Although Ushuaia is often referred to as the city at the end of the world, the reality is that there are other towns even further south on the map. If we stay within our Argentinean territory, we can find another town a little further down called Puerto Almanza. And if we cross the border, we also have Puerto Williams in Chile. These disputes of who deserves the title of being further south will always be ongoing, but the good thing is that if you find yourself travelling in the area, you can see at least a little of these three places ❤️.

One of the benefits included in some of the work-to-accommodation exchanges while you travel is the possibility of tours at the hosts' expense. In all this time doing the same in various hostels, I have been lucky enough to come across owners who take this into consideration and offer free rides for volunteers. When I was in Ushuaia, the owner of the hostel took me and my two other fellow volunteers on a walk to Puerto Almanza on a day with incredible weather.

Puerto Almanza is a small fishing village, consisting of a single street facing the coast of the Beagle Channel. In this place, the main tourist attraction is to come and taste the local seafood, so it is a destination to spend the day and return to Ushuaia. However, there are also some tourist accommodations, private campsites and free camping sites in case you want to extend your stay.

To get to Puerto Almanza and enjoy its coastline full of nature, seaweed and shells, it is necessary to come in your own vehicle or on a hired excursion. There is no public transport to this place and getting there by hitchhiking is also complicated. To get to this town, it is necessary to drive about 40 km north of Ushuaia on Route 3, and then take the gravel route J heading south again. There is not much to see along this road, except for some sporadic lodgings or private houses, so there is usually not much traffic.

Just opposite Puerto Almanza, you can see the town of Puerto Williams in Chile. Even there, I had no cellular signal from Argentina but my roaming with the neighbouring country worked. You can visit Puerto Williams leaving from Ushuaia on a ferry that costs about $260 round trip, but even though it is close, you can't go there for the day because there is only one service to and from Puerto Williams. I thought about the idea of visiting this place, but between the boat and having to pay for at least one night's accommodation there, the budget was quite high for so little. In the end I just settled for seeing the harbour from across the street.

Another thing you can do from Puerto Almanza is to visit the penguin colony located on Martillo Island. For this, it is necessary to take a special tour that leaves from Ushuaia, brings you by bus to this place and from here it goes in small boats to where the penguins are. There is only one company that offers this service and it is the only one that has the authorization to go down to the island and walk with these curious animals. The rest of the boats that visit the penguin colony directly by boat from Ushuaia only see the coast of the island from the top of the boat. If you want to walk with the penguins to get a closer look, you will have to pay a $250 tour, as opposed to the regular tour which costs about $140. Will it be worth it?

The fact that the owner of the hostel drove us to Puerto Almanza in his van was a good thing for me because it saved me the $50 that a private transfer to Puerto Almanza cost. The other girls who worked with me, he and I spent the afternoon sitting in front of the canal drinking mates and sharing our experiences of what it was like to be in Ushuaia in the high season. Unfortunately I don't like seafood or any of those sea foods, so we didn't try anything, but at least the biscuits we brought for the afternoon took our appetite away for a while .

Source

If there's one thing Ushuaia has plenty of, it's places to go trekking. Most of them can be done in the same day, but there are some others that are worth taking the trouble to bring a tent to spend at least one night. It wasn't in my plans to go camping at the end of the world where it's so cold, but one day everything worked out perfectly and I jumped at the chance. That's how I was able to visit the Caminante Lagoon, one of the best trekkings I've ever done in this place ❤️.

Si hay algo que sobra en Ushuaia, son los lugares para hacer trekking. La mayoría de ellos pueden realizarse en el mismo día, pero hay algunos otros por los cuáles vale la pena tomarse el trabajo de llevar la carpa para ir a pasar al menos una noche. No estaba en mis planes ir a acampar en el fin del mundo en donde hace tanto frío, pero un día todo se dio perfectamente para que así sea y no dudé en tomar la oportunidad. Así fue como pude ir a visitar la Laguna del Caminante, en uno de los mejores trekkings que hice en este lugar ❤️.

The trekking to the Caminante Lagoon is one of the most requested by the tourists that come to the mountains of Ushuaia. There are two ways to get to this place, since it is located within a circular route: you can choose to do half of the way and retrace your steps, or go all the way around. In total, there are 32 kilometres of trekking with a high level of difficulty, and even though there are people who do it all in the same day, the best thing to do is to camp to rest a little and appreciate the place better.

El trekking hasta la Laguna del Caminante es uno de los más solicitados por los turistas que llegan hasta las montañas de Ushuaia. Hay dos formas de llegar hasta este lugar ya que se encuentra dentro de una ruta circular: podés optar por hacer la mitad del camino y volver sobre tus pasos, o dar toda la vuelta completa. En total, son 32 kilómetros de caminata con una exigencia alta, y a pesar de que hay gente que lo hace todo en el mismo día, lo más recomendable es acampar para descansar un poco y apreciar mejor el lugar.

It was an ordinary day and I had already finished my morning reception shift at the hostel, so I had the whole day off and the next day my schedule was in the evening. That's when I heard that a group of guests was organising to go to this lagoon, with camping included, as the idea was to go all the way around. It was the owner of the hostel who suggested me to go with them, taking advantage of the fact that they were a big group, and that I should not worry about the tent as he would lend me his. It didn't take me ten minutes to accept the proposal and I already had all my stuff ready to go to sleep in the mountain.

The issue then was that this ‘big group’ that had proposed the walk was not well organised, because some had to do things earlier or were taking too long to leave. So one of the hostel guests and I decided to go alone, with the idea that we would meet at the lagoon and walk at our own pace. The big spoiler was that this never happened: we never crossed paths with any of the other guests so we did the whole walk just the two of us.

Actually, this is not exactly a circular route, but makes a ‘U’ shape, starting at one end of the city and ending at the other. You can start the walk on either side as the lagoon is almost in the middle, so my companion and I decided to take the easier option. This was to start in the Andorra Valley, where we would go through the forest on the first day and on the second day, when we were rested, we would climb up to a big mountain pass to finish our descent to the city. The walk through the forest was relatively easy because it did not have many climbs, we only had to cross several bridges over the river, built with great ingenuity which made them very picturesque.

The second interesting thing that we saw in the forest was a beaver tree at close quarters. In Ushuaia there is currently a plague of artificially introduced beavers in these ecosystems, which have been responsible for modifying the watercourses and destroying the trees around their burrows. Having no natural predator, these animals have spread freely throughout the island, forming these spaces that are always seen as shady. We did not have the opportunity to see a beaver live that day, but the marks of its presence were clear.

Two hours and 7 kilometres into our hike, we finally emerged from the forest and came across some signs indicating that to the right was the lagoon and to the left was the road to the city. Taking the right path, a big climb awaited us, which we could see from there. It had been almost a year since the last time I had hiked with a heavy backpack, but it was the first time I had also carried a tent, so my physical condition gave everything to successfully complete this climb.

Although the day had started out sunny and beautiful, by the time we reached the Caminante Lagoon there was no longer any trace of that weather. However, the beautiful colour of this lagoon is independent of the sun, as you can see in the pictures. The sky had turned grey, but the emerald green colour of the lagoon was intact, contrasting nicely with its mountainous surroundings. It was indeed a very beautiful place ❤️.

Before starting the hike, we had investigated that just 900 metres further on there was another lagoon. This was the Caminante Superior Lagoon, for which we had to cross a river barefoot to get there. This lagoon was nice too, but not as nice as the first one we had seen. We had considered camping there, but as we had nowhere to shelter from the wind, we went back to our main idea of camping with everyone else back there.

By the time we returned, we were still hoping to see some of the other guests at the hostel, but this was not to be. We stood for a long time at the viewpoint of the lagoon waiting for them, but no one showed up. We didn't complain about this because the view was beautiful, but after a while, the cold and the wind forced us to go down to the shore of the lagoon where we camped. In total, it took us 4 hours to get to this place, and after having walked 16 kilometres with our backpacks on our backs, I was grateful for the decision to spend the night there.

Going to Caminante Lagoon and camping there is completely free, so we only had to pay $8 for a taxi, split between two people. The truth is that enjoying the mountains of Ushuaia is very cheap, which makes up for the fact that getting to this place on the map can be expensive. I was delighted to have seen the lagoon and to have someone to go there with: we may not have been as large a group as I had hoped, but at least we had a good day of trekking .

Source