Punta Arenas, April 4, 2000

Hello all.

This last week Bryan and I spent in Tierra del Fuego, those islands south of Argentina and Chile. We took the ferry from Punta Arenas across the Strait of Magellan to a point opposite on the island. It was a beautiful ride, with very blue sea and sky and what looked like icebergs in the distance (they were actually snowcapped peaks) and dolphins and porpoises careening about in the wake of the ship. We met a couple who were going all the way down to Ushuaia, where we were headed as well. They agreed to take us along, although they warned us that they would be taking the scenic route as opposed to the direct one. They were interesting people, an Argentine man married to a German woman, both living in Italy and neither having what one would think of as a ¨cushy¨ job, one that would easily finance renting a car and spending a few months driving through Argentina, which is what they were doing. But priorities are priorities, even people who don´t make all that much can spend it on travels if they sacrifice other luxuries.

Along the way we stopped several times to take pictures of the local wildlife--flamingoes, swans, a southern species of beaver, etc. The most plentiful were the guanacos, the Patagonian version of the llama. It was cool to see how they just jumped over fences as if it was nothing. They look so much like camels without a hump that it is difficult to think of them jumping such obstacles.

Tierra del Fuego is quite the experience, though. Lots and lots of huge empty stretches. Like much of southern Argentine Patagonia, there are no trees and very few bushes, just low dry grasses and flatlands alternating with rolling hills. Further South we eventually came to some mountains as well.
Ushuaia is an interesting fishing town at the top of the world (South could be the top you know--to make North the top of the map is a very random decision). The Argentines say it´s the southernmost city in the World, to which the Chileans reply that Puerto Williams (on the Chilean half of the islands) is even further south, but the Argentines say that doesn´t count because Puerto Williams can´t be reached by car and is much smaller anyway and Chile says it has an airport, that makes it a city, and it´s further South than Ushuaia. The things people find to bicker about. We found ourselves a cheap hostal and stayed there for the night. Are we getting soft or what? When we started out over a month ago, we were sleeping in buses and desert sands, now we´re looking up hostals wherever we go.

But the next morning it began to get rough. We were about to do one of the toughest hikes in Patagonia, and we did not start out too well since we almost got lost just finding our way out of Ushuaia. By the time we were out and had found a ride to take us to the trailhead, it was past noon. As we started on the hike we met a man who was just finishing it up. He looked tired and wasted, and was not in much of a mood to talk. We continued on down a very muddy trail, then had to take off our shoes to wade through a stream. There was a stretch of sort of moor-heather-turf, which felt like walking on a huge surface of mattresses and pillows. But then the going got harder as we had to fight through underbrush and rock on our way up a mountain pass. Where we finally decided to spend the night was pretty high up, and there was snow all around. It was raining a sort of depressing cold drizzle, but Bryan managed to get a fire going anyway, and we had some pasta and went to sleep. By the way, I replaced that wool poncho by now, and it wasn´t even expensive.

Anyway, the next two days went much like that one, except that the going got harder and longer. The scenery was just breathtaking (autumn colours and all that), but I was always lagging behind Bryan, which was frustrating for both of us. Our second night got even colder, and the water in our bottles froze overnight. What was interesting was that there was a fox outside trying to get at our food. We did not expect that any animal would be this high up, and we did not know how to protect our food from the fox, since there were no trees to put the food in. So we broke an ancient camping rule and took the food in our tent. There are no bears or other predators in Tierra del Fuego.

Actually, that´s part of the problem--the beavers there are getting out of hand. It was really frustrating to be hiking there, because so much was either flooded or completely obstructed by fallen logs. The Argentine army had once imported some beavers from Canada in order to raise them for their fur, but the deal had gone badly so they let them roam free. And now they´re destroying the whole area. One wonders why the army imported beavers from Canada when they have a local species as well, but hey, don´t argue with military intelligence.

Anyway, when we got back from the hike after three days, I was completely kaputt. I was walking like an old man because my feet were so blistered and my leg muscles felt as if they were made of ice--cold, hard, and ready to shatter. Bryan and I had a pizza each when we got into town, and we shared a bucket of ice cream and a 2.5 liter Coke, but we were still ready for more. The next morning we went ballistic with breakfast, lots of ham and eggs and bread and cereal and cheese and whatever else we could find.

Some of you have asked how Bryan and I get along on this trip. Obviously, travelling together is one of the most trying, and one of the most rewarding, things for a relationship. When we´re hitch hiking, I´m definitely in the advantage because I can communicate with the people. Bryan´s Spanish is improving rapidly, but he still has trouble getting out questions or understanding the answers. A lot of times that can actually be to our advantage, so sometimes I let him do the talking.

But when it comes to trekking, Bryan is definitely at a huge advantage. He has spent several summers in the northern woods of Canada, and he has been hiking since his early days. Rough terrain his his home turf. He is much larger and stronger than me, and when he walks at a traipsing gait I have to jog or run to keep up. Even though his backpack is much heavier than mine (he carries the tent, stove, pan, etc.), he carries it like it was nothing. I only carry all the food, and the advantage of that is that my load gets lighter every day (although I also carry all the garbage back down from the mountain).
At this moment we are not even sure if we will do the next trek together. I am thinking of visiting some more people in South America and getting to Paraguay as soon as possible, and Bryan still wants to tackle a few hikes, so we may split up soon and follow our different aims.

Like I mentioned in my last eMail, it is here in the far South that we are finally encountering other travellers. It is sobering to talk to them, because I often feel like I´m doing something unique and special until I hear THEIR stories. Like the Swiss guy who has spent the last two years on his motorcycle, cruising everywhere from Russia to Alaska to Southern Chile and everything in between. There is a married couple from Australia who have spent FIVE YEARS on their bicycles, just cycling from place to place. One couple from Ireland rented out their Dublin house for a year in order to fly to Brazil, where they bought a car and are now driving around the Americas and staying in the cheapest hostals. One German lady we met at a hostal is the captain of a ship that is transporting a German television crew as they shoot footage of Arved Fuchs´ latest Polar expedition (Fuchs is perhaps most famous for skiing across Antarctica with Reinhold Messner). One Jewish girl has been doing the South America hitch hiking circuit on her own. It all makes our little adventures seem quite petty in comparison. It also seems that travelling has become so commonplace for our generation, it is almost something like University.

Anyway, hitch hiking back from Ushuaia was also an interesting experience. Most of our rides were given by pickup trucks, and we usually ended up sitting in the back, so we saw the same scenery from the same angle we had seen it coming there (we were looking backwards now). One man in a flat-bed semi-truck (lorry, for Europeans) made us sit in the back even though he had room in front. It was of course good to have a ride, but we were pretty chilled when we got off.

The hitch hiking the next day was so slow that we had only gotten another hundred or so kms further by nightfall. We were barely back at the Chilean border. We were about to spend the night on the benches outside the border patrol house when a janitor saw us there and offered us the janitorial hut out back, which had a double mattress and an electric heater. We had a very good night, but I suspect we didn´t inhale much oxygen, since we have not been able to do laundry for quite a while and it´s beginning to show. One of the hardest things about travelling like this is keeping yourself and your clothes smelling nice.

Today there was so little traffic that we ended up taking the bus. Now we´re back in Punta Arenas for the next few days probably.

Thanks again to all of you who write. I hope I can get enough time to write some more personal eMails one of these days.

Marco

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