From very south to north and further

After a nice last day in Punta Arenas with a delicious dinner, we took the bus in the morning to drive to Ushuaia in Argentina. The bus ride took 10 hours and we crossed the sea with a ferry to fire-land (tierra del fuego)  before we had to do the immigration stuff once more. But this time, we could stay in the bus and we didn't need to unpack our luggage (as it is usually is done) :-) .
We arrived in Ushuaia at 19.00 and went straight to our hostal (we booked in advanced since our guidebook told us to do so) Casa de Tere, where we stayed 5 nights. It's a nice hostal with a good kitchen, so we cooked twice on our own, but this evening we went for dinner. As usually in the south, we recommend the lamb which is very tasty here! We also solved an important question for us: how much does a full wine bottle weight? (it's about 1.5 kg).
Next morning, we visited Ushuaia (looks a bit like in the north of Europe and the prices are similar) and we organized a sea kanu tour and our visit in the national park the day after. Ushuaia is in a bay, surrounded with mountains and a nice touristy town. But the "problem" with Ushuaia is, that the weather can change withing 10 minutes and it can be cold and windy down there! So we used the last time our thick jackets and spent a lot of money that day (e.g. postcards) and we had fresh sushi in town! Good stuff!

Sushi in Ushuaia

 The national park of Tierra del Fuego is a bit away from Ushuaia, so we first took a cab and then we choose the "slowest way" to get to the park: a stem train ride from Station "Fin del Mundo" into the park. It is actually the same way the prisoners had to take to get firewood from the forest and they had to do it all year long. So we boarded our slow train and it was a nice experience! After about 1 hour, we arrived and started hiking. Unfortunately, the weather changed to the wet side but it wasn't too much of rain, so we still had a pleasant walk in the mountain and then along the sea shore.

Prisoner's Train

Sea shore view

Mountain view

Next morning, we got picked up by a tour company that offers day trips with a canoe and hiking. So, we hopped on a bus and drove to the canoeing place. We had 2 persons from India on that trip (they were a bit funnily dressed, no gore-tex jacket, jeans, ... ) not the best for being outside but well, they managed it (although they didn't really paddle in the canoe). The Indians told us, that they have a hard time in Argentina since they don't eat animals of religious reasons (well, there is not much left I'd say!!) and that they go to Antarctica soon (I hope they like the stormy trip there!).
It was nice to be in the beagle channel with the small boat. Later that day, we drove with a fast boat to an Penguin Colony (funny) and then further south to an island for our short hike and lunch (where we noticed that just the two of us drank the bottle of wine the guide had brought with him). After lunch, it was very stormy at that place (the wind pushed you up the hill) so we had to hurry a bit. Once back, our boat picked us up and we drove back to Ushuaia after a very pleasant day.

what a windy place

Sea shore

Pinguinos on the island

No meat today (but Paella instead)

Our last day we spent in Ushuaia with sending a parcel back home (not with the help of a very unfriendly postal employee) but finally it was ready and we had time for an easy day there. We went to a very good restaurant in Ushuaia (paella) and we looked forward to change our jackets by shorts. To shorten the distance between Ushuaia and Buenos Aires (3040 km) we took the plane the day after and we arrived in the afternoon by sunshine and 30 degrees there. We stayed one night in a hostal that our Belgium friends mentioned on their blog (Che Argentino) and it was nice (and they remembered the Belgiums as well). We just visited San Telmo (a part of BA) and had a nice night in the hostel.
Next morning, we left for the beach, to Uruguay. We took the ferry to Colonia and from there the bus to Montevideo. The city is pretty nice but a bit empty on week ends (we arrived on Saturday). We finally found a hostal which was ok but not great and we stayed 2 nights there. 
In the morning, we woke up and noticed that we had shared the beds with bed bugs (or something like that) but fortunately, we could change the room anyway for the next night. We visited the old town of Montevideo and the beach there (and we were surprised by a shower there). In the evening, we had to compare the Argentinian Meat with the one from Uruguay and we had a juicy piece of meat (just GREAT).

Centre of Montevideo

Fountain

What a meat! GREAT!

Now, we are in a beach town, we are in Piriapolis. Here is not much to see except from the sea and the beach (well there is a chairlift up a hill we gonna visit tomorrow). But there is sun (a bit too much today) and it's nicely warm (and I got a beard-cut for free!).

Piriapolis

 So, what's next? We head back to Montevideo to stay one night there to visit the football museum (and get some more meat!) and from there we visit Colonia and drive back to Buenos Aires, where we are going to spend our last money on wine :-)