I did a tour to the Tierra del Fuego National Park from Ushuaia in Argentina. The Tierra del Fuego park is the world’s southernmost national park. It is west of the city. It has glaciers, forests, beaches, lakes and mountains. It has a wide range of flora and fauna, including Fuegian foxes, southern river otters, guanacos (related to llamas) as well as many birds.
One very popular way of getting to the park is by the End of the World railway. This runs on an old railway line originally built to transport materials to a nearby prison. It is about 5 km and goes to a platform inside the park.
I opted to do a coach tour to the park. Entry ticket was $5500 (£24). Our first stop was at Zaratiegui bay.
There is a post office and gift shop and I got my passport stamped with End of the World stamps and a penguin for $3. The stamp can be done in the museum in town but it is $17 entry to the museum.
Notice that London isn't included on this Argentine sign!
And then this sign at our next stop, Lapataia! Another reminder about the Falklands!
Lapataia is the inland end of the bay. Close by is a tall pointed peak which is the border with Chile. Unfortunately the peak didn’t clear of cloud -
There are “border” police on the road. A green lake -
We took the boardwalk to the end, great views over the water and the snow capped mountains. It was beautiful.
From here we went back to the end of Lake Acigami and went for a short walk. It rained slightly. Saw the trees covered with lichen, the hardwood evergreens, and the tree stumps that had been felled by beavers. Beavers were introduced and are now a huge problem as they make dams and cause the land to flood, but it is hard to do anything about them. They hibernate all winter. And of course the beavers are across the border in Chile as well.
Stumps of trees felled by beavers -
Ate small red “apple” berries from prickly heath shrub and also some purple berries from a small tree. Saw a grebe pair nesting in the river.
The fungus that grows on trees is called Indian bread -
As we were driving we saw a fox. Sadly we saw no guanacos. The photo of the fox was taken by someone else on another tour -
Went to the park centre but the info centre wasn’t very interesting.
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