Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 12 - Ushuaia, Torres del Paine (Argentina, Chile)

After a bit of research we realised it was going to cost £160 each for a return to the Chilean town, Puerto Williams on the southern side of the Beagle Channel, so we extended our 2 night stay in Ushuaia to 5 nights (this also meant we saved ourselves another 4 passport stamps, our passports are starting to fill up with all the weaving in and out of Argentina and Chile already and they need to last us the two years). Yet again we had a great hostel with 360 degree views of the port and the snow capped mountains from the top floor common room so staying longer than anticipated was certainly no hardship. For the first time since we've been in Argentina we came across protests over ownership of the Falkland islands (Islas Malvinas as they're known here).

The first night in Ushuaia we got talking to two girls from New York/Baltimore, Alex and Bailey, and a northern guy living in Sydney, Matt. Since the weather the following day was forecast to be good we all decided to book a transfer and head out to the Tierra del Fuego national park a couple of kilometres out of town. The end of the world really isn’t as dramatic as you’d expect, it kind of gently fades out, the mountains aren’t as high or as jagged as further north, the wind is calmer and there is grass rather than the scrub in northern and mid Patagonia – feels a bit like home. After walking along the shore of the Beagle Channel and an empanada in one of the lodges we decided to hunt beavers on the beaver route. We got a little lost and walked in a circle and when we finally found the beaver lodges and dams there were no beavers in sight, still some impressive architecture for critters so small mind.

Back at the hostel that night a game of ring of fire started involving a giant penguin, chins on the table for swearing (where Rhys and Matt spent most of the night) and a lap of the room on all fours. Being so far south it barely gets dark, even at 3 o’clock in the morning the sky was still blue.

Surprisingly enough we spent the next day recovering watching endless episodes of Entourage and only venturing out of the hostel for lunch. An amazing offer for a 9 day cruise to Antarctica came up at 40% off and USD$3,100 each (if you ever want to go check in to a hostel in Ushuaia and be ready for a last minute deal). We were so close to going before we worked out the return date and checked flight schedules and realised it meant that we wouldn’t be able to make the Navimag that was already booked and paid for – it’s also just been pointed out to us that if we’d gone nothing else we’d have done in Patagonia would have lived up to it, we’ll come back.

Our last day in Ushuaia we booked a boat trip out to the sea lions, cormorants and the lighthouse at the end of the world (which isn’t really at the end of the world). The sea was calm and so flat it was like glass and everything is shades of grey, really beautiful. The sea lions were out in their hundreds. The final stop on the boat trip was an island where the indigenous Yaghan used to live naked and slathered in sea lion fat (there’s now only one Yaghan woman still alive and living in Puerto Williams).

We left Ushuaia the following day with a bus to Punta Arenas then on to Puerto Natales, another border crossing back in to Chile leaving Argentina for the last time. At the ferry crossing to get back to the main land the queue was about 3kms long (bear in mind the ferry only holds about 20 vehicles and takes 20 mins), our bus driver didn’t seem to see this and crossed into the oncoming traffic lane and booted it all the way to the front so we were on the next ferry. We arrived into Puerto Natales late that night.

The following day we went to a renowned Torres del Paine talk at Erratic Rock, a hostel in town. It was so helpful in making us plan our route and prepare us for what we were letting ourselves in for on the ’W’ trek in the park – for instance the wind can reach 260km per hour and it is expected that you will experience all four seasons in the 5 day trek – they weren’t wrong. The rest of the day was spent hiring equipment and buying 3 minute noodles and a ridiculous amount of dried fruit.

Monday was out first day of hiking. We were picked up by the bus from the hostel and drove 2 hours to the park where we paid our entrance fee and I managed to immediately lose my ticket which left us panicking that they were going to check it before letting us on to the actual trails. The bus dropped us at the catamaran pier which took us across lake Pehoe to the start of the trails.

As soon as we got off the boat we grabbed our bags and headed out towards Refugio Grey, an 11km hike up to a glacier, the western side of the ‘W’. When we got to the Refugio, we pitched our tent and continued for another hour to a mirador and up to a disused campsite for views of the glacier and of the southern Patagonian ice field, one of only 3 places in the world you can actually see it. The ice field is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field covering 16,800 km² - 80% of the landmass of Wales. We got back to camp, had a hot shower and ate our 3 minute noodles before bed, just as the rain started.

Our second day of trekking followed the same path as the previous day back down to the southern edge of the ‘W’ and continued along the lake shore to a free campsite, Italiano. As the first day the walk continued through the area that was devastated by the December 2011 fire – started by some stupid Israeli who was pirate camping and decided to burn his rubbish and run off when the wind took and spread the flames. The fire burned for 10 days and destroyed 85 km². A similar fire in 2005 destroyed nearly 3 times more of the park, started again by human negligence, it’s not until the fourth day of the trek that you start seeing the impact of the earlier fire and appreciating just how long it takes for the flora and fauna to recover. As you walk through the charcoaled forests and see the singed scrub you really feel the impact of the fire, the views are still stunning and the lakes and mountains are as breath-taking as ever but it feels quite eerie.

Day three of the trek falls in week 13….