Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Tierra Del Fuego

Winter is in full affect here in Argentina, and I just got back from maybe the coldest place in Argentina, Tierra Del Fuego. TDF as we will refer to it is an island on the very bottom shared by Argentina and Chile. To get there I road the bus, 45 hours! We also had the take a ferry across the Straight of Magellan(?), but never got of the bus. The huge double decker touring bus filled up about half of it! Also crossed into Chile for about an hour, than back out. Quite the hassle, but worth it!
I stayed most of the time in Rio Grande, the largest city on the island. It is on the coast, and there are no mountains, making it VERY windy. I stayed with a wonderful family who have had an exchange student from Belgium staying with them for the whole year, which is actually why I went down there in the first place, because we met on the Rotary north trip!
May 25th was the 200th anniversary of Argentina as a country, and there were many celebrations in Buenos Aires, and also an extra long weekend. For this weekend we all went to Ushuaia, where they have an apartment. Ushuaia is known as the most southern city in the world, and is surrounded by beautiful mountains, and the ocean. There is also a few ski resorts surrounding the city, making quite a "touristy" town. It is also the capital of TDF. I arrived a little too early, and the ski resorts were not open yet, but it did snow once while we were in Ushuaia!
On another note, I return to the U.S. in about 3 weeks, on June 2nd! Very excited!

2 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing all your photos! What an amazing trip it sounds like! And a very generous Rotary family to take you in and show you around! See you soon!!!

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  2. I was in Buenos Aires for the 200th aniversary of Argentina!!
    We went to 9 de julio to see all the parades and things, it was beautiful.
    Right now we are staying in an Apartments in Buenos Aires, but we would like to go to Tierra del fuego next month, what do you suggest us to visit there?

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