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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – way2blue – USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2]

On The Road – way2blue – USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2]

by WaterGirl|  July 21, 20235:00 am| 8 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

way2blue

After a brief stay in Buenos Aires we pushed onward to Ushuaia, a town on the southern Argentine island of Isla Grande deTierra del Fuego.  The word Ushuaia comes from the indigenous Yaghan language—meaning “deep bay”.  Ushuaia is not only the starting point for cruises to Antartica, but also a backpacking hub and a ski area for those (such as ski racers) who want to ski year-round.  We arrived a few days before our Patagonia fjord cruise to explore a bit.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 8
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

We stayed at a lodge, a former farm, a few kilometers southwest of town.  Ushuaia is bounded on its north by the last bit of the Andes Mountains which have curved to the southeast.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 7
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

Our lodging was on the coast with great views across the Beagle Channel to Chile.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 6
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

Another view to the snow-capped mountains across the channel in Chile (the international border runs along the middle of Beagle Channel).

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 5
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

Ushuaia originated as a penal colony—mainly for dangerous criminals and habitual offenders transferred from Buenos Aires, but also some political prisoners.  The prisoners built a railway to transport timber from the forest back to town which they, in turn, used to built the town.  This tourist train (Tren del Fin del Mundo) follows a section of the route, now within Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 4
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

 (Apologies for the window reflection.)  On the train we traveled through a logged region of the park which has not returned to forest even after more than 100 years.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 3
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

 (Again apologies for the window reflection.)  And horses free to roam.  My understanding is that the horses (some wild; some not) are a destructive force in the park.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 2
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

We also visited the former prison which is now a museum of sorts, Museo Maritimo de Ushuaia.  The prison accepted its first inmates in 1896 as part of an effort to establish permanent Argentinian residents and Argentine sovereignty over Tierra del Fuego.

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2] 1
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

The prison was modeled after a remote British prison in Tasmania, and the French one in Devil’s Island.  Escape from Tierra del Fuego was difficult…  (via Wikipedia »  The prison closed in 1947 and became a naval base active during the Falklands War of 1982.  The Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano, subsequently sunk by the British Fleet, sailed from the Port of Ushuaia.) 

On The Road - way2blue - USHUAIA, ARGENTINA [1 of 2]
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA.

And finally, if I may, a bleak poem by an anonymous inmate (as translated from Spanish) »

When looking into the sunset
with my sad beggar look
I resign myself to die as a traveler
that surrenders to the pain of his failure,
the shadow that will come from the sunset
I will find myself sitting on the path
if I can’t get there, if nothing I hope
So I’m going to take a single step.
Let my cross rot among the scum
where the faith of my destiny fell
and my memory was covered in mud
I don’t deserve another end, cruel pilgrim
I crossed the night of my history
leaving human blood on the road.

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Reader Interactions

8Comments

  1. 1.

    eclare

    July 21, 2023 at 5:32 am

    Thanks for these!  Looking forward to part II.  That poem, bleak is just the beginning.

  2. 2.

    raven

    July 21, 2023 at 5:43 am

    Whew!

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 21, 2023 at 6:14 am

    @raven: That pretty well covers it.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    July 21, 2023 at 6:41 am

    Seems unlikely but Ushuaia has become a kind of hub for electronics manufacture. 40 minute documentary look via Dutch public TV.

  5. 5.

    Dagaetch

    July 21, 2023 at 7:26 am

    I have such fond memories of Ushuaia! It was a wonderful place when I visited. Thanks for the memories.

  6. 6.

    Andrew Abshier

    July 21, 2023 at 10:31 am

    I visited Ushuaia in 2015 so your pictures brought back memories.  What I remember is how strong the winds were when I got out of the taxi downtown, and how cold it was (this was October, the beginning of austral spring).   I went to Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego and visited the terminus of Ruta 3, the southernmost federal highway in the world.  I also remember the prison museum and the gift shop that was, strangely, playing Dominican bachata music. (!)

    The plan was to take a boat to Puerto Williams, then another boat to Punta Arenas in Chile, but weather precluded it, and I had to take the bus to Punta Arenas.

  7. 7.

    way2blue

    July 21, 2023 at 12:43 pm

    @Andrew Abshier: October would be tough.  Wind was definitely a constant.  We were lucky for fairly good weather our whole March trip, especially for the cruise—as their zodiac trips are often canceled owing to wind/waves.

  8. 8.

    scav

    July 21, 2023 at 6:06 pm

    Glorious mountains those.  And perhaps oddly, the bleak cold and isolated end of the worldness only seems to add to the attraction. So of course there would be a snazzy train for contrast!

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