Ushuaia near the Beagle Channel (17 K)

End of the World

The big island of Tierra del Fuego, or Earth of the Fire is simply a territory where it is difficult to distinguish myth from reality, pure legend from objective truth.
Possibly this uncertainty, this mysterious almost magic atmosphere, is the reason why so many tourists are attracted to it. Is it possible that the Lighthouse of the End of the World was not just the product of Jules Verne's fantasy? Is it possible that a remote island inhabited by Indians, gold searchers, convicts, missionaries and shipwrecks, has become a charming place full of helpful people? Is it possible that an archipelago described in last century maps as terra incognito australis, has now become a place visited by many people who want to see this land and take the ships to go to the Antarctic?
Tierra del Fuego is an island separated from the continent by a strait that links the Oceans Atlantic and Pacific, discovered in the year 1520 by Fernando de Magellan, a Portuguese navigator that undertook the first trip around the world. Although Magellan died without knowing it, it constituted the irrefutable proof that the earth was round.
The Beagle Channel is the southern limit of the island that separates it from the channels and the Antarctic. Its name reminds us of the ship with which the famous British naturalist Charles Darwin studied this area in 1831.
It was Magellan who named the island Earth of the Fire because of the big quantity of bonfires that burned day and night on the coasts. Those fires came in fact from the big blazes that the Indian yamanas lit, to fight the cold temperatures of the area.
Known as Canoe Indian, this tribe spent most part of the day hunting and fishing on their canoes, they used to light fire in the canoes as well.
Towards the north of the island another ethnic group, the onas or shelknam lived. One of the most important testimonies of Tierra del Fuego is a dictionary of the rich yamana language, written by the Protestant Missionary Thomas Bridges who, together with his family, was the first stable white inhabitant in these lands. Bridges learnt the language of the Indians and he stated that it was possible to live peacefully with them. His son, Lucas Bridges, born in Ushuaia in 1874 wrote these experiences with the onas and yamanas, in a fascinating book.
The descendants of Reverend Bridges live in Estancia Haberton, Haberton Farm, in the outskirts of Ushuaia, capital of the Province. It is possible to visit this farm.
When the aeroplane flies over the Beagle Channel the visitor starts enjoying the extraordinary view of the city, the only city in Argentina west of the Andes.
In Ushuaia one can visit the Museum of the End of the World, which has testimonies of the primitive aboriginal cultures, of the missionaries who brought the word of God, of the colonists that contributed to the construction of the first towns, of anthropologists, naturalists and investigators that were able to interpret the signs of nature and the history of this remote corner of the planet, of shipwrecks, of all those who settled in this remote land.
But for the convicts taken to the ill-famed prison the name End of the World was ominous. Here the convicts were sent for long periods of time, sometimes for life, to a jail of maximum security and rigorous discipline. Today the prison no longer exists, it has been transformed into a tourist attraction.
Good part of the history of Ushuaia is related to this prison. Some of the prisoners stayed in Ushuaia and became free inhabitants of the city.
The Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego is located at only 20 km away from Ushuaia. This reservation stores magnificent places: lakes, streams, forests and coasts and it is possible to walk along the marked paths. In the singular ecosystem of this park peat bogs have developed which are sort of spongy carpets formed by decomposition of layers of water-plants, ferns and moss, in a process of carbonisation
A carnivorous plant is found in the park: the small drosera unifora that feeds on live insects, thanks to their tempting fruits the victims get stuck and then devoured, this plant can be seen along the paths of the Laguna Negra.One can enter the park using the Ferrocarril Austral Fueguino, a special narrow gauge train that until the year 1947 served to carry the prisoners occupied in the felling of trees, the trunks of which were then taken to the sawmill of the prison.
Another interesting tour (minibus service $5) is the one that takes the visitor to the Martial Glacier, located 10 kms away from the city. Ascending in cable car ($5), one has the best views on the Beagle Channel; one arrives at the road that leads, after an hour walk, to the foot of the glacier.
The ski slopes of the Club Andino de Ushuaia are in the hillsides of the Montes Martiales. The most southern ski slopes in the world are in fact located in the same Martial Range.
Another attraction that monopolises the preferences of the tourists is sailing either in catamarans or in luxurious cruises.
Leaving the port of Ushuaia it is possible to sail to the picturesque Isla de los Lobos, to travel along the Beagle Channel to Haberton Farm, to catch a glimpse of the National Park Lapataia in the Bay Lapataia and even sail along the channels of Tierra del Fuego.
One can also sail in special ships to the Antarctic leaving from Ushuaia, the nearest port to the white continent.
There are other attractions in Tierra del Fuego: for example, there are days that don't seem to finish, being the longest December 21; or nights that will never finish as that of June 21, the longest; or to get to the lonely Isla de los Estados with its important fauna and where the Lighthouse of the End of World is located.; or to practice trekking, to navigate in kayaks, to fish or simply discover the utmost limit of the earth or to touch the water where two oceans meet.