Parque National Tierra del Fuego

By
8 Feb 2004 4:57 pm

While waiting for my ship, the Ushuaia, to sail for Antarctica, I decided to spend time in Tierra del Fuego National Parque here in Ushuaia. The bus from town drop me right off at my campsite and from there I made a few great day hikes.

Cerro Guanaco

First day in the park I hiked Cerro Guanaco with Andy and Martin (Switzerland). If I had known at the start it was 3000 ft climb I might have chosen another. As they say, ignorance is bliss. Even though my training routine of the last couple of months has been mainly shopping and TV watching and my training diet mostly Christmas cookies, I managed quite well through steep forest, wet peat boggs and a final push up some pretty steep scree. The view at the top of ‘the end of the world’ (they like to remind you of that as often as possible around here) was spectacular. I was pleasantly surprise to learn that my Swiss friends had prepared well and arrived at the top of Cerro Guanaco with a box of Argentina’s finest vino blanco!

Another great day hike was along the Coastera trail. There were great views of la coasta, the Beagle Channel and the mountains in Chile accross the channel. The forests are lush and late in the day I spotted 4 woodpeckers drilling into downed trees. They are pretty big black birds with terrifically huge bright red heads and beak like ice picks. The wheather was terrific that day.

8 Responses to “Parque National Tierra del Fuego”

  1. Mom (February 8th, 2004 at 8:56 pm)

    It is so nice to hear from you Laura. The trip sounds wonderful so far. Can’t wait to hear about Antarctica. It is so cold and snowy here that it’s great to imagine the warm weather there. Love, Mom

  2. Tres (February 9th, 2004 at 4:46 pm)

    Nice blog girl! I’ll check in here every once in awhile to see how you’re doing, it sounds fun and I’m envious as I sit here working like a dog…

    I’ll be travelling to NY this month for a few days and then to China for about 10 days in March, back to India and Thailand in April, Indonesia and Vietnam in May….I’m exhausted just thinking about it but let me know if you will be anywhere near those places???

    Glad you sound alive and well!!
    Love,
    Tres

  3. Scott (February 10th, 2004 at 2:15 am)

    Looks like you made it safely to SA, and are meeting lots of folks! I guess I forgot to mention that BA might be hot in the summer. Did you work the piers in Ushuaia for a discount boat? Have a great trip to Antartica. I’m totally jealous.

  4. Gordon (February 11th, 2004 at 9:06 pm)

    Sounds great Laura. Of course, you made the right decision by deciding to take the cruise. Can’t wait to hear about it. What’s your favorite Argentinian desert?

  5. alex (February 11th, 2004 at 9:33 pm)

    ah geez marge…I managed to track you down! A new adventure on a new continent. Brilliant. I’ll keep visiting the site for pics of Mr. Toast with Antartic penguins.
    Don’t do anything we already did in Nepal!
    Travel safe chica.
    Alex xx

  6. iain (February 12th, 2004 at 9:47 pm)

    hi laura
    the next best thing when you arent on hols is to indulge in other peoples travels.
    sounds like a great place but would be better if you could update your adventure every day as lunchtimes here are pretty boring…
    feel free to just make shit up ( we’ll never know )
    hasta lawego
    iain

  7. rinnywee (February 17th, 2004 at 4:25 am)

    Hiya,

    I found your blog via… well I can’t remember now… but I am fascinated all the same. What a wonderful trip you are taking. I’ve bookmarked you and will keep coming back to check how you are doing. I hope your Antarctic cruise is going nicely.

    Take care.

  8. Ben and Steph (February 17th, 2004 at 4:10 pm)

    Hello CN!

    Steph and I just returned from 6 days/nights in Torres Del Paine park. We hiked the