Fin del mundo

We spent a couple days in Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of the country.  We enjoyed a full day of hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park, along the Beagle Channel.

These are Streamer Ducks, a sea duck.

While Argentina would like to claim that the tourist city of Ushuaia is the end of the world, we took a small zodiak boat south across the Beagle Channel to Isle Navarino, part of Chile.  Here´s Bets eating gooseberries as we wait for the Border Police to inspect our bags for unwanted foods.

We did a hike on Isle Navarino starting in Puerto Williams.  We hiked up the Ukika River valley to Lago Windhond.  The first two days to the lake were challenging due to abundant fallen trees and a lot of mud.  The beavers had been busy along the trail.

We spent an hour walking across this large bog.  The whole lower part of the island is covered by similar bogs.  The walking was nice and soft, but you had to watch out for holes...

...filled with this brain-like stuff!

We spent two nights at this cabin on Lago Windhond which was equipped with beds, mattresses and a great wood stove.  This was nice, since it was freezing outside at night.

We spent a full day exploring Lago Windhond and fishing.  We walked an hour around the western edge of the lake, which involved crossing some rivers and walking through a lot of mud.  Here´s Bets modeling a particularly nice color of mud.

Dan caught three nice trout (two rainbows and one brookie) at the lake.  Here was the first fish.

Bets tried hard, but caught nothing.  Again.

As the sun set, we headed back to the cabin with two fish for Dan´s dinner.

We hiked over several passes on our way back to Puerto Williams.  This is looking back south toward Cape Horn.  Lago Windhond and Bahia Windhond are seen in the background.

Bets at the top of a peak surrounded by the beautiful and jagged mountains that make up the Dientes de Navarino.

This was taken at the top of Australia Pass.  We hiked through the pass on the right and across the rocky scree face.  The weather was great despite some tricky footing.

The leaves are changing on the lenga trees here.  We climbed down to the lake shown here and then back up this large scree slope...

...and continued along an undulating trail across scree for the next three hours, walking above treeline allowed for great views.  Very tricky footing on this section!

Here is a view looking north at the Beagle Channel as seen from Cerro Bendero, just above Puerto Williams.  The land across the channel is Argentina.

Dan with the Beagle Channel.

This was our last multi-day hike and the best so far.  We only saw four other backpackers in our five days on the trail.  Though the island is pretty small, the mountains are incredible and we feel priveldged to have seen such a unique part of Patagonia.  Now we head north along the Atlantic coast of Argentina (this post is short because we have a 5 am bus tomorrow!) and will be in Iguazu Falls next week and in the US in two.