiful paisaje. i was in my head a lot and didnt take too many photos. pitched the tent and dodged park rangers.




walked to the end of ruta 3. walked to laguna negra (every town´s gotta have one), which was a turbal in the making.


animal alert: bunnies everwhere. so many bunnies. a corageous fox. lots of wierd looking birds.

tak tak tak. it rained all night.


3 de febrero. parque nacional tierra del fuego.

ham and cheese. ham and cheese.

cerro guanaco: hike hike hike. hike hike hike. photo! hike hike hike. photo! hike hike hike.


swamplications arose. squish squish.

up up up. rock and snow. up up up.



CUMBRE! what a view!!! mountians. lakes. forests. mountains. and rain clouds closing in. ham and cheese.

here´s another video blog from the top of the cerro

hardly had we turned around to head back down, a white-all-encompassing-cloud came out of nowhere and covered everything. everything was white. very very white. on the hike back down from cerro guanaco we saw a fox, a group of loud unhappy israelis, american with a lost glove, and a porteña mother and two daughters. it started snowing.

squish. squish. forest with slippery roots. tired legs. blister on right foot.

it rained all the way to the campsite. took down tent and started hitching. car pulled over. porteña mother and daughters! we squished to make room. they drove us right to the anonima chatting all the way.


we arrived wet, cold and exhausted. mate. internet revealed messages from nate. i was overjoyed. food. bed.

4 de febrero. ushuaia.

morning presented camera complications. the hostel with cheap internet gave my memory card a severe virus. i had to erase my photos. lo barato sale caro.

said goodbye to dom, bob, and luz. left ushuaia with a dark cloud hanging over my head. woman and daughter dropped me off at the rotonda. wait wait wait. two guys in a truck. i was running late, so i hopped in. sketched out at first. but buena onda. we talked about everything and ended with sustainable living and farming.

they left me at the tolhuin ypf. nancy and i met at the ypf. water for mate. frantic car ride. funny what we put up with in exchange for alojamiento.

food. talked with nate for 2 hours. so good to hear from him. fell into bed exhausted.

to be continued...