After a rainy cycling day to Ushuaia, we heard that it would rain constantly the following week. Hence we were pleasantly surprised waking up the next day to nice sunshine. After packing our bags, we decided for not leaving the hostel. We went trekking (and cycling) to visit the ‘Glaciar Martial’.

Glacier with fresh snow

The next day, we took everything and continued to follow RN3. It ends 20 km after Ushuaia, inside of the national park Tierra del Fuego.

End of Ruta Nacional 3, apparently also end of the Panamericana

Inside the park, we pitched the tent next to a river. The camp site was free, the fee included in the park entry. Afterwards, we explored the surroundings and saw beatiful mountains as well as a lot of animals.

Huhu Uhu!

Bahia Lapataia - National park Tierra del Fuego

Just in time we came back to the camp site to protect our tent from heavy rain and wind damage. We naively put the tent in a direction with a good view and without the storm lines. Patagonia reminded us to always! keep the wind direction in mind and use the extra lines.

After sleeping well in the wild, we strolled on top of the “Pampa Alta”. It was a nice, easy 4 hour trek with information boards, through wild forests, nice views and more animals - again we were visited by Guanacos during lunch.

View on the national park

Later, we returned to the hostel. We would have liked to stay longer in the park, but other travellers gave us a new idea how to proceed: We would take a boat from Ushuia further south, to Puerto Williams, Chile. The really southernmost city in the world.

Far south

We camped a day close to a waterfall a few kilometers out of town. Then we took a very big ferry towards north. The trip could correctly been described as a “mini cruise”. We have been on the waters for 30 hours, had four excellent meals, comfortable sleeping seats and some smuggled wine and rum.

The boat took a route through the beagle channel and further small water ways and fjords. There was a lot to see. Even glaciers that ended directly in the ocean. After Moritz woke up Martha early in the morning (to early for breakfast), she spotted a passing whale. And to avoid boring times, later we saw seals and dolphins swimming next to us. Beautiful!

Look!

We actually were a bit sad when the boat reached the port of Punta Arenas. We had to leave and get back on our bikes, at least for short. At the Hospedaje Independencia we found a nice spot to put our tent in the little garden.