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.
way2blue
On this, my first trip to South America, there was something enticing about traveling to its very southernmost tip. Our second day in Ushuaia, we had booked a guided hike along a remote portion of the Beagle Channel followed by a raft trip. We shared a van with another ten hikers from Spain (Catalonia), Italy & the U.S. The hike turned out to be a bit more challenging than I’d hoped as the trail was rough—lots of rocks & tree roots to trip on. Lots of ups & downs. So I took my time with a nordic stick…
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 9](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/9A-P1110463-768x576.jpg)
To backtrack a bit… After the train ride in the Pipo River valley, we headed to the northwestern shore of Bahia Lapataia within the national park. The shoreline is edged with shell middens, the residue of the indigenous Yaghan people who lived here prior to colonization.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 8](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/9B-2-P1110468-768x576.jpg)
Another view of the bay. The Yaghan people did not construct permanent villages rather migrated along the shore harvesting shellfish and seal. Surprisingly they apparently wore no clothes, instead covered themselves with seal fat. (And it snows here!)
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 7](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/9C-2-P1110462-768x576.jpg)
One last view across the bay to the Redonda Islands and Chilean coast across Beagle Channel.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 6](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/11-P1110473-768x576.jpg)
Before heading back to Ushuaia, we stopped at the southern terminus of National Highway 3, marked as well as by an ‘end of the world’ post office where I found some birds for Albatrossity…
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 5](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/12-P1110474-768x1024.jpg)
A functioning post office covered in stickers.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 4](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/13-P1110484-768x576.jpg)
Onto the epic hike… A brief rest stop at a cove along the way. Low tide. Note the clusters of purple mussels.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 3](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/14-P1110483-768x576.jpg)
Somewhat zoom’d in view of the same cove.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 2](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/16-IMG_3785-768x576.jpg)
The raft behind us on our way to Laguna Verde. We had a windy start on a large lake, so a few of the group declined to raft. Once on the stream it was easy going—just needed to avoid the shallows.
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2] 1](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/17-IMG_3784-768x576.jpg)
A few locals watching the tourists paddle by »
![On The Road - way2blue - Ushuaia, Argentina [2 of 2]](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/18-IMG_3773-768x576.jpg)
Not our cruise ship…
eclare
Interesting photos, the landscape seems so still.
Andrew Abshier
When I went to the terminus of Ruta 3, there was no post office, just the sign! I took a selfie there to be the second half of a “that’s adorable meme” (the other half being Mile 0 in Key West) but still haven’t made it to Key West!
The pics bring back some good memories. I had a great day hiking around Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego.
Tenar Arha
Wow. Beautiful
Albatrossity
Upland Geese! Would be a lifer for me!
And there is a bird (Kelp Gull, aka Southern Black-backed Gull) in your last picture as well.
Lovely pictures, all around!
Dagaetch
Soo pretty! I remember that post office.
Yutsano
So are you allowed to put new stickers on the post office? That would be kind of a cool thing, although more sanitary than the gum wall in Seattle.
pieceofpeace
The sticker post office reminds me of some active AmExpress message boards when travelling in the 60s Europe.
And see the local horses being entertained by the tourists with one looking like he’s donned the now-familiar white boots of our Florida crazed man.
Yes, overall, peaceful feeling from the photos, thanks.
cope
Lovely pictures and story, thank you. There’s just something so compelling about such empty lands.
The first exploratory expedition of The H.M.S. Beagle, captained by Robert Fitzroy (Darwin went on the second expedition), brought back four members of the Yaghan to London. One died shortly after arrival of smallpox. The other three became celebrities and were encouraged to adopt English dress and customs. However, on the second voyage, the three surviving Yaghan were returned to their homeland where they re-assimilated. One of them, given the English name of Jemmy Button (his Yaghan name was O’run-del’lico), was given the opportunity later to return to London. He declined.
Andrew Abshier
@cope: As happened with La Conquista in the northern part of the continent, contact with Europeans pretty much ended the native tribes in the far south. I visited museums in Punta Arenas with exhibits on the Yaghan and the Selk’nam, the latter of which were massacred be European settlers in the late 1800s.
way2blue
@Albatrossity: Sounds like there’s a trip to Tierra del Fuego in your future!
way2blue
@Andrew Abshier: I had no idea that Route 3 started in Florida! Not sure I will get there either…
way2blue
@Yutsano: Can’t imagine why not… (Didn’t have any stickers on me, nor any postcards.) N.B., I mailed postcards to the kidz from Åland Island (nominally Finland, but with its own stamps & flag) in June and they haven’t yet arrived…
YY_Sima Qian
Pretty pics! I have only explore the town itself, before boarding a cruise to the Falklands, South Georgia & the Antarctic Peninsula. Flew straight to Buenos Aires after disembarking. I would have liked to have done some hiking in the surrounding area.
way2blue
@cope: Sadly the arrival of Europeans decimated the indigenous peoples for all the usual reasons. Took me a while to figure out that most of the locals we met were proudly descended from colonials. Finally, it occurred to me (duh) it’s the same story in the U.S.
way2blue
@Andrew Abshier: I’d hoped to visit the Punta Arenas museum that chronicles the indigenous people’s fate, but it was closed the brief time we were there. Did see full size replicas of Magellan’s, Nao Victoria, the Chilean Schooner, Ancud, Darwin’s Beagle, and Shackleton’s lifeboat at the Nao Victoria Museum.
YY_Sima Qian
@way2blue: My most indelible memory of Ushuaia was seeing the graffiti on the walls next to the main gate of the Argentinian Coast Guard Station there – it was an outline of Islas Malvinas w/ caption in Spanish. I don’t read Spanish, but “Pirata Inglés” stood out. :-D Not sure if you saw it.
Of course, a couple of days later I was strolling the “back streets” of Stanley, & I saw a work of “art” stuck on the main door room window at one of the houses – it was a hand draw outline of the Falkland Islands, a giant middle finger between the two main islands (w/ a British flag for a ring), & the caption read:”British to the core! F*ck you Argentina! The Falklands are ours!”
That had me chuckling for days.