The journey to Ushuaia was two buses and a ferry, over 12 hours. The ferry had us crossing the Straits of Magellan and being escorted by black and white dolphins. I thought they were porpoises but we later learned its the wrong area for those.

Ushuaia is on an island, Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire, called so because when Magellan passed through on his way to finding the Spice Islands he could see the smoke of the fires that the natives had lit. The island is shared between Chile and Argentina and while Ushuaia maybe the southernmost city in the world, Chile arguably has the title of southernmost town in the world, a place called Puerto Williams.

So here we were, at the southern tip of South America, having already been to the north, as well as traversing from western coast to eastern. Ushuaia is a place that signifies the end of our South American adventure more than any other.

On top of that, our hostel, Freestyle, was covered in photos of a former staff member, who we had meet way back in our fourth hostel in Peru. Random!

Our first night in the hostel was spent eating Patagonian lamb and catching up over red wine with Kev and Dee, who were leaving in several hours to go back the way we had just come. Our first morning involved a bit of exploring. We headed down to the port to take in the views of the Darwin mountain range as well as the massive cruise liner docked there. Ushuaia is the jumping off point for trips to Antarctica and lots of people turn up here looking for a last minute deal. There were plenty of offers for a 10 day trip for around $4,000.

As we are now at the end of our trip, we are watching our finances more than usual. This means watching a few more DVDs in the hostel than we are normally used to, some good and some bad, and definitely less tours and excursions. Ushuaia is a small, hilly town and there are things to do for free, or cheaply at least, such as go view the local glacier. Kev told us we could get a taxi to the chairlift, and then ride the chairlift to the top of the Martial glacier. We could have done it, but were at the stage where Australia is on the brain and doing the local sights takes a little more effort than pleasure.

We did however buck that trend for Friday, by going to see the penguins. It was a full day trip, starting off at the "flag tree", which is not a type of tree, just the local name given to trees on the island that look like flags. The winds here blow pretty much continuously in the same direction, which means that the trees grow in that direction, with their trunk looking like a flag pole and the branches looking like a flag, bellowing in the wind. The second sight of the day was the marine museum in Estancia Harberton. Its a small, one-roomed museum, filled with many skeletons of local marine life that the researchers have found washed up on the beaches. Here is where we learnt about the difference between dolphins and porpoises.

Estancia Harberton is also the port for the penguin island, called Isla Martillo. Two species of penguin populate this tiny island in the Beagle Canal - Magellanic and Gentoo. Quick history lesson - the HMS Beagle was the ship, captained by Robert FitzRoy, that Charles Darwin travelled on when he began to formulate his theory on evolution.

Anyway, these two types of penguin can coexist because they lead quite different lives. The Magellanic penguins live in the bushes and grass, in burrows usually, to hide their young from predators. Although we are not allowed to get with a metre or two of the penguins, that doesnt really stop them from coming within that limit to you. If we wanted to we could have reached out to touch them, but thats apparently a bad idea as we could end up rubbing off the protective oil from their feathers that keeps them waterproof. The second type of penguin, the Gentoo, occupy the open spaces, and number far less but are far bigger than the Magellanic. They protect their young by keeping them warm between their feet, rather than in a burrowed nest like the Magellanic. Hence the fact that even though theyre bigger than the Magellanic, once there is no competition for mating space they can coexist pretty well.

Fortunately, we were at the island when the celebrity was visiting. The researchers at the museum found an emperor penguin on Tierra del Fuego island a few months ago. Emperor penguins only live on Antarctica, so hes obviously lost, but the cost to ship this guy there would have been in the tens of thousands, which they cant afford, so they did the next best thing - moved him to penguin island. He was clustered in with the Gentoo penguins when we were there, easily distinguished by his golden neck and the fact that he was the only one going solo. All the other Gentoo penguins are minding nests in pairs. Our guide told us that the emperor does disappear for days at a time, presumably to feed, so it was lucky that we got to see him there.

As small as Ushuaia is, it still manages to have three Irish bars, one of which, the simply named Dublin Pub, is the main place to go any night of the week. We went there for our last night with a New Zealander, to have some food and to taste the local stout, Beagle Fuegian Negra.