¡Buen viaje!: Bahia Bustamante and getting to Ushuaia

After a lengthy stay in the Peninsula Valdez region (I think we were there for about 10 days) we headed south for a couple of hours across the never ending flat as a pancake steppe to get to a place called ´Bahia Bustamante´ (BB), which was described to us by one woman as the most beautiful place in all of Patagonia. Needless to say we were pretty excited. We were dropped off at a gas station at Garayalde (literally just a gas station, nothing else around!) wondering what would happen next - as BB is fairly isolated they only get email access when the generator is on in the evenings and we didn´t really know how, or if, we would be picked up. No worries though as 20 minutes after being dropped off a blue pick up came around and took us to the place. Bahia Bustamante is, well was, a town that was developed entirely for the purpose of harvesting algae for hair products. It was built in the 1950s I think and at one time required about 150 workers. The current owner´s grandfather started the whole thing and built an entire town to house the workers and their families. The place had a general store, school, church and even and airstrip. Nowadays most of the work is done by machines which means the workers quarters are not being used and the current owner is slowly developing a tourist business out of the town. We were housed in a sort of dorm room (cheapest!) that we had to ourselves but most guests were in houses complete with bathrooms and amazing views of the ocean. It sort of felt like being in another country - the land is enormous, some 210,000 acres that is used for sheep farming, all owned by the same fellow (the drive from the main highway to the beach is 36km long and is entirely within this property). It is gorgeous, with crystal waters, nice beaches, interesting features and even a petrified forest back in the hills. We spent three nights there and became a bit of a tourist attraction for the american guests because of where we live - we got a lot of mileage telling them about 24 sun and darkness! We found out that the place had been featured in a New York Times article earlier this year and that was the reason most of the clients were from the USA. During our visit we went on a boat tour to see more penguins and seal lions, chilled on the beach, visited the petrified forest and I read even more National Geographics. Yes! The weather was fantastic, the food delicious and the owner´s hospitality second to none. What a great place.

This piece of wood is 65 million years old. You can see the tree rings.

In Punta Tomba we saw them walking, at Bahia Bustamante we saw them swimming.

The owner getting the boat ready for a tour.

Old workers quarters.

The view from the main building.

After visiting BB we got back on an all night bus south to Rio Gallegos where we only stayed one night (not a very interesting place) and then an all day bus to get to Ushuaia, at the 'other end of the road' from Inuvik. We had to cross into Chile and back into Argentina giving us lots of stamps in our passports. During the Straits of Magellan crossing we saw dolphins. What was fantastic however was finally seeing the countryside change from flat flat and more flat to snow capped mountains and forests. We arrived in Ushuaia around 9pm and quickly went to our hostel - Antarctica Hostel - what a great hostel, probably the best one we've been in on the entire trip. Ushuaia itself has a bit of a frontier feel but is way bigger than our end of the world at 60,000 people. You can tell it has sort of been thrown up quickly. The city sits right on the Beagle Channel surrounded by snowcapped mountains and looks at even bigger mountains in Chile. The main employers are the government (it is the capital of Tierra del Fuego province) and tourism. There are gorgeous places to see around Ushuaia and it also acts as the main jumping off point for boats to Antarctica. We spent our first day looking for trips to Antarctica that are 'reasonably priced'. A full price tour for 10 days (4 travel days) is about $10000 but it is possible to get much cheaper options as a 'last minute' option. Well, the next day we were offered and bought a trip leaving on January 3rd coming back on the 12th. I won't tell you the price because despite being a huge discount it is still horrendous. That's what VISA is for though, right? This purchase has certainly changed the budget for the next part of the trip but we figure it´s a once in a lifetime opportunity. As a friend of mine is fond of saying it´s only money, go make some more! Buying this trip however meant that we were going to be in Ushuaia for quite a while and needed things to do. We visited beautiful Lago Esmarelda not too far from town with a fantastic couple, he (Ed) from the UK and her (Elo) from France, both living in Paris. The next day Elise and I went into Tierra del Fuego national park to camp for 3 nights and Elo and Ed came for the second night. I have discovered that as Canadians we should all have a certain amount of national pride in the fact that we know how to camp. Elo and Ed were amazed at all the tricks we knew, from gathering wood to cleaning dishes. Hilarity ensued when a fox (that obviously was used to people feeding it, silly Argentines) came near our fire and we decided to leave the food in a tree. The park, needless to say, is beautiful but lacks the end of the worldness that you would expect - tour buses come on paved roads, and it is littered with toilet paper even though each campsite has toilets that might be a maximum 5 minute walk away.