the end of the world

I had finally made it to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the whole world. I really like it here. the city is fairly small, right next to a bay and surrounded by snow covered mountains on all sides. anywhere you walk around town, you have beautiful scenery in all directions. the city itself is fairly chill which is nice. tourism is very big here and many of the streets are lined with hostels, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc. heh, Ushuaia really plays up its “end of the world” theme, and you can even get a stamp in your passport here saying you’ve been to the end of the world. this is definitely the kind of town where it’s nice to just walk around and take in the atmosphere.

I’m staying at a hostel here and decided to make use of the kitchen, since it’s cheaper to eat that way, and plus it’s been ages since I’ve actually cooked anything. I went to the grocery store, and wow… food here is so cheap! for only 5 dollars, I bought enough steak for two dinners, instant mashed potatoes, milk, butter, chimichuri, and cornflakes. so basically, food for 2 dinners and 2 breakfasts for just 5 bucks. wine at the store sells for as little as a dollar a bottle! so, for the next few days, I didn’t go out to eat at all, just cooked in the hostel.

the next morning, this guy Richard from new Zealand and I went on a boat tour of the beagle channel (named after Darwin’s famous boat). the tour was pretty cool with fantastic views of the mountains jutting out of the waters. we made a few stops on the tour. first we stopped at a couple of islands where there were tons of sea lions. we watched some of them lazily sleep on the rocks while others lumbered into or out of the water while barking furiously. man, those sea lions smelled like crazy! next stop was an island filled with these black and white birds called rock cormorants. the last stop was to see this famous lighthouse which is one of the symbols of Tierra del fuego. it was really cold being out there in the bay, so even though we really enjoyed the sights, eventually everyone had to hide inside the boat to stay warm.

gears on the boat

after the boat tour, we went to coffee w/ some Dutch and German people we had met on the boat. I ordered this type of tea called Mate which is the traditional drink of Argentina. it’s supposed to come in a special cup with a weird straw to drink it (the straw has a strainer to keep out the leaves), but for some reason this place just served the tea in a teabag so I didn’t get the full experience. oh well guess I’ll have to try it again.

the toughest hike in the world

the next day we had decided to do a hike in the Tierra del fuego park. this park has lots of trails to hike around, and as far as I knew, we weren’t really sure which one to take. but, I guess Richard had already decided where he wanted to go. he woke me up in the morning saying that we better get going since the trail takes 4 hours up and then 4 hours back down. 8 hour round trip hike? well, cant be that hard, right? I threw together a lunch, and we set off to the park.

at the park, we had to put our names and passport numbers down so that someone would know if we never returned. hrm, that’s odd. so we start hiking. the beginning of the hike was easy and down a small trail next to a small lake. the forest and mountains all around us were really beautiful. after a bit, the trail started sloping upwards. and then more upwards, and then more. pretty soon, the trail was pretty damn steep. my heart was starting to really race and I was panting like a dog. this was some fairly tough hiking. I joked to Richard “heh, wouldn’t it be crazy if the whole trail was like this, all super steep the whole way!” “um, actually, the whole trail is like this. it is uphill the whole way. actually, this isn’t even the toughest park. the toughest part is in the end, when we get to the snowline”. “oh.” hrm, I was beginning to wonder what I had signed up for. as we kept walking, Richard asked me “so, do you do much hiking or trekking back home in san Francisco” “heh, no, most of my time back home is spent sitting in an office or sitting around outside of the office. what about you?” “oh yeah, I actually go trekking all the time.” “oh”.

pretty soon, I was having to stop fairly often to catch my breath. I was totally exhausted. I told Richard to just go on ahead since I didn’t want to slow him down. he started walking and pretty soon he was out of sight. I kept trudging up the hill. eventually, after a long time, I ran into another guy coming down who said something to me in Spanish. “no hablo espanol” I say, and he replies “UP. 3 more kilometers and nothing except up, up, and more up.” great. the guy had given up before reaching the top. so, I kept pushing my way up the hill. the “trail” was a bit hard to find a lot of the time. I was walking through dense forest, and the trail markers were just these skinny yellow sticks that you would see every now and then. often I had to scan around and try to figure out if I was even going the right direction, and there were several times when I would realize I had been going the wrong way and had to go back and retrace my steps. there were trees everywhere and some of the time I had to climb over/under fallen ones.

after what seemed like forever, I made it out of the forest and trail leveled out for a bit. this part of the trail followed a stream and I had to be careful not to sink too deep into the mud. finally, I reached the snowline, and the trail started going steeply up the mountain again. going up a mountain in the snow isn’t easy. you could never tell how deep the snow was, and every once in a while my feet would plunge through the snow and I’d be knee deep. when this happened, snow came in through the top of my shoes, and soon my socks were completely drenched. not only that, but from all the exertion, I had been sweating like crazy, so my shirt was drenched too. the wind was fierce and freezing cold, and I had somehow managed to forget my windbreaker on the bus to the park. was cold, wet, and tired, but I kept pushing on.

near the snowline, the trail markers ended. there wasn’t any indication of which way to go up, so I followed the footprints in the snow that were left by Richard and/or other hikers.

soon, I got to a place where there was a break in the snow and I was walking up crumbling slate. this part of the trail was even steeper than before, and I had to rest almost constantly. this is when I started worrying about the bus. we had started the hike at noon, and the last bus out of the park leaves at 7pm. if I didn’t make it to the top of the mountain by 4pm, I would be screwed. my pace had been becoming slower and slower, and I was kind of unsure whether I would actually make it on time. the slate that I was walking on was crumbly and slippery and often I would find myself sliding down on it. a few times I fell over and cut my fingers on it as well. in the next photo you can kind of see the squiggly trail in the slate.

eventually, I got back onto snow. this part was really tough. I was hiking not just upwards, but towards the right as well, so I had to hold my feet at an angle with every step. the snow was quite icy and slippery so unless I punched each step down fairly hard, my feet would completely slip out from under me which happened quite a bit. I looked down the mountain and saw Richard hiking back. he must have taken some alternate route back down, since he was below me for some reason. eventually, as the snow got more icy, the footprints I was following got more and more faint, and then disappeared altogether. crap. where the hell as I going. by this point, I didn’t even know if I was going the right way. there hadn’t been a marker for at least a kilometer. I started wondering to myself, should I even keep going? I was SO tired. I was SO cold. my hands were numb from all the times I had to cling to the snow so as not to slide down the mountain. why the hell had I even decided to do this hike?! the problem with me though, is I don’t like to give up. I had started this hike, and I was going to finish it. despite everything.

as I kept going up, the snow would alternate between totally icy so I was slipping and falling, or deep powder so my feet were getting soaked from it. but I was close. I could see the top. I knew that if I pushed myself just a bit more, I’d be there. so, I pushed and pushed and then made it to the top…. or so I thought. CRAP! this wasn’t the top. I hadn’t been able to see from below, but there was still a long section of trail heading off to the right and higher up.

I was on the ridge of the mountain now though, and the views from here we absolutely incredible. I could see hella far in all directions. this would have been a great place to take some time out and enjoy the views, but I had no time to spare. there was still more walking to do. after what seemed like another eternity, I made it to the top. there at the top was a lonely yellow stick, the only trail marker I had seen in ages. I sat down to eat a quick lunch. I had been looking forward to eating this lunch for hours now, but now that I was finally doing it, I couldn’t enjoy it that much. at the top, the wind blew from all directions and it made it all the much colder. I sat there shivering, trying to defrost my hands and eating my cold sandwich.

I finished my food, and it was time to make my way down. nice! this would be the easy part right?! I didn’t see any footprints in the snow, so I assumed that Richard had slid down using the slate… probably quicker and easier than working your way though the snow. so I did the same. I kept half hopping half sliding down the mountain sending showers of chunky slate in my wake. I had to be a bit careful cause if I started sliding too fats, I probably wouldn’t be able to stop. I kept cutting down and right, down and right. as I kept going, I searched in vain for the trail markers that would lead me back to the forest. ummmm. there weren’t any. I kept going and going, but there were no trail markers to be seen. I was starting to get worried. I had no idea how far down or how far to the right I had gotten. nothing looked familiar. how far did I have to go still? or, had I passed the spot?!? there definitely was a good chance that I could have totally overshot it and gone too far to the right. I looked at my watch. 5pm. and I had no clue where I was.

I started getting worried. what if I missed the last bus? or, what if I never found the trail at all? crap. I kept going, and eventually reached this crazy bog. every step I took was squishing through mud and water. my shoes were a total wreck, and my pants were hopelessly muddy. this area was completely unfamiliar, and I hadn’t walked through anything like this on the way up, but I thought this was just cause I had come down too fast and still had a long way to go to the right. witch each step my feet were sinking deep in the goo, and I was totally soaked. at other points I was scrambling on top of thorny bushes, trying not to fall onto them and trying not to get stuck in the patches of super deep snow I would cross once in a while. the mush curved upwards. a bad sign… I should be going down not up. where the hell was I?! I scanned the horizon frantically. not trail markers to be seen. which way should I go? keep going? turn back? I decided to plow ahead and try to get to the top of the boggy part to see if I could see anything from there.

at the top of the little hill, I finally saw a yellow stick far off in the distance. I have never been happier to see a yellow stick in my life. I hurried over to the stick, and then started making my way towards the woods. I got to the river I had walked along before, and promptly slipped in the mud, getting myself even dirtier than before. finally, I got to the woods and plowed down the trail as fast as I could… which wasn’t all that fast as my knees were aching and plus it’s not the best idea to go too fast down a step hill.

finally, at 6:30, I made it back to the bus station. I couldn’t believe it. only then did I stop to think about how cool it was that I had made it to the top of the mountain. this was a hike that was really pretty far beyond my skill set. I’m not much of an outdoorsy person, and hiking isn’t my forte. I really shouldn’t have even attempted the hike, and probably should have at least given up halfway. but I didn’t. I pushed myself to the top, despite everything. all in all, it was totally worth it. of course, the next day, I was totally sore as hell, but I guess that’s the price you pay…

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