Ushuaia

Expect: “El fin del mundo”, fantastic boat trips.  

Pack: Patience (for the bus journey down there), thermals, waterproofs and sunglasses (let’s just say the weather is changeable).

Ushuaia

“Welcome to Ushuaia – the end of the world”, reads the sign as you eventually roll into town after days of endless bus changes and innumerous border crossings. It’s dark and you will have to wait till morning for the real beauty of the town, but the icy wind, the silky darkness and the miles of road you’ve left behind, attest to its isolation. Wedged between the snow-capped Martial range and the inky black Beagle channel, Ushuaia is fortunately gifted with much more than just the gimmicky end-of-the-world name tag.

Any half-decent map, will at any rate, reveal this title to be more marketing fantasy than geographical fact. The Chilean town of Puerto Williams sits a few clear miles further south, on the other side of the Beagle channel. But small Puerto Williams, inaccessible by road, costs over $100 to get to and so, for most of us anyway, Ushuaia is more than far enough. The people pulling the strings in this bustling Argentine town certainly seem to agree. The tourist office will even “officially” stamp your passport, “El fin del mundo”.      

Ushuaia was originally founded and named by British missionaries who established a small settlement here in 1870; although the Beagle under the command of Captain Fitz Roy passed by as early as 1833. The name was taken from the indigenous Yamana name for the surrounding region, and originally the site was used to convert the native population to the civilised Christian path. However, as was by then common practice across the continent, the missionaries brought with them more disease than faith, and by the turn of the century the Yamana tribe had been practically wiped out. In order to repopulate the region, and to stop Chile from nicking it, the Argentine government decided to transform the area into a penal colony, following in the footsteps of the British in Tasmania. By 1910 the prison that still stands today had been built. This despairingly remote jail, renowned for its ruthlessness, held re-offenders and serious criminals until it was closed by President Juan Perón in 1947. It is now a fantastic museum and a necessary visit if you’ve made it all the way down here. 

Today, Ushuaia is a (bizarrely) prosperous and populated city, given its remote location and the difficulty of getting there (one ferry crossing and four customs controls). It takes a while to get over the fact that this is a decently sized town of 65,000; with two Irish pubs, four strip clubs, and dozens of hostels, outdoor outlets, classy restaurants and souvenir shops. But despite this sophisticated infrastructure Ushuaia maintains a unique charm and atmospheric feel. Where else will you meet explorers leaving for Antarctica, sailors on their way round the world and hitchhikers who have truly made it to the end of the road; all while nursing a fine end-of-the-world pint of Guinness.