Ushuaia, the southmost city in the world, I went there primarily to hunt for a last-minute Antarctica cruise deal. Although I did not fulfill my goal to visit Antarctica, I experienced the beauty of nature around Ushuaia. Yes, the city has more than Antarctica cruise lines! For those whose budget does not allow a cruise trip, you should still visit Ushuaia. It won’t let you down!

LONG Flight to Ushuaia

From Mendoza, there is no direct flight to Ushuaia. So I booked a cheap flight (not very cheap, it was over 200 USD) with Norwegian Air with 7.5 hour-layover at Buenos Aires, adding another 5 hours flight time. This long flight to Ushuaia was over 12 hours, which was OK for a budget backpacker like me. Both of my flights was with Norwegian Air. I thought I did not need to take my bag and check it in again at Buenos Aires. But the Mendoza Norwegian Air agent told me I need to take my bag and check in again at Buenos Aires. Fine, I would do that. My complain was that once I arrived Buenos Aires, Norwegian Air rejected to check-in my baggage?! They only accept check-in 3 hours before the flight. I was planning to find a nice place in Buenos Aires to spent several hours. It turned out that I was trapped in the airport with my huge backpack…

My only option was to kill sometime with my warming American uncle - McDonald’s. Thank god, at least there was free WiFi at the terminal. McDonald’s was my official South American airport meal place now.

A budget backpacker gets service for what you paid…Nobody was at the airline counters. Agents only show up 3 hours before their flight. Being stranded at the airport for about 4 hours, I was able to join the first pack of travelers waiting for the counters to open.

Finally I was able to get to my gate at 4 p.m. Note that I left my hostel in Mendoza at 7:30 a.m. to catch the 9:30 a.m. flight to Buenos Aires. Finally, I had the opportunity for a decent meal of the day. There were only few choices near my gate. So again, my pick was another non South American restaurant and Mexican food?

Finally, I arrived Ushuaia at around 11 p.m. When I got out of the airport, it was so COLD. Remember, Mendoza was in the desert region and all of a sudden, I was here in Ushuaia, and they called it SUMMER?

Hunt for Antarctica Cruise Last Minute Deal - Mission FAILED

The very next day, I was ready to start my hunt for Antarctica cruise deals. Unfortunately, it was a holiday in Argentina. Most shops and travel agencies were closed. Hunting day 1 turned out to be a city walking tour.

Empty holiday street in Ushuaia.

Then I arrived the city sign near harbor.

Then the downtown. OK, as a very small town, there was not much to see in Ushuaia.

The second day, finally a normal business day. I was recommended several travel agencies specialized in Antarctica cruises. So I went to downtown again. It turned out that most of the agencies only had limited options within next 10 days. The lowest quote was 4400 USD not including insurance, cruise tips and rent for jackets?! This was way above my budget!

So I returned to my hostel very disappointed. Surprisingly, there were quite a few Chinese (from mainland, Hongkong and Taiwan) all came for Antarctica cruises. The only difference was they all had their cruise booked! So we exchanged our information. After showing my quotes, they all said that was cheap?! Their prices were much higher. I am sorry to lower the average Chinese wealthy level. Yes, there are several Chinese cruise lines to Antarctica with Chinese cruise members and daily Chinese food offered on cruise. How rich they are. My hostel was also run by a Taiwanese family. The owner kindly gave me a Chinese travel agent contact. After several hours of chatting on WeChat with the Chinese agent. I was able to secure a deal for 10-day cruise at a price of 4200 USD with only 200 USD extra for tips.

Since I did not have that much cash with me, I had to pay with my U.S. debt card. I spent most of my third day in hostel trying all kinds of ways to transfer money to my Chinese agent. The travel agency was based in China. I had to either transfer money to their mainland or Hongkong bank accounts. And the cruise would depart in 2 days?! I really struggled to make the payment and found there were no easy way to do that. In the end, I decided to give up. I had enough of it! The price was already beyond my 3000 USD budget and I already wasted three days here in Ushuaia doing nothing?! Also, I figured out that you probably do not need to be very young and physically perfect to take the Antarctica cruise. OK, I will give Ushuaia a second chance for my future visit. Now let me do some hard work at a relatively young age, HIKING! I need to get moving again!

What made my hunt so difficult?

Most shops open at 9 a.m. and they close at mid-day from 1-4 p.m. then re-open at 4-8 p.m. I did not know it on my second day and arrived downtown too late like 11 a.m. making me only 2 hours to visit 2-3 travel agencies. Then I found out that it was their midday resting time. I had to walk all the way back (2km) to my hostel and came back downtown later in the afternoon. It was not fun at all.

Tierra del Fuego National Park

After I decided to end my meaningless and disappointing hunt for Antarctica cruise, I made up my mind to enjoy some nature beauty of Ushuaia. My first hiking spot was Tierra del Fuego National Park (land of fire). You may heard of Patagonia, the heaven for nature lovers and adventurers. Yes, more hiking adventures will come soon in famous Torres del Paine and El Chaltén, the capital of trekking. Tierra de Fuego National Park was the easiest hike I had in Patagonia. But it all of the magic and beauty that Patagonia is renowned for. Within the park, there are lakes, rivers and waterways, expansive nothingness and untouched corners that no one has even ventured into.

Pictures worth a thousand words. The following were taken along my hiking in Tierra de Fuego National park. Stunning landscapes and colors of nature!

Tips

How to get to the park?

You can take a bus at the bus terminal close to Ushuaia downtown to the park. For convenience and my own laziness, I booked a bus transfer directly at my hostel for 850 ARS (~ 12 USD), including round trip to the park, hostel pickup and drop-off. There were several stops along this bus route. Depends on how long you would like to hike, you can choose any stops to get off.

The park entrance ticket is 560 ARS (~ 8 USD).

The Southmost Post Office

I did not take the end of the world train but I did mailed several postcards from the world southmost post office and got my passport stamped there.

DO NOT STAMP YOUR PASSPORT

In many places, you would find PASSPORT STAMP STATION. Although it clearly says passport stamp in their sings, you should NOT stamp your passport! I was tempted to put three stamps on my passport, Rainbow Mountain, Machu Picchu and this end of the world post office. While the first two stamps were regular stamps and did not take too much space on my passport. This end of the world post office took ENTIRE PAGE?!

U.S. regular passport book only has 28 pages (20 pages for passport stamps). You may think that’s a lot of pages for traveling. NO, it is not enough! For my South American trip, it took almost 10 pages. Now I used another page for stamps? Stupid decision! Also, later I found that it was illegal to put any non-passport stamp on your passport, at least for U.S. passport.

So please, bring a passport size notebook if you want to collect souvenir stamps.

One-Day Hiking

There were three trekking trails inside the park. If you want to hike all of them, you need to spend two days in the park. I only did the Costera trail and Hito XXIV trail. There was another one from bus stop 2 to Cerro Guanaco trail (the mountain Guanaco ). For the one I did, it was an easy hike mostly flat. The total distance was only less than 17 km. Again, the easiest hike in Patagonia.

Laguna Esmeralda - My DANGEROUS Adventure

The one to Laguna Esmeralda easily qualifies as the best hike in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. It’s not a strenuous trek at all – it is fairly short and with very little ascent. The stunning scenery and the challenges of the trail, however, make it one you will remember. If you plan to just go on one hike when you visit Ushuaia, make sure it is this one.

So everyone says Laguna Esmeralda is a fantastic trek and very short, like 9 km round trip. One should be able to complete the trek in 4-5 hours. Ha, a half day hiking, how easy was that! I confidently went there with only one bottle of water no snack.

My transfer bus picked me up from my hostel at around 10 a.m. The scheduled return time was 4 p.m. I was a little bit concerned about how to kill time since I thought I would be definitely finish the hike in 4 hours, or 4.5 hours at most. Come on, as Google told me, the trek is fairly short and with very little ascent. I was too confident and got lost on this easy trek by making the WRONG, and DANGEROUS long detour. The one-way trek to the lake should be less than 5 km and my long way to the lake took me almost 12 KM?!

Long story in short, the following map was the real route I took for this Laguna Esmeralda. I thought I may die in the mountain at some point of the day…

That morning, I was very relaxing on the bus still thinking today would be an easy day. On our way to the trail head, our bus stopped at a view point. Stunning scenery with nice weather, a great day for hiking!

Then our bus arrived at the trail head with about 15 travelers. As a ‘hardcore’ solo hiker, I did not want to stick with the group. So I quickly passed the group while the ‘softer tourists’ were taking endless pictures. For the first 1 KM of the trek, it was nice and easy walking passing through the forest.

Then quickly I found myself alone on the trail. Yes, there was people chatting and laughing behind me previously. To enjoy the peaceful nature alone, I was trying to walk fast to pass our group as soon as possible. This was a WRONG decision. But I was still walking on a trail with clear marks meaning that it is a trail for people to walk. Stupid me was feeling happy to finally be alone owing this whole nature. So I slowed down and started to take some photos and had some rests. Then I was joined by an Argentinean girl, who came from Buenos Aries and it was her first solo backpacker trip. I was very sorry for this poor girl and later you would know why…So we started to hike together. However, for the next half an hour, we did not meet or hear anybody?! I started to wonder if we were on the right trail. We passed several signs but they were all in Spanish. She read the signs and pointed out the markers on the trees confirming that we were right on track. Another half an hour passed, I found we arrived at an area where no trails were there. What I mean by no trails or roads? Check the following was what we passed.

Do you think that I was standing on the trail to take those pictures? NO, I was standing in the middle of nowhere!!! All we had was endless peatland. For those who don’t know what is peatland, here is the description from Google.

Peatland

Peatlands are a distinctive wetland type, characterized by the accumulation of partially decayed organic matter, forming layers of peat.

So basically, it may look like grassland with small ponds. What we really walked on was wetland. Our boots were stuck in the mud and we had to pull out legs hard to get out of the mud traps. The girl fell several times and I had to return to rescue her. Here, again, I had to thank Maps.Me which saved our life! Since the trail disappeared, I took my cellphone out and started to use Maps.Me to navigate us to the lake. Also I confirmed that we took the wrong path. But we were a little bit far from returning back to the correct one and Maps.Me showed the alternative path to the lake. So I thought we should not return but to continue. I did not know it would lead us to cross endless peatland. I had to say although the App took us to a difficult path, I was still thankful to this app to navigate us in the middle of nowhere! And it actually was a ‘trail’ just no clear man-walked path since we saw blue ribbons on the trees from time to time. Time passed and we had been on the trail from about 3 hours but still there were no lake?! The Argentinean girl was very upset and worried about our safety. She wanted to go back but I just kept walking. I would not return until I arrive my destination, Laguna Esmeralda.

We probably walked on the peatland for about an hour. And finally we saw the lake in the far distance. I had to say, it was a little bit scary path to the lake. So the following what my last challenge to Laguna Esmeralda. The red path was the last part of the detour and the blue line was the CORRECT trail. Yes, we were up high in the mountain and need to get down to the lake…

First, there were two hanging glaciers, or just huge snow falls on the slide of the hill we need to cross. It was very slippery and on a little bit steep slope. Even me fell down, slid a few feet downhill and got my palms cut by the rocks. My dangerous move made the Argentinean girl almost cried and decided to give up. She shouted to me, ‘Lan, I cannot do it! I have to turn back, sorry and you just continue.’

No matter how I encouraged her to continue. She just rejected to move on. Maybe I was too tough on her. So I was left alone again. But seriously, after the ‘glaciers’, the rest of the detour was relatively easy and very safe…What I had in front of me was a huge bush forest and a narrow creek. No danger for those two right? Just got some more tiny cuts on my hands and my entire pair of shoes and socks wet.

So I cross the bush forest.

Then cross this little freezingly cold creek. After crossing the creek, I even spent sometime to wash my shoes inside out, anyway they were completely wet already.

To document what I passed through, this was the last part of the dangerous detour I took (photo taken on the CORRECT trail looking up).

Finally, after almost 5 hours detour, I arrived at Laguna Esmeralda. Yes, that’s it. A lake in the mountain with some snows. Very common view in Patagonia. Later I found, that is what you will get after hiking for 10+ KM one-way in the mountain. At the end, you will find a beautiful lake. Same applies to Torres del Paine and *El Chaltén.

On my way back, this time I was taking the correct trek and again thanks to Maps.Me. At that point, even I was accompanied by other travelers, I did not trust them nor my instinct. I totally replied on my dear Maps.Me App… You may thought the correct trail should be an easy one. Of course not, life is never easy at any time. It was a muddy trail and also sometimes there were no clear marked ‘road/path’. This was what I saw on my way back. One guy slipped on the narrow wood crossing bridge and got his leg stuck in the mud up to the knee which he could not get himself out! A group of three people came to rescue him and pulled him out. What an amazing trail!

Who could tell me where to go in this muddy land?

Then I went back to the forest nearby the trailhead. I found out why I got myself into the WRONG way. Why there was NO SIGN at this bifurcation?!

Undoubtedly, I missed my bus back to Ushuaia when I got out of the trek. Were I worried? No. The trailhead was next to a highway. So I hitchhiked on the side of the road…Luckily, after about five cars passed by, one black Audi SUV stopped, one Argentinean handsome gentleman in suit and tie rowed passenger window down and asked what happened. I explained that I got myself lost on the trek and missed my bus. Carlos, the gentleman smiled and kindly offered me a ride back to Ushuaia. It was not my first hitchhike attempt in South America. But previously I got tuk-tuk motorcycle, a pickup back trunk or a 4x4 off-road SUV. All matched my low-key, dirty and tough backpacker travel style. This time I was very embarrassed since I had mud all over my jacket and pants and my hiking shoes were half-wet, all those clearly did not match the leather seats on this luxury Audi SUV. I know you will never read this blog, but still please accept my deepest thanks to you, Carlos!

Tips

While the correct trek to Laguna Esmeralda is a short hike (2 hours in and 2 hours out), please do the following before and/or during the hiking:

Make sure you are on the right trek. For certain parts, there is NO clear sign!
Do not be too confident on your instinct. Either follow the group if there is any people around or if you prefer to hike alone, download Maps.Me and get offline map ready on your phone. Start to use the app to guide you from very beginning of the trail!
Even on the right trail, it can be very muddy and wet. Be prepared for that!

Last point, there are shuttle buses taking you to the trailhead. You can find them in the bus terminal near downtown. I believe it departs at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and returning at 4 p.m. Double check the bus schedule before you go. You can easily combine your day with this hike and a late afternoon Beagle Channel cruise to see the sunset, if you don’t get yourself lost like me…

No entrance ticket required for this trail.

Beagle Channel Cruise Tour

After two hiking days in a row, I decided to take a break and booked myself a Beagle Channel Cruise. I should say, Beagle Channel Cruise is not a must-try in Ushuaia. But still this is kind of a very popular tour in town.

For me, I thought I had saved myself tons of money by not taking the Antarctica cruise. So I probably booked the most expensive Beagle Channel Cruise with Tolkeyen Patagonia Turismo. For cheaper options, there are lots of travel agencies offering all different kind of cruise lines to Beagle Channel in the harbor area. Like most Beagle Channel cruise, the Tolkeyen cruise visits the sea lion island, cormorants island, the lighthouse, and Penguins colony. The special stop this cruise offers was Harberton farm, where you will have an opportunity to visit the farm’s family house, the nature reserve, shearing warehouse and a sea mammal museum. Then you will take a bus back to Ushuaia. If sailing in the Beagle Channel is something on you list, you probably do NOT need to pay the extra money for visiting Harberton which lower the cost by 50%!

But the cruise was nice and in general I had a very peaceful and relaxing day without using my legs heavily. Also I was able to see cute animals in their wild habitats.

Our cruise and the bigger red vessel was the one heading to Antarctica the next day. So jealous!

The sea lions and the light house.

The Harberton farm’s decoration of whale bones and an ancient wash machine.

There were not too much to see in Harberton, but I learnt some interesting things about marine mammals in their museum.

FUN FACTS:

A killer whale is actually a dolphin?! OMG, I was misled by its name for my entire life?!
To be more accurate, dolphins are subset of whales. Meaning that all dolphins are whales.
So the main difference between the two is the teeth. For toothed whales, they have flat, spade-shaped teeth while all dolphins have prominent, elongated “beaks” and cone-shaped teeth.
The ocean current brings dead bodies of many marine mammals to shores near Harberton making it a very special location for studying those animals.

Tips

The cruise line I took costed 5500 ARS (~ 78 USD). If you do not add stop at Harberton, it only cost you 2600 ARS (~ 37 USD).
You may find cheaper options with smaller cruise or even a sailboat. The locations you may visit maybe a little less.

Crossing Lagos 4x4 Off-Road Tour

My last tour in Ushuaia was the 4x4 off-road tour. With this tour, no hiking was required. You would had an off-road experience, visit several lakes and a canoe experience. Also, the tour include an Argentinean barbecue lunch at their refuge and had the opportunities to see their husky dogs for winter activities. I was very satisfied by the barbecue. OK, maybe I have to admit that whichever tour provided me meat and wine made me happy.

The handsome SUV for the day!

Our first stop was one of the refuge of the company for winter activities. The peatland would turn into cross-country skiing land.

And inside the refuge, where you can have your morning caffeine refill, there was a cute accompany by the window.

Then we visited several lakes and took our canoe out in one of the lake for about an hour. Then we reached the starting of they real winding and muddy off-road experience all the way to the beach of the lake.

Finally we arrived our lunch place, another refuge of the company for winter activities. There we had sometime to see the handsome husky dogs at a distance. We were warned not to get too close and definitely not to pat those handsome creatures. There lived not one or two huskies but probably 30-50 of them!

The highlight of the tour - Argentinean Barbecue! Before the meat, the view from the lodge was fantastic.

But quickly my attention was distracted from the nature beauty to the MEAT! Lots and lots of them!

Red wine and appetizers first.

Then chorizo sandwich.

And my favorite part, the steaks, very very delicious! I had three of those…not feeling embarrassed at all!

Fun Facts Again:

This tour was the only tour I did in Ushuaia with a guide. So I learnt many things about the region.

The indigenous people of the region is called Yaghan. And in their language, the region’s name is Oshovia (means the deep bay). But when Spanish came, they could not figure out the Yaghan language’s pronunciation. So Ushuaia became the city’s official name.
The wetland I crossed in Laguna Esmeralda was called peatland and peats are used to make Scotch whiskey? I thought I just walked on wet grassland on that wrong trek…
This is actually a sad fact. The cute beavers were not native to Ushuaia region. They were imported from Canada for with the intention of creating a commercial fur-trading industry. However, the weather in Ushuaia is warmer than Canada resulting no thinner fur growth of the beavers. So they were released. Since they were introduced to the region, they have no natural predators. Beaver population grew quickly in this heaven and has became a threaten to the region’s ecosystem by destroying large amounts of forests and contaminate vast water sources. Both Chile and Argentina agreed on Beaver eradication in Tierra del Fuego. But those creatures still are making their dams and live a happy life. Yes, I agree that beavers should move out the region but it’s more like a man-made mistake not beavers’ fault. The dead trees in the forest due to beavers.

Tips

I highly recommend the do the tour with Antartur.
I paid 4320 ARS (~ 61 USD) in cash for this tour. Yes, if you pay cash, you get 10% off. Original price was 4800 ARS.
That’s it! It will be a fun and relaxing tour not requiring lots of physical strength. Everybody can do it.

Ushuaia Tips in General

For stay, I recommend Oshovia. A Taiwanese family own and run hostel, clean, comfy beds and good breakfast included. Their kitchen is fantastic! For 90% of my stay, I cooked my own meal in the hostel.
If your hostel is a little bit far from the city center, which was my case. Oshovia is about 30-minute walking to the center. You should get a magnet bus card, called SUBE. The card costs 90 ARS (~ 1.5 USD) but the bus ticket only cost 18 ARS ( ~ 0.25 USD)! Also, this card can be used in Buenos Aries. An amazing city with fantastic public transport system!
Bus terminal of Ushuaia locates on the corner of Avenida Maipu and Juana Genoveva Fadul Sur. There are shuttle buses to Tierra del Fuego Park, Laguna Esmeralda and other places of interests. The price will be cheaper than booked at your hostel probably. The following lists destinations of the shuttle buses and schedule as of November, 2019.

Most shops open at 9 a.m. and they close at mid-day from 1-4 p.m. then re-open at 4-8 p.m. Plan your shopping time accordingly!
If you are a smoker, stock your cigarettes in Ushuaia. Based on my experience, the cheapest place for cigarettes in South America or probably in the world! A pack of Marlboro Gold only cost about 1.2 USD?!

Food in Ushuaia

As I said, my hostel Oshovia has a fantastic kitchen. Except for the barbecue lunch provided by the 4x4 off road tour and a lunch at Harberton farm, I did not go out for meals but cooked all my food in the hostel kitchen.

Paella at Harberton farm, costed 450 ARS (~ 7.5 USD). It was just OK. But I need a warm place to kill sometime before the bus returning to Ushuaia.

King Crab feast! Alive and same-day caught, freshly delivered to my hostel by the local fishman! This monster weighted about 3-4 kg and only costed 1900 ARS (~ 27 USD)!