Discover the City at the End of the World: Ushuaia, Argentina
After sailing through the beautiful fjords of Chile, my parent’s South America cruise arrived here in picturesque Ushuaia. Ushuaia is considered to be the southernmost city in the world! It is remotely located on the coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina.
Ushuaia is surrounded by the stunning snow capped Martial Mountain range and faces out into the Beagle Channel.
Ushuaia’s name comes from the language of the Yámana, its original inhabitants, and means “the bay that penetrates westward.”
This city has become a tourist destination due to its location and proximity to the Antarctic islands and continent. Main attractions here include the Tierra del Fuego National Park, as well as various outdoor activities, including hiking, sailing, skiing, and kayaking. Numerous animal species live in the area around Ushuaia, including seals, orcas, penguins and a host of various types of birds.
My parent's cruise ship was sharing the port with a Russian ship that was stocking up for a voyage to Antarctica.
Argentina and Britain have been fighting over who is the rightful owner of the Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, for the last two hundred years. At different times the islands have been under Argentine, British, French, and Spanish rule.
My mum told me that she had never seen such a beautifully colored seagull! Do you agree?
The native Yámana peoples originally inhabited Ushuaia. When British explorers settled the area the Yámana were wiped out by the spread of European diseases such as typhus and measles.
A prison was built in remote Ushuaia at the end of the 18th century to house dangerous criminals. The inmates of the prison were put to work and built many wooden houses and structures in Ushuaia. The building style is being continued to this day.
Today, the city’s economy mainly relies on fishing, tourism, farming and the extraction of natural resources. The prison was closed in 1947 and has now been transformed into the maritime museum of Ushuaia.
After visiting Punta Arenas, my parents could really sense how close they truly were to Cape Horn and Antarctica. The point was driven home with the souvenir shops full of penguin toys in Punta Arenas, and in Ushuaia it came down to the branding of the locally brewed beer.
My parents were super excited to get to the southernmost point of their cruise: Cape Horn!
