Tierra del Fuego. The Land of Fire. A name I first encountered as a small child in the library of my primary school in Colchester, buried in the pages of some book I can no longer remember, in a town about as far from Tierra del Fuego as it’s possible to get. I have no idea why it lodged itself so firmly in my brain, but from that one innocuous moment it planted itself firmly at the top of my list of places I most wanted to visit in the world, and stubbornly stayed there for several decades. Here we are, three visits to its capital Ushuaia later, and it shows no signs of dropping down the rankings.
Ushuaia sits at el fin del mundo, the end of the world, strung along the northern shore of the Beagle Channel, framed by the Martial Mountains that feel close enough to touch and backed by the kind of scenery that makes you stop mid-stride. It serves as the primary gateway to Antarctica, and the port reflects this wonderfully: a pleasing collision of hardcore polar expedition logistics and tourists buying fridge magnets and t-shirts (I may have partaken in a bit of tourist shopping myself). The city proudly bills itself as the most southerly in the world, a claim the Argentinians are extremely attached to. The Chileans, however, would like a word, pointing firmly across the Beagle Channel to Puerto Williams, which sits noticeably further south. This dispute has been running for decades and nobody appears close to backing down.
This trip was my first time flying in rather than arriving by ship. The approach involves popping over a mountain ridge at what feels like wingtip-grazing altitude before dropping sharply down into the Beagle Channel. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely not. Would I do it again? Absolutely yes, but not without a nerve-settling large glass of malbec en route.
But Ushuaia itself? Ushuaia I love.
It’s a proper frontier town: colourful, chaotic in the best way, multicultural and full of contradictions. The food is excellent and the king crab is not optional. Neither, it turns out, are the meringue penguins, which I have no further comment on except that they were magnificent and I have no regrets. The bars are warm and unpretentious, exactly what you want after a day in the wind.
The street art is bold, vivid and alive in a way that demands you get properly lost looking for it. Oceanwide Expeditions (who you will be hearing a lot more about in the coming blogs) even have a guide to the cultural side of Ushuaia here: https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/a-cultural-guide-to-ushuaia-art-monuments-museums?srsltid=AfmBOoqgsO2o5oheASVwRCy7x7uRHM72KZXq8QAnfnjjEpanq5jqsQmx
The wildlife around the waterfront is wonderfully unbothered by the steady flow of tourists. Kelp geese picked their way along the shoreline with great purpose and absolutely no interest in being photographed. Patagonian crested ducks went about their business in the shallows. Dolphin gulls and imperial cormorants worked the harbour. It’s the kind of casual, everyday wildlife that reminds you exactly where you are in the world, which is to say, very far from anywhere ordinary.
And yes, I queued for the sign. The famous, somewhat battered, entirely obligatory Ushuaia sign. I have now done this three times. It’s non-negotiable no matter how many times you’ve visited, and I expect I will do it again next time (there will be a next time!).
Tierra del Fuego has been at the top of my list since I was small enough to be sitting on the floor of a school library, and it has never once disappointed. There is something about this place, the light, the mountains, the sense of being right at the edge of the known world, that gets into you and stays there.
More to come from this remarkable corner of the planet, including the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego and a ride on one of the world’s most southerly railways. But first I need to finish going through the photos, and possibly eat another empanada whilst dreaming I am still at el fin del mundo.
Wildlife Wild Sea
📍 Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Wildlife, Wild Sea 
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