We arrived in Ushuaia on the afternoon of the 19th. It had taken almost a week of driving, but, on arrival we were not dissapointed. If the dull pampas had bored us with her repetitive emptyness, Ushuaia excelled in beauty. The pampas had been flat, the road into Ushuaia was made up of mountain pass connected to mountain pass, passing glacial lakes and birch forest. As our truck trotted up the final pass we stopped for some photos, and no one really seemed to mind the further drop in temperature at such a height. The views and scenerey really were breathtaking (when I get to upload pictures, a task i havnt dared attempt yet, you will see what I am talking about).

We arrived at our campsite, about a 15mintue walk from the town centre. We were given the option of paying and extra 2pound a night to upgrade to a hostel bed. We would have paid a lot more to not sleep in a freezing wet tent, and almost everyone took up the offer. The hostel was perfectly adequate wih a hot shower and a log fire which provided respite from the cold. In the afternoon I was knackered and couldnt resist a snooze in a proper bed for the first time in over a week. Zak went into the town to have a look around.

The next day we went for a hike in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. The weather had improved slightly and after an hour of walking in thermals we started to shed our layers. The park was fantastic. We opted for a trail which wound along the edge of the Beagle channel, past lakes and through Birch forest. We walked four about 4 hours until we reached the end of the trail. Again, only the pictures I upload will really do justice to the place so you will have to be patient.

We arrived back to the hostel late afternoon and zak went straight to bed. I opted to explore the town in a reversal of the day before. It is an interesting city perched inbetween snow capped mountains, looking out towards Antartica across the beagle channel. Its a bit like a delapadated, and freezing cold san francisco, with streets running high up the sides of the hills. I went ou for a traditional Argentine dinner, with some people from the tour before most of the group met up at the Irish pub afterwards.

The next day heavy rain had set in so we slept in late. We had planned on taking a cable car, but the cloud was so low it would have made no point. We went into town for some lunch and took it easy for most of the day.