1/30-Fin Del Mundo!

The end of the world is hilly and crowded! But before we got to Ushuaia, we had to do a little bike ride. 

I woke up to this view from my tent this morning. 

Not a bad way to start the last day. Actually, when I got up at 5:30 to pee, there was a fox rummaging around in the fire pit not far from my tent. We have seen several foxes, even seeing one run across the road today. 

First we had to get back to Ruta 3. Then we had to climb Paso Garibaldi. Even though it looked quite epic, it was actually not bad. The steepest grade I saw was 5%. The views, however, were spectacular!

It looks worse than it was. 

Mountains and the lake. 

Lago Escondido in the foreground, and Lago Fagnano in the distance. 

And Billy, of course. 

The top of the Pass is near! In total, it was about an 8 km climb. See the gravel road to the right? That was an alternative route. I’m glad we didn’t do that one!

There was an equally long descent on the other side. Just after starting down, I saw a cyclist coming up. We both stopped. He was Rory from England, and it was his first day! He was basically doing the same thing as us, except in the reverse. He looked fresh! 

Down at the bottom, there was a moto/cafe/museum/adventure place. We stopped for a cafe break, but the cafe part was closed. We walked around. Alex asked a guy if there was coffee. He took us into one of the…I don’t know exactly what it was…maybe a meeting room? There were tables, and they had thermoses of coffee AND hot chocolate! The guy poured cups for us. It was free!

There were a bunch of different buildings and cabins. 

We continued. We passed by numerous ski areas, and even a dog sled area. As you can imagine, winter is a pretty big thing here. There are numerous mountains at the end of the world. 

As you can see, the weather was pretty cloudy. It was about 14 degrees Celsius. Coming down was rather chilly. I managed to stay warm enough because of the uphills. 

Finally, we were at the entrance of Ushuaia!

Does it look like what you imagined the end of the world looks like? I’m not sure. 

There were two main ways to get to the port. We took the way along the water. 

In the distance you can see the cruise ships. That’s the area we were heading for. There was a crap ton of traffic, and the wind was blowing clouds of dust. The traffic just got more as we got closer. Our goal was the “Fin Del Mundo” sign. We knew where it was supposed to be, we just had to find it. There were so many tourist kiosks for various tours that we couldn’t see the sign. Finally we found it. 

A nice lady took the photo for us. 

By the way, notice that the DaBrim is back on my helmet. It’s been off for all the days across the Pampas. I wanted to put it back on for the last day. 

After taking the photos, and fist bumps all around, we sought out some food (of course). Now, Ushuaia is basically surrounded by mountains and the water. From the water, the town is built on the hillside. To get to most of the town, you have to go up. It’s like most cities that are on the water (Seattle…Tacoma come to mind). Lots of very steep hills. We rode up one block, then found a restaurant. I think it was really more of a bar with snack food. Still, I had a filling “gas station” style pizza. Alex and Markus went for the pea soup. They were not thrilled. Really, it just looked like green water. 

Back to the bikes, we were now heading to our accommodation. We went up, then over, then up, then over some more. Finally we went up a really really steep block, and we still had to go up another one. I gave up and pushed. We finally found the place. It’s a great place, and due to its lofty elevation, the view is pretty good. 

We are on the top floor too. Markus hauled the bikes up. 

Kitchen

My room. 

We actually walked back down a couple of blocks to a panadería and then a small mercado. The walk back up was sloooow. 

We have until Feb 8th here in this apartment. Then I’ll move to the hostel when Alex and Markus leave. I’m not sure if I’ll do a post everyday. We do have some adventures we want to do while we are here, so I’ll do posts for those. 

We have done what we set out to do. Puerto Montt, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina!