After much deliberation, we’ve decided to head back to Buenos Aires after El Chalten rather than going to Tierra del Fuego. My mom made an excellent point: unlike the glaciers of this region, Tierra del Fuego is not in danger of extinction. It will be there to return to someday.
And I think that’s a good way to leave any trip — there should always be a place you want to head back to.
Mount Fitz Roy, El Chalten
photo credit: longhorndave
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Our trip to Tierra del Fuego was one of the grand adventures of our two-year stay in Patagonia. Crossing the Straits of Magellan [how many people can casually drop that phrase into a conversation?] in a rickety old ferry early on a brisk and very windy morning was just the beginning of the novelty of that trip. Half an hour later we found ourselves surrounded by a herd of sheep not in any hurry to clear a path for us. Soon another border crossing back into Argentina and we followed the windy coast southward before turning west again over the mountains into Ushuaia, which sits on a bay surrounded by snow-capped mountains – one of the classic scenic settings in the world (comparable, IMHO, to Homer, Alaska).
We have the requisite pictures of us standing in front of the sign “Fin del Mundo”, which also notes that Alaska (where we now live) is only 17,848 km to the North.
If it’s not too late to change your minds, I urge you to reconsider this sidetrip before leaving Argentina.