El Fin del Mundo (DUN!!! Dun!! dun!)

No, I´m not talking about the year 2012, its associated crappy Hollywood film, that REM song, or any other apocolyptic-related media or event. I´m talking about Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It is the southernmost city in the world, on an island at the tip of South America that forms Cape Horn, port to the Beagle Channel, last call until Antarctica, and my home for the past week.

I have admired its beauty with every breath and blink of my eyes; each time feels like I am seeing it for the first time and I struggle to take it all in. I stare open-mouthed at the snowcapped peaks of the Martial range, the stillness of the Beagle Channel, its boats that sail in and out of port to unknown destinations, and the Chilean mountains across the channel that beckon to be explored. Even the sky feels fresh and new. I take pictures furiously in hopes my camera will capture just a small part of the scenery´s resulting emotions, but I know it is useless.

Its history also leaves me speechless. It is the last hospitable place on earth to be inhabited by humans. The Yamana survived as naked nomads for over 7,000 years. They didn´t wear any sort of protection against the elements because the wet climate would only soak their clothing preventing warmth. (FYI the summer temperatures here top out at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.) Families moved every 3-4 days, leaving after exhausting the area of food (sea lions, mussels, fish and sea birds) taking only their canoe, tools and fire. Camp was left standing for the next family or for their return.

Laura and I have definitely taken advantage of our natural surroundings. We motored on the Beagle Channel viewing native sealife (penguins, cormorants and sea lions), rented a car and explored Estancia Harberton (It is a historic ranch that was a safehaven for the Yamana. There´s only one left. Her death will be the extinction of an entire culture.), and hiked through Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego where I finally saw a red fox (after spending a season in the Sierra Nevadas searching for them).

It has been a sensory overloading experience and I will be sad to leave it behind. Fortunately, Laura and I will be traveling next to an equally beautiful land in the Torres del Paine, Chile, where we plan to do a 4-day backpacking trek called The W. Because I´d like to visit Antarctica someday (filling a last minute space aboard a ship to this icy land crossed my mind at least half a dozen times per day), I must come back to Ushuaia!