senorsuitcase
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- Aug 11, 2010
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We just got back from a month in Patagonia. We've seen how the world ends:
It all ends today. This is the last day of our journey through Patagonia. We have covered somewhere in the region of 5000km and now find ourselves in the southernmost city on Earth: Ushuaia. We have spent 5 weeks winding south through this massive country, clocking up 100 hours of road time (with only one breakdown). And this evening we will be catapulted back to Buenos Aires in a little over 3 hours. There´s nothing like five weeks of coach travel to make flying feel like luxury.
Ushuaia itself is nothing to tweet home about. It´s predominantly an industrial hub, container ships loading up ready to pick another fight with the most fearful stretch of water on the planet. While the city will not be troubling the judges at the Argentinian City of Beauty Awards, and the local radio stations play the same 5 songs on a loop from Now That´s What I Call Death By 80s, the place does evoke a real sense of being at the world´s end. As if the jostling ranks of Fin del Mundo souvenir shops would ever let you forget…
Having trekked, sailed and glaciered ourselves silly since leaving Buenos Aires, we decided to take in a bit of culture. The walls of the city´s museums talk of native tribes (makers of the fires that gave the ´Land of Fire´ its name) and centuries of shipwrecks. Before Panama had a canal, rounding Cape Horn was the only passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic and not a prospect relished by captains. Ushuaia has long been a pit-stop for adventurers, traders and cruise ships, which now release the colourful, GoreTex-clad hoardes into this snowy town before heading off across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica.
The last five weeks in Patagonia have been an incredible adventure. Leaping whales, crumbling glaciers, face-altering winds, expansive road trips and ice-creams as big as your head. The scale of everything is awesome. We have been fortunate to have the time to be able to appreciate the space here. In Patagonia, there are under two people per km². So, that´s just the pair of us with a km² to ourselves. Tonight we will sleep in Buenos Aires, where we will share our km² with another 13,678 people. Cosy.
More verbal jousting on www.senorsuitcase.com
It all ends today. This is the last day of our journey through Patagonia. We have covered somewhere in the region of 5000km and now find ourselves in the southernmost city on Earth: Ushuaia. We have spent 5 weeks winding south through this massive country, clocking up 100 hours of road time (with only one breakdown). And this evening we will be catapulted back to Buenos Aires in a little over 3 hours. There´s nothing like five weeks of coach travel to make flying feel like luxury.
Ushuaia itself is nothing to tweet home about. It´s predominantly an industrial hub, container ships loading up ready to pick another fight with the most fearful stretch of water on the planet. While the city will not be troubling the judges at the Argentinian City of Beauty Awards, and the local radio stations play the same 5 songs on a loop from Now That´s What I Call Death By 80s, the place does evoke a real sense of being at the world´s end. As if the jostling ranks of Fin del Mundo souvenir shops would ever let you forget…
Having trekked, sailed and glaciered ourselves silly since leaving Buenos Aires, we decided to take in a bit of culture. The walls of the city´s museums talk of native tribes (makers of the fires that gave the ´Land of Fire´ its name) and centuries of shipwrecks. Before Panama had a canal, rounding Cape Horn was the only passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic and not a prospect relished by captains. Ushuaia has long been a pit-stop for adventurers, traders and cruise ships, which now release the colourful, GoreTex-clad hoardes into this snowy town before heading off across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica.
The last five weeks in Patagonia have been an incredible adventure. Leaping whales, crumbling glaciers, face-altering winds, expansive road trips and ice-creams as big as your head. The scale of everything is awesome. We have been fortunate to have the time to be able to appreciate the space here. In Patagonia, there are under two people per km². So, that´s just the pair of us with a km² to ourselves. Tonight we will sleep in Buenos Aires, where we will share our km² with another 13,678 people. Cosy.
More verbal jousting on www.senorsuitcase.com
