The "end" of the world - Chile and Argentina - Mar 29-Apr 11

The view out the ferry window the morning we arrived in Puerto Williams, Chile.

Both countries claim they have the most southern city on the planet.  It apparently comes down to your definition of city.  Puerto Williams, Chile sure seems like a city to me and it is on the southern side of the Beagle Channel.  We thoroughly enjoyed the owner of our hostal - Cecilia!  We overlapped with a brother and sister from Switzerland.  The first night we were there, we had cooked some food for dinner and Cecilia arrived with a HUGE king crab.  So we all shared both our food and the giant crab.

Cecilia, Sybil, Yogi, me - and the remains of a King Crab, etc.

Typical house with the typical wood supply for heating.

Looking out over the Beagle Channel with the ferry that we took from Punta Arenas.

One of the more colorful abandoned boats.

We set out on a 4 day loop to Lago Windhond with decent weather forecasted until day 5 when snow would hit.  We had to borrow boots due to the swampy nature of the area.  When we tried them on we both knew they were bigger than what we normally wear (they were in european sizing).  Come to find out, I was wearing size 10 when I usually wear size 7.  Let's just say that both of us would recommend not being overly optimistic about how much thick socks will do with oversized boots!    

Destination Day 1:  Lage del Salto with Los Dientes del Navarino in the background.

Day 2:  Beautiful, however... this is right before the wrong turn which led to the extra day...

Parts of days 2,3,4 involved walking on a lot of peat bog -- crazy stuff.

Day 4:  A tiny spot in the trees - trying to stay out of the wind.

Day 5:  It snowed 4+ inches.  In the end it made for a good adventure and was beautiful.  Here Duane is formulating a sentence in Spanish.  This was before it got difficult to find the trail.

The beaver action - in the foreground made for some rough going.  On the other hand, loved the combination of the snow and the red fall colors up further on the mountains.

This is the view across the Beagle Channel toward Ushuaia, Argentina where we took the boat over.  That is fresh snow - winter is definitely on the way!

With just 3 or so days in Ushuaia, Argentina we didn't get to know the area all that well.  It definitely is a much larger city and a more popular tourist destination than Puerto Williams. One of the most striking things is that the Falkland Island war of 1982 is still very much on the minds of the people...

Argentina is still wanting to claim the Falk Islands as their land.  They are called Las Malvinas here and there is no shortage of graffiti telling the British to get out.  With the 30th anniversary of the war with Britain, there is also new plaza dedicated to the memory of soldiers, etc.

From here our next stop would be, Buenos Aires.  Although sad to leave Patagonia, I was happy to be going in the direction of warmer weather.