Ushuaia was my gateway to travel to Antarctica, but the city alone is absolutely worth the visit. The surrounding nature is fantastic and it´s a paradise for trekkers like me 😉 I spent a couple of days in Ushuaia before my cruise, and apart from walking around in town, I visited Laguna Esmeralda and Parque Nacional Tierra de Fuego.

Laguna Esmeralda

To my wonderful surprise, Laguna Esmeralda is a beautiful 10 km round trip hike that takes approximately 4-5 hours at a good pace (the hike itself, once you get to the beginning of the trail) The trek encounters different vegetation zones, from young forest, beaver dams, moors and lenga forest. In the end you reach a beautiful glacier lagoon. There is almost no elevation and it´s considered easy to medium difficulty.

Please note some of the areas may not be so perfectly marked and it can be very muddy and if you are not the best in orientation …

…am I the only one? I want to believe we are a community of easily disoriented people!!…  

Then it´s better to have company!  I don´t want to make this sound scary because it´s not, but it´s also not fully marked for dummies without a room to get lost in the trail in some areas. On my way to the lagoon, it was easy to follow a group, but on the way back since the return time was different for everyone,  at some point I got lost and I didn’t know my way. I tried not to panic and I just waited until a couple of people came and I followed them! Maybe it was 20 minutes I had to wait but it felt like one hour to me 😉 Very experienced hikers will probably say this was so easy, so I´m speaking here to the more easily disoriented people like me 😉 It´s only one section that is not very clear in my opinion, but if it happened to me I´m sure it could happen to somebody else. Finally, do consider proper shoes for wet conditions just in case.

 If you are obsessed with photography like me, it could take a little longer because many places of the track are totally eye-candy including the lagoon with such a beautiful emerald colour especially if you have a good sunshine 😉 It´s also interesting to see what the beavers have caused…. should I say humans!! This is not their natural habitat but humans brought them here and now it´s a known problem in this place.

How to get there: There are guided tours, but this time I stayed away from those. I wanted to be free to do as I wished and why not, I was also in the comfort of being in a Spanish speaking country and it was a plus to just ask locals 😉 Still, in my journey I met people from other countries as well and it´s totally doable with public transportation. The only difference can be the guide, but a decent alternative is simply to join other people from the minibus. If that´s the plan you have plenty of time to start talking to your future hike-mates on the way 😉 Approximately 30 minutes from Ushuaia.

The cheapest and in my opinion the best option, is to use the local transportation to get to the hiking trail. These are mini vans from different companies going to the most popular places directly from Ushuaia city center. Ushuaia is a small city and these buses are really easy to find. Trust me, you will not be the only one who wants to go, therefore even if you are travelling alone like I was, you can easily be part of an informal small group and you can make new friends in the process. For my own safety I was walking with the other couples in the van. The way it works is you pick the time you want to go and the time you want to come back, then it´s up to you if you want to rush for it, or choose in advance the return time that is the latest, just be sure you don´t miss it!   I heard it is easy to get a free ride if you have a free spirit and want more adventure’. In my case I do need to know I have a ride back in advance.

I was heavily surprised by the beauty of this place! I have read mixed opinions but for me just the color of the river alone, the lagoon and the background are totally worth the trip!

Parque Nacional Tierra de Fuego

This is a very famous park in Argentina as it leads to the end of the road no. 3 where simply you cannot continue and it´s the end of the continent (kind of..).. There are different activities and options to visit the part as it´s really big, but I decided to go on my own, via the local transportation that takes you there just like Laguna Esmeralda, and just walk on my own!

A guide would have helped but again it has more to do with my terrible orientation 😉 so I´m not entirely blaming the park, only when switching to one route to another is when I got lost easily. I obviously survived, but I ended up walking 20-something kilometers, that the last bit was not so enjoyable anymore 😉 but again, a well planned route is all you need. I just underestimated the distances and my poor orientation.

When you get to the park there is a tourist office, depending on your time and interests they will tell you everything you need to know, so don´t worry! Just get there. Some tours will provide fully guided experience, including the “End of the world train” that follows the route of the original convict train that ran in Ushuaia from 1910 to 1947. The jail can be visited and the train ride is supposed to be very scenic. I say it´s supposed to only because I didn´t do it but having been in the area, I´m pretty sure it is. I still decided to have a completely free day to walk and be on my own to enjoy the Coastal walk (Senda costera)