Ushuaia, nearly the end of the world...

We are in Ushuaia in Argentina, right at the southern tip of South America, on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia is the starting point for cruises to Antarctica and claims to be at the end of the world with lots of souvenir shops selling end of the world t-shirts and postcards.

In reality, the world´s southernmost permanently inhabited town is the Chilean naval base of Puerto Williams, just across the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia on Isla Navarino. The world´s southernmost permanently inhabited settlement, Puerto Toro, is also on Isla Navarino.

But I guess that as the Ushuaian´s aren´t about to start running a regular ferry service to the real end of the world, Ushuaia is as close as most people are going to get.

It certainly has the right weather to be the end of the world. Its really cold with strong winds and this is supposed to be the summer!

Steve and I have been overtaken by laziness and have just been sitting around eating, reading books and trying not to get too jealous when we meet people about to set sail for Antarctica.

Yesterday we went on a boat trip down the Beagle channel where we saw lots of seals, perched on rocky outcrops amongst the moody scenery and sailed past the End of the World Lighthouse.

Steve is now engrossed in Ernest Shackleton´s account of his attempt to visit the South Pole. From the excerpts he has been reading aloud, so far it seems to consist mainly of a blow by blow account of the starving sailors reluctantly being forced to shoot and eat their dogs.

The style is kind of, "Smith poor chap, looked away as I dispatched Lucky with a single bullet to the head. He felt the loss of his faithful companion dreadfully but there was no room for useless mouths to feed. Later we dressed Lucky for dinner, he didn´t taste too bad, quite like beef but awfully tough"

Tomorrow our journey south ends and we fly up to Mendoza in northern Argentina, where it should be a lot warmer.