Days 8 & 9 : Ushuai, “Capital of Antarctica”

Friday 17^th to Saturday 18^th February, 2017

The claim “Capital of Antarctica” probably stems from the fact that Ushuaia is the world’s southernmost city, and the closest to the Antarctic mainland. It is a major stepping stone to Antarctica for both tourists and scientific expeditions. I recall something like 90% of Antarctic tourists pass through Ushuaia on their way to Antarctica.

 

Boats on their way to Antarctica. The Polar Explorer is right of center

 

We flew into Ushuaia through heavy cloud with water streaming across the windows of the plane and emerged from the cloud a few hundred metres above the sea. I could see grey green coastal hills with buildings clambering upwards to the cloud. As we were driven into the city I began to really like what I saw, and this feeling grew during the afternoon and the following day. I basically like places were mountains meet the sea or a lake: Hobart is one such a place. Ushuaia is clearly another, and on our second afternoon we really appreciated this aspect of Ushuaia as the clouds lifted and we could see the range of snow clad mountains rising from the water to around 1500m.

But it wasn’t just the setting that we found attractive. The architecture was very varied in form, materials used, and colour. Some buildings were wooden, some concrete; some drab, some of colourful; some modern, some old. There were clear influences from other places: some had a Swiss feel, there was a Tudor look, wooden churches had a Scandinavian feel … and there was not a McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken or Domino’s Pizza in sight! Many of the CBD shops are quite up-market, whereas they are much more low-key away from the CBD. Because snow is quite common in winter, some roof lines are steep.

In Ushuai CBD – a pleasantly varied architecture

The main streets run along the contours of the coastal hills, connected by quite steep lesser streets running up the slope. The foot paths are in various states of repair, and because of the rain there are also a lot of puddles. On the steeper slopes the footpaths are a series of steps. Traffic was quite heavy: private cars and taxis, and mini busses of tourists.

The cruise ship Celestial Serenity was in town with a couple of thousand guests adding to the local population. Tourists also come under their own steam. Over lunch we chatted with a German couple who had just completed driving their camper van from Alaska to Ushuaia, all the way through the Americas. They will now drive north a bit and ship the van back to Germany for their next journey.

There seems to be a lot on offer here for tourists. There is the cultural heritage of the Yamana people, the original inhabitants, who were decimated by explorers and colonists in the last 150 years; a sadly familiar story. There is history, e.g. Magellan, the rounding of Cape Horn, and Antarctic exploration. There also seems to be a vibrant art and craft community, and colour and street art is common.

Street art and colour go along with a vibrant art and craft culture

The natural environment has a lot to offer the tourist: cruises along the Beagle Channel and into the fjords, wildlife, hiking, skiing (in winter), and mountaineering. The Tierra del Fuego National Park to the west of the city offers several walking tracks amongst the coastal islands, inland lakes, and up the easier mountains.

On our second day in Ushuaia we took a bus from the city out to the National Park in order to see the local Nothafagus forests. Nothafagus is a collection of tree species that diversified in Tasmania, New Zealand and far southern America following the break-up of the super-continent known as Gondwanaland some 500 million years ago. Tasmania has two endemic Nothafagus, southern Chile and Argentine have 3, and New Zealand several more. The existence of these closely related species was key evidence in the formulation of the theory of continental drift.

Nothafagus trees and forest at Lake Roca

We got off the bus at the park information centre and restaurant. Finding lunch suitable for Krista was a challenge. Awareness of gluten intolerance is not very high here, but eventually we persuaded them to make her a simple salad with cheese and egg. We had time for a short walk along the edge of a river draining Lake Roca, and then along the shore of the lake itself before catching a bus back to Ushuaia to board our boat to Antarctica. We especially enjoyed the extensive views up the lake and the surrounding Nothafagus forest. These were mature trees, their bark supporting old-man’s-beard lichen, and a few mosses. The forest floor was pretty bare, with very few shrubs and little moss, and I felt the forest environment was fairly limited in bio-diversity. However, it was very attractive.

Views up Lake Roca

Our return to Ushuaia was quick, and left us with a couple of hours to spare which we spent walking along the foreshore of Bahia Ushuaia. We met some birds that were quite new to us: a foretaste of things to come?! We also saw our vessel sheltering next to and dwarfed by the Crystal Serenity. However, the star of the show was Ushuaia itself and its backing range of mountains. As the afternoon wore on the clouds thinned more and more, the sun came out, and the mountains were revealed in all their glory. It is hard to imagine a more picturesque setting for a city!

Ushuai and its mountainous backdrop