Ushuaia, Argentina- The End of the World

Ushuaia is located at the tip of South America on the Argentina side of the Andes mountains. It was my first stop on my Patagonia trip. I flew from Buenos Aires directly to Ushuaia, then rented a car at the airport to avoid local transportation costs. I also wanted the car to explore outside the area a bit.

Ushuaia is a fairly good size town of over 80,000 people. It is considered a resort town so many of the people are in service to those who venture here. I came in December, which was their summertime, a popular time for visitors but it didn't seem that way to me. I was surprised how unpopulated the place seemed for its size and resort reputation.

Ushuaia is also the launching point for many cruises to the Antarctic. It's about a two day voyage by small ship to the Antarctic. This, however, was not on my agenda. I forgot to pack my thermal undies.

Fin del Munda is Spanish for "the end of the world". It boasts as being the world's most southern city.

Beyond the city is Beagle Sound:

This is a beautiful, scenic and serene area. It's also the launching point for fishing boats and area excursions to see the penguins as I did here:

https://www.kirkstravelstories.com/post/ushuaia-s-magellanic-penguins

I rented a small cabin on a slope just outside of the town. There were only a few other cabins in the area that were mostly unoccupied during my stay. It did have some decent views of Beagle Sound as well as the surrounding mountains:

But the town itself was not that memorable. When I looked for pictures of the town for this blog I only found this one:

I guess that was the town highlight. I really don't recall much about the town, but I wasn't there for that, anyway. Ushuai is about the natural setting of the water and the mountains.

It is also where the the group of islands called Tierra del Fuego, or land of fire, is located. This is an archipelago shared with Chili off the coast of the continent. Ushuai is actually located on the biggest island of this group.

I did a self drive of the surrounding area. I encountered very few cars on the road outside of the town. Just natural mountain settings and a whole lot of nothing on the roads. Not even wildlife::

Ushuaia was very nice, but it was not the highlife of Patagonia for me. That honor belonged to El Calafate and the beautiful Perito Moreno Glacier as I posted here:

https://www.kirkstravelstories.com/post/perito-moreno-glacier-patagonia-argentina

This whole trip to Patagonia was among the most scenic I've seen, rivaling that of even South Africa. But it exceeded anything I'd seen in terms of just the expanse of its beauty. I hope to return to the Chilean side of Patagonia in the future.