Ushuaia - The End of The World!! The most southerly city in the world. It sits on the North side of the Beagle Channel (named after the boat Charles Darwin sailed in). On the south side of the channel is Puerto Williams which also claims to be the most southerly city in the world, but with a population of less than 3000 it's really a town. It's amazing who wants to be part of the most southerly city - there is a Timberland shop, Columbia clothing shop, an Irish bar, a Hard Rock Café and a Triumph Motorbikes dealership. Argentina is not a cheap place to visit but Ushuaia is even more expensive than everywhere else we have visited. A basic burger and fries will cost you £10.00 each and a nice seafood dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine will set you back close to £50.00 (without a starter, dessert or coffee). There are no cheap options here for a decent meal. Apparently in April prices drop 25 to 50%. We have skipped some places to get here in a bit of hurry (and will tick them off when we head north again). This is the best place in the world to take a cruise to Antarctica. We had read that it's possible to get a last-minute deal for a 10-day cruise for £2000.00 each. That would blow or budget for 10 days but what the hell. The truth is the season starts in November and ends in March and both months are the most expensive times to sail. In February if you can secure a cabin just days before sailing then you can get it at a rock bottom price. We scoured all the agencies and could only find a place for one of us at £5000.00!!! Come back in November they said. Lots of souvenirs for sale here - most of which feature penguins! Lots of boat trips as well to see real penguins. The roads in Ushuaia tend to be flat if parallel to the coast and steeply up hill if going inland (a bit like San Francisco?). Every road you look down you see mountains or water. The driving here is shocking, Taxi drivers scare the life out of us, they seem to want to touch the rear of the car in front of them. There are pedestrian crossings everywhere but if you wait for the traffic to stop you will wait all day, even if you are crossing motorists still come at you with no thought to slowing down. Who gets priority at crossroads in town - no one, it's a free for all!! Parking - they abandon their cars in the stupidest of places. Throughout Argentina we have seen random roadside signs with maps of the Falkland Islands coloured in with the Argentinian flag and a lot of shops sell the same as a sticker. In the hostel in El Calafate there was a world map with 'ARG' typed next to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia! Every town seems to have a street called 'Belgrano' and that includes Ushuaia but that's not surprising seeing as their 'Falkland war' memorials and Eternal flame are here. There is even a sign in the harbour stating the British have illegally occupied the Falkland Islands since 1833. We were warned that Brits aren't welcome here and it's true to say that some of the locals are not as welcoming to us as elsewhere in the country, but no one has been hostile and some have been very friendly and helpful. We expect to find Coca Cola just about everywhere we go but are amazed to find that Argentina has been conquered by Baileys and Hellmann's! We managed to book digs here with a shared kitchen, so Donna can cook, save us some money and give us some variety from the limited and repetitive choice we have when eating out. A roast dinner, jacket potatoes - heaven. Ada who runs this place doesn't allow anything to be fried and she seems to know when you light the gas - she appears out of thin air, checks on what you are cooking and puts the extractor fan on - and comes back regularly to make sure you haven't smuggled a frying pan of your own into the kitchen. Food is not allowed in the bedrooms, during our first day she found our cooking oil in the wardrobe, we didn't get into trouble but she did put some tissue under the bottle (to prevent a ring). We decided to do a day hike to the Martial Glacier. We were told that if you have seen the Perito Moreno glacier then the Martial one is just an ice cube - rather a harsh view to take. There is no bus to the start of the trail 5km uphill from our digs and taxis are expensive so I volunteered us to walk the 5km and the trail to the glacier. It wasn't the prettiest part of town we passed through before reaching woodland followed by open mountains. We had considered taking the chairlift part way up the trail and 7 zipwires back down but both were closed (even though they are advertised as being open). We did treat ourselves to a taxi back though. From here we are heading to the Tierra del Fuego National Park and I didn't want Donna worn out before we started a 3-day camping trek.