(Wet)lands of Fire, Lord of the Flies, and Christmas in a Tent

(complete picture set)
The Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) given to the southern tip of South America conjures up in my head a land of scorching deserts and fiery volcanoes, something reminiscent of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It is anything but. The proximity to Antarctica brings in cold southerly weather, made highly erratic and savage by the large amount of ocean surrounding a very small land mass. Rain is frequent, and the ground is wet. Really really wet. I went on a trek up in the Mountains behind the city of Ushuaia, and I hiked over bogs, swamps, mud, streams, rivers, muddy swamps, swampy bogs, and then switched it up with some snow on the pass. The mud made the steep uphills and downhills a slippery slide of muddy fun and frustrations (fun for a bit, then frustratingly annoying after that), and my feet and boots came back quite wet. I actually lucked out with the water from the sky though, only enduring half a day of rain and minor snow on the pass. Also, after the overcrowded Torres del Paine and El Chalten trails, not seeing a single person for three days was a nice treat as well. The wilderness actually felt like, well, a wilderness. I visited some beautiful lakes, some still iced over and covered in snow, and caught some great views of green valleys, both by walking through them and then from above once I cleared the tree line.

I also headed into the National Park of Tierra del Fuego, and climbed to the top of a 973m (about 3000 ft) mountain right on the coast, which had a superb view of the surrounding area, and you all get another video because of it. First let's review how I did on the park's suggestions about the summit attempt:

1) Don't go up alone
Yeah...next.

2) Don't start after mid-day
12:45 is practically 12:00. Practically

3) Register your trip with the rangers
Why do you tell me this when I am now 8 km from the freaking gaurd station?!?!

4) Carry out all your trash
Ok...1 out of 4 ain't bad, right?


They also suggested it would take 4 hours to summit, but I did it in 1 hr 5 min, with the whole trip including lunch at the top taking 4, so their recommendations are a little loose. But the views were spectacular, as the picture and video attest.

After that it was another bus marathon (3 busses, begining at 6:00 am Tuesday, ending at 12:00 pm, Thursday). This one at least had quite a bit of scenery, and I had an Argentinian sitting next to me on one bus, so I was able to practice Spanish for a while. I arrived in El Bolson, a cool little hippy town in a canyon with pretty mountains and forest surrounding it. I went up into the mountains for 4 days on another trek, and had a great time. I even did a 50 km day (30 mi)! That was crazy. And tiring. I slept well that night, even on hard ground with a thing pad. The downside of this trip were these incredibly annoying and persistent flies called tábanos, similar to horse fies. We did battle in the forest from about 11:00 to 4:00 daily. They come out in force, swarming the crap out of you, and I had to use my Bruce Lee judo chop ninja moves to fend them off. The final score was about 200 flies dead, and me being seriously annoyed. Not sure who won that war.

I came back from the trek on the 24th, and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in my camp...by myself =(. (I can hear my mother crying now, hehe). It was sad not being with family for the holiday, and I missed them a lot, especially since I couldn't find a place to call them from. But I wasn't entirely alone, and spent the day doing laundry and hanging out with fellow campers. I then left for Bariloche for the next trekking adventure.