A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Ushuaia, Argentina by TravelPod blogger Doovy titled "Not a Gringo Anymore"
Doovy's travel blog entry:
"The end of the earth!
Or so they advertise in every gift shop here. My world has suddenly become a lot more western. The change was evident once I stepped into the Santiago, Chile Airport in the midst of my 16 hr trip from Quito to Ushuaia. I had to pass through immigration here, as my flight to Ushuaia (ARGENTINA) was considered a 'domestic' flight. This is only significant because as an American citizen, one has to pay $100 upon entering Chile via the airport (some sort of penalty for the US government restricting Chilean visas in the states). Nobody else pays this. The flight is considered domestic because of the odd borders between the two countries, and the 2 stops the flight made in small Chilean cities prior to making it to Ushuaia. So anyway, it basically cost me $100 for the priveledge of flying through Chilean airspace.
I digress. The Santiago airport is very modern, complete with multiple Dunkin Donuts. And a lot of gringos. The folks on my flight south were primarily retired Americans and Japanese. At least I suspected this, as they all had white hair and expensive SLR cameras. And the Japanese looked Japanese. The cameras came out because after stop #| (Puerto Montt) on the last leg of my flight, the skies were clear. This afforded phenomenal views for 4 hours of mountains, icefields, fjords and giant lakes. Everyone kept moving from one side of the plane to the other, shutters flying as we passed over Mt. Fitzroy, Torres del Paines, and other areas. Unfortunately, I was assigned an aisle seat and had to look over a minimum of 2 people's shoulders to get a view. It was kind of comical to see the paparazi shuffling around though. I thought the plane was going to start banking due to the shift in weight. My recommendation - if you ever fly this way, GET A WINDOW SEAT.
Most of those folks cleared out at Punta Arenas, which is the last stop in Chile and a standard jumping off point for Torres del Paines, where I suspect most of themwere heading. So for my last leg, I had a window seat! Except that I chose the north side of the plane, through which I could see primarily treeless plains and bogs. To the south was the Cordillera Darwin, which is more glacier-clad peaks and fjords. Doh! The only seat available on that side of the plane was on top of the wing. Next time I'll know. Actually, it wasn't all bad. About the last 10 minutes of the flight the Fuegian Andes popped out of the bogs and I got to see some of the areas I plan to trek in while in Ushuaia. Perhaps not as spectacular as the other areas we flew over, but cool nonetheless.
By the time we landed I was quite excited. Ushuaia (population 50,000?) definitely feels like the edge of the world. It is tucked into a small bay with sharp, craggy mountains immediately behind it (though quite compact - peaks top out at 1,300 m). Across the Beagle Channel from town are more mountains of the same variety, without any signs of civilization. From the air, the area's glacial origins were abundantly visible, with long, straight, steep valleys and tributary valleys neatly lining up almost perpendicular to the main valleys. All that remain in the area are a few small glaciers in protected cirques in the upper reaches. For those that don't know, I am also endlessly fascinated by glaciers. My observations of them may grow tiresome in the coming months.
It was quite clear now that I had flown back into the 'western' world. The main drag features numerous restaurants and gift shops, many with english signs. Most places take U$S currency. Lots of 'end of the world' paraphenilia. This came as a bit of a shock. I found one gift shop during my entire stay in Ecuador. I had to dig long and hard to even find a postcard. This won't be a problem here. Also noted was the absence of tiendas. Where will I get my pan???? Another immediate difference was that there were no longer men with automatic rifles standing guard outside of every bank or electronics store. The town has a bit of a frontier / Alaska feel to it. Once one gets off the main couple of streets, the city streets are gravel, and the houses are sort of little cabins. Lots of random dogs wandering about, too. One joined me for about 20 minutes of my run through town.
A definite plus to being in Argentina is ..."
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/doovy/southamerica05/1108250880/...
Photos from this trip:
1. "Mountains and a lot of wing"
2. "Every city should have 3 glaciers"
3. "Across the Harbor"
4. "Where the streets are not paved"
5. "Gringos taking pictures of each other"
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-012e-3da4-f94f?ytv4=1
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