Ushuaia

USHUAIA

Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world, is the capital of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida and Islas del Atlántico Sur. Located by the Beagle Channel and surrounded by the Martial Mounts to the West, and the Olivia and Cinco Hermanos Mounts to the East, it offers a unique landscape in Argentina of a combination of mountains, sea, glaciers, and woods.

The capricious topography has given origin to a picturesque city that combines colors and slopes with the shape of the Andes as a background.  You can appreciate the contrasts between the architecture of the modern buildings and the wooden houses with tin hip roofs, which make it so peculiar. The weather in Ushuaia is not as severe as you might think, since the mountains and the sea make it milder.  It is very changeable, though, and it can change from one day to the other, or even within the same day. Thus it is highly recommended to take an extra coat that you can either put on or take off.  Due to nearness to the South Pole, in summer there are approximately 18 hours of day light, while in winter there are only seven or eight.  In winter the snowed landscape makes it change its appearance, and the days are usually, bright and clear.

There are several winter resorts to practice cross country skiing, and on Castor Hill you can practice alpine skiing.

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Distances from Ushuaia
Bahía Lapataia: 22 km
Laguna Escondida: 46 Km
Estancia Haberton: 85 Km
Lago Fagnano: 98 Km
Río Grande: 232 Km
El Calafate: 863 Km
Puerto Madryn: 1799 Km
Buenos Aires: 3085 Km
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Beagle Channel

Around the South border of the Great Island of Tierra del Fuego, you can find the Beagle Channel, that marks the border with Chile.  The road that goes along the shore leads you to a lush forest of lengas and beeches, that leads to the Victoria lagoon; from there you can also see the Les Eclaieurs Lighthouse and several colonies of 1 and 2 bristle sea lions;  Mount Olivia, approximately 1,500 meters high, and Gable Island where you can see the famous "lengas bandera" (flag lengas), leaning due to the wind, and as a historical aspect, Harberton Ranch.

End of the World Train

The End of the World Train or Austral Fueguino Train, is the first ecological train in the world, which goes through an unreachable part of the Tierra del Fuego National Park.  Eight kilometers West from the city of Ushuaia, you can find  the End of the World Station; the trains to the Tierra del Fuego National Park Station depart from there.  The train has steam locomotors and elegant heated coaches, with wide windows.  The ride lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes, and it goes along the Pipo River, which it crosses through the Quemado Bridge.  Then, you will go up to the highest slope of the line up to La Macarena Station.  Leter, you will go by the debris of an old sawmill, and it finally leaves the River and goes round a great peat bog, to end in a big bend that leads into a bushy wood of coigues and lengas. In the past this train was used by the prisoners of the Ushuaia prison to transport wood from the woods that today form the National Park.

Harberton Ranch

It was founded in 1886 by the Anglican pastor Thomas Bridges, pioneer of the Beagle Channel, and friend of the yámanas Indians.  Apart from the historical factor, the ranch is framed in a bay protected from the winds of the channel.  The Acatushún museum, devoted to the southern fauna is there.  The Museum was opened in March 2001, and it is focuses on southern birds, and marine mammals, such as zífidos, dolphins, and whales.

Tierra del Fuego National Park

The Tierra del Fuego National Park, created in 1960 covers an area of 63,000 hectares, and constitutes the fundamental reserve of the Argentine sub Antarctic wood, being a real "Southern Paradise".  It is aimed to preserve the ecosystem of  the Andes of the Patagonia, and the sub Antarctic Wood.  It hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna, the lenga being the most abundant of the trees, some of them up to 30 meters high, with trunks that have a diameter of up to 1.5 meters; there are also sour cherry trees, a type of beeches, cinnamon trees, and notros.  Among the fauna of the Park we can name the cauquén, that always makes its nest near the water, it eats grass and migrates in the winter, the woodpecker, that can only be seen in couples or in little family groups, the stork, attractive for its shape and color. One of the most visible attractions are the castor caves.  Castors, as well as the rabbits, are plagues in the area since they were imported, not native.  During the tour around the Park, you can see the Ensenada Bay, the cascade of the Pipo River, the Viewpoint of the Redonda Island, the Roca Lake, the Negra Lagoon, and finally the Lapataia Bay.