Day 50: 19/8/12
7 weeks travelling- can you believe it! In some ways I can definitely believe it- clothes are starting to get a bit smelly!! They have been washed but they still don't seem clean!!
Today I had a trip to tierra del fuego. That's the name of the national park on this island. It means land of fire. When the land wa discovered the natives had lots of fires lit so it was called tierra del fuego.
First we went to the 'tren del fin del mundo'. The man at the station when we were boarding the train informed me that an Irish man called Admiral Brown was a very famous man in their history. This was the prisoner train that brought them out to the woods to work. Now it is just a tourist attraction as it is the most southerly train in the world. To correct yesterday's statement- Ushuaia is the most southerly city in the world but there is a town- port Williams- that is the most southerly town.
Anyway the train was lovely- it was old so it rumbled along slowly! The place was all covered with snow so it was very pretty. It was much colder out here- I had brought the coat, hat, scarf and gloves in a bag, not knowing what weather to expect so luckily I could keep warm!! We stopped in a place where there was lovely scenery with mountains in the background and an area where they were recreating what the natives (yamans) houses would have looked like. After that we drove by the 'tree cemetery' which is a very touristy name for the place with all the trees that the prisoners chopped down!
When we got to the station, our guide and bus were there to pick us up. We were in Tierra del Fuego at this stage. It seems to be a national park with lovely scenery. The postcards of it are all green, but our views were covered in snow. I don't know if I saw the real tierra del fuego but what I saw was good. We stopped first at a lookout with mountains in the background and a short walkway for photos. The next stop was at a lake. Half of the lake is in chile and half I'm Argentina! Beside the lake there was a coffee shop so got to have some hot chocolate!! The guide told us the red fox is the most common animal there. They have guanacos and condors. People introduced rabbits and beavers to the area and now they are plagued with them! The trees were mostly deciduous so they had no leaves but there was a lovely moss type thing on them which had a really bright colour!
Then we went back to the town. A lot of people were going doing a boat trip but I'm doing it tomorrow. There was supposed to be a Galway Irish Pub here that I failed to find yesterday. So I went in search of that for lunch. It was exactly where I had looked yesterday but it was called Bar Ideal so I had walked by it! Inside it had the Galway crest and a guiness poster and Irish jersey. That was about all that was Irish! The waiter and the other customers certainly weren't!!
I was going to go to another museum then but it was closed as it was Sunday. I had asked the guide for reccomendations on what to do for the afternoon but she just mentioned the museum I went to yesterday and the boat tour I'm doing tomorrow, unless I wanted to go trekking or skiing! Which I don't! So I went back to the hostel and had a nap!! I hadn't slept much last night as other girls in the room were coming and going and talking gobbledygook!!
Then I went back down the town for a wander. The lights of the city over the water look really cool but I couldn't get a photo to come out right! Theres lots of ski clothes shops and a complete north face shop which has lovely stuff! On the way back I went into the Dublin Irish bar. It was more like a restaurant really- just lots of tables that they come around and serve at and they serve food. So not really like an Irish pub at all! Definitely no Irish people on there either although it was a grand spot to pass a while!
Back to the hostel again and dossed around on the computer for a while. My email is acting up and won't open. The Internet coverage isn't great and my phone coverage has vanished so I'm cut off from the world!!
Tomorrow I can sleep in as the boat tour isn't until the afternoon.