honeymoon dia 38 – ushuaia

an early shuttle bus (7am) picked us up from our hostel. down to the bus terminal where we loaded a larger bus for our 12hr journey to ushuaia at el fin del mundo (end of the world). en route, we transferred off of the large bus to another large bus which was coming from punta arenas. only our transfer wasn’t at a terminal, or a parking lot, or a meeting place. no, when the two buses saw each other on the long, empty road we were on, they pulled over to the side of the road, pointed at us and told us to transfer. middle of nowhere. awesome.

drove for a bit and then reached a ferry location. the ferry pulls in, anchors, and our bus drives onto it. not the most secure connection between ferry and dock, but somehow it works. the ferry filled up with two buses, several cars, and a few trucks. the strait of magellan stood between us and the land on the far side. pretty cool to think of two oceans meeting.



big waves (6-8ft) played into my general fear of wavy water, so it wasn’t the most comfy ride ever, but the views were nice and we even saw some swimming penguins and dolphins.


a few hours later we stopped at a random restaurant for a 30 minute break. people pour off the bus, order their food, and hope to get it before the bus leaves again. actually, the drivers are pretty good about making sure everyone gets back on the bus – thankfully – as we were among the last to order.

finally, arrived in ushuaia which is arguably the southernmost city in the world. it is also the most touristy spot thus far on our trip and quite a large city. well developed port industry, lots of shops along san martin avenue, and really just a lot of houses and buildings spread along the winding coastline. the cool part is that just in the town’s backyard are mountains with low elevation glaciers (~3000ft).


lots of colorful lupines too. at first, near bariloche, we thought we had seen all the lupine colors (purple, violet, white), but here, there were many more (red, orange, yellow, pink). who knew? not the same kind of lupines you find in WA’s mountains, but close enough to certainly be relatives.


we did the town walk thing, got some groceries, and had drinks and food at a cozy little pub. really good stout beer here (beagle fuegian).

average costs:
stout beer (1L): 15 pesos ($5)
sandwich at random bus stop restaurant: 12 pesos ($4)
all photographs: https://picasaweb.google.com/mlh4480/HoneymoonDia38