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Tierra del fuego
Written by sophie et jeremy   
Monday, 15 January 2018

Once in Tierra del fuego, we can’t help but notice there is neither fire, nor smoke, but still as much wind! And plenty of guanacos, we don’t know how they crossed the strait. On the other hand, we can see trees and mountains again!

paso garibaldi paso garibaldi

We stay briefly on the Chilean side to go and see a colony of king penguins. They look like the emperor penguins (which live in Antarctica) but are a little bit smaller. They also spend their day doing nothing together, and have a silly walk. Their fledglings are surprisingly big, as tall as the adults, but with a thick brown coat.

king penguins king penguins

Once again in Argentina, we keep going south and see trees again, looking a bit sick, bent by the wind and with 2 different colors of green. There is more relief too, and after a picnic on the shore of the green lake Fagnano, we cross a pass and discover snow caped mountains and forests. That's the landscape around Ushuaia, the southern most city of the world (even if the status is contested by some small Chilean villages).

fuegian forest fuegian forest paso garibaldi landscape paso garibaldi landscape

We rest there for a few days (for the car, Sophie’s back, and her mother’s knee) in a nice apartment with a view on Beagle channel and Navarino island, just in front and belonging to Chile, where we plan to go later. We take the chance to tour restaurants, souvenir shops and museums. We went for a hike to Martial glacier too, above the city, which is not so impressive since it has melted a lot recently.

beagle beagle

Chantal flies back home, full of memories, and we leave town, looking for wilder places.

A short hike brings us to Laguna Esmeralda, with its green water and overlooking glacier. On the way, we can see many beaver dams, which are destroying the environment since their where introduced from north america.

laguna esmeralda laguna esmeralda

dams dams beaver beaver

We then head to the Chilean Tierra del fuego, wilder and less visited. Anyway, there’s only one road here, winding along snowy passes and running along huge lakes before ending on an end-of-the-world looking beach. Here begins the Chilean fjords and glaciers leaping into the sea.

chilean tierra del fuego chilean tierra del fuego lago deseado lago deseado

lago fagnano lago fagnano end of the world end of the world