When I first read that the city of Ushuaia is only 6 metres above sea level I was quite surprised. In spite of being a low place, it is possible to find mountains with interesting slopes that test your physical endurance. The highest peak of this city is Mount Olivia at only 1300 metres high, but it is only reserved for professional climbers. Instead, normal people can visit other hills to climb on foot, such as the Cerro Cortez, considered of medium difficulty. It may not be the highest of them all, but it still takes your breath away .

Cerro Cortez is one of the closest mountains to the city centre and, according to what I had read, it would only take me about 5 hours to hike to the top and back. This time was perfect for a morning plan before I had to work at the hostel, so I took an Uber to the trailhead, about 6 km from where I was. The highest point of this mountain is 750 masl, but that drive was mostly uphill, so the final elevation gain I had left to walk was only 500 metres.

One thing I like about Ushuaia is that most of the trails are well signposted. Of all the trails I've done, I've rarely had to resort to an offline map. That's why it gave me peace of mind to go trekking alone, because I knew that the chances of getting lost were low. Also, this particular mountain is very close to the city, so I never lost my internet signal. And in case of any emergency, you could call the rescue number 103, which luckily in all my long stay, I never had to do.

I never knew how to write the name of this mountain properly, as in some places it appears as ‘Cortez’ (surname) and on the trail it says ‘Cortés’ (adjective, polite). I liked it better as a surname, so I wrote it that way. What was certain was that the gradient on this mountain was interesting. Although it was a 3 kilometres one way trail, I think that all the elevation gain was concentrated in 2.5 kilometres. My legs gave it their all, but as always, a big elevation gain means good views faster.

I didn't meet anyone on the way, and that's because this mountain is not one of the most touristy in Ushuaia. I thought that maybe I would meet some locals when I was near the summit, but the only thing that was there was a terrible wind. At times I had to sit down and take shelter because I swear it was pushing me. Keeping a steady pace was difficult and I didn't want any accidents.

Despite the wind, I reached the summit and everything looked beautiful from there. The weather made the clouds circulate very fast, changing the illumination of the landscape every minute. Even this also made the moment magical. From this summit I could get a good 360° view of the whole city of Ushuaia, the Beagle Channel, Mount Olivia and even the mountain ranges inside the National Park. I like the high peaks, but the ones that are not so high also offer landscapes a bit closer to see them in detail.

I found a rock shelter where I could take some shelter and have my mountain lunch (a small, non-nutritious sandwich and an apple). I stayed as long as I could, until the humble freezing breezes of the end of the world forced me to come down before my face froze even more. The good thing is that coming down is always a bit quicker than going up, and once back in the forest, there was no trace of the gusts from up there. And on the way up, I found a good location for my new Worldmappin sticker.

I usually take a little less time than the signs say, but this time, the whole route took me the exact five hours it was estimated to take. I even imagined it would be a bit more difficult, but all that elevation gain was challenging. Anyway, the views from there were beautiful and being able to see the city of Ushuaia from a new point was very rewarding. All this without detracting from how convenient it was to get off the trail and have a signal to call an Uber back: if I could have driven to the summit, I probably would have done it .

❤️ Hope you liked this post! Thanks for reading. ❤️

❤️¡Espero que les haya gustado este post! Gracias por leer. ❤️

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Although the trip to Chile had passed more quickly than I wanted it to, its end meant no great sorrow for me either. This was because instead of returning to my home in Buenos Aires, I had planned my return to Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. Summer was approaching, the best time not to feel so cold at the end of the world, so I wanted to return to take advantage of the pleasant weather and enjoy the mountains a little more. When I got back, there still weren't that many guests in the hostel where I was volunteering, so if I wanted to socialise a bit more, I had to resort to my trusty tool Couchsurfing. Once again, it worked perfectly .

Having returned from the neighbouring country after my trip with M brought me back to the reality of what it was like to travel alone. This is no problem for me because I love socialising, but the problem is when there are no people around to do it. But thanks to knowing how Couchsurfing works, I was almost always able to find occasional friends to go out with. And as I like diverse groups, where it is possible to exchange many anecdotes, I made sure that we were at least four people per outing (incidentally, to share the taxi to the trailheads).

For those who are not familiar with Couchsurfing, this is an application for travellers whose main purpose is to obtain temporary accommodation in private homes. In this app, there are people who offer a place in their home and travellers who can request this type of stay for free. The main purpose is to share a good time with the hosts while getting to know the place you are passing through, and also to save on accommodation. But as I never need this, as I have my stay at the hostel where I volunteer, I just use another section of the app called ‘Hangouts’. This function allows you to make your profile available for a walk at that moment: it's like a ‘Tinder’ for travellers, in which if you match with another person or persons, a chat is generated so that you can chat and plan a casual walk.

Throughout my stay in Ushuaia, which lasted almost six months in total, I used Couchsurfing Hangouts dozens of times. This allowed me to meet many people from all over, with whom we shared treks, pub crawls, walks in the city and even meetings in the hostel I was staying in. The first Couchsurfing meeting I did after returning from Chile was with three guys, one from England, one from Turkey and one from Argentina. We decided to trek to the Cinco Hermanos Lagoon, where we first went to the Bridal Veil Waterfall. I knew it but the boys didn't, so we stopped there for a moment to take pictures.

The stretch to the waterfall was short but quite steep, but the four of us were experienced trekkers so it was no problem for us. What was a problem was communicating with the guys from England and Turkey, as my English is very bad. However, I gave it my best shot and I think we exchanged some good ideas in the time we shared together. They were also able to practice their Spanish with me, although their level of the opposite language was much better than mine.

The outings I organised on Couchsurfing were always fun, and in the process saved us a bit of money, as well as having a good time. A taxi to the start of this trail and back to the city cost $20, which is not much for four people. By the way, we all took away a language lesson, as well as having seen a nice place. When I told my friends that I was going to the mountains with people I'd only spoken to for a few minutes in the morning via an app, they were quite worried, but after all the time in Ushuaia doing that, they relaxed. Now I have Couchsurfing contacts all over the world: I just have to get on a plane and go visit them ❤️.

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When I did some research on the heights of the mountains in Ushuaia, I was surprised to find that the highest mountains are barely more than 1000 metres above sea level. Ushuaia is very close to the water, but that doesn't mean that its peaks are easy to reach. If you like trekking that takes you to incredible places, and the route is a challenge in itself, you can't miss the Guanaco Hill in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. At only 981 metres high, you can be sure that all its elevation change will make its presence firmly felt ❤️.

When it comes to touring the nature surrounding the city of Ushuaia, there is only one place you have to pay to enter. This is the Tierra del Fuego National Park, which is home to a large part of the natural resources we have in this part of our country. Currently, the entrance fee for foreigners is $30 and for locals $9, although at the time of my visit it was $40 and $12 respectively, but then they lowered the price (something unthinkable in my country, Argentina).

There are several things to do within the Tierra del Fuego National Park, such as visiting the end of National Route 3 at Lapataia Bay, visiting Lake Acigami, taking the End of the World Train and a variety of trekking and hiking trails. I had already done all these touristy things on my first visit, but I had missed the Guanaco Hill, a trekking that takes you to the top of this mountain and gives you incredible views of the city and the Beagle Channel.

As soon as a guest who wanted to go to Guanaco Hill showed up at the hostel, I didn't hesitate to join him for the hike together. This trekking is considered of medium-high difficulty, so it is necessary to register your entry with the park rangers and it is advisable not to go alone. My companion that day, Bruno, had already been doing a lot of trekking the previous days, and we both felt in good physical condition to do this hike.

This trail is 6 kilometres long one way, with an estimated duration of 4.5 hours. These signs tend to be somewhat overestimated if you decide to do the hike in the snowy season, but as it was summer at the time of our visit, we completed the whole section in only 3 hours. What was not overestimated was the difficulty, as in the last two kilometres, the trail took you along a small trail of loose stones on the edge of the mountain. We were lucky that there was no snow or wind, so we climbed it without technical difficulty, although the legs were quite demanding.

As we climbed higher and higher, the views became more and more incredible. It was only on the last few metres on the way to the summit that we came across some snow, as if to decorate the landscape. What I liked about this mountain was that whichever way you looked, the scenery was amazing. I did a lot of great treks in Ushuaia, and this was one of the best ❤️.

By the time we reached the summit, we could finally see the great view of the city and the Beagle Channel. We were very lucky to have an amazing day that let us see the whole landscape clear. From there we could also see other snow-capped peaks, and the peat bog areas that Ushuaia has. We could also see several beaver trees from there, which appeared as clear patches in the forest areas.

On this mountain I was also delighted to see the design on the bare stone, which showed thousands of splinters perfectly joined together. Unlike other mountains I visited in my country, which were made of earth, in Ushuaia the mountains are made of solid rock, which explains the surface vegetation on the slopes and forests. These sharp stones at the summit were all joined together, but on the last stretch of the road we saw them loose: the moment of creation of this mountain will have been an incredible landslide.

Bruno and I had brought our packed lunch, so we stayed on the summit for a while, taking advantage of the fact that there was no wind and it wasn't too cold. It really was a day with incredible and stable weather, something that almost never happens in Ushuaia. Normally during the same day it is cloudy, sunny, raining and even with some snow, but that day the sun was high all afternoon. We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions to climb Guanaco Hill .

There is no doubt that I like to go to mountains where the views are beautiful, but the fact that the trail is a bit tricky ends up adding an extra thrill to the adventure. Guanaco Hill lived up to that expectation, so reaching its summit felt very satisfying. I recommend this trek to those looking to spend a day among forests, peat bogs, loose rocks and great scenery: the trail has it all, but the reward of the view at the end makes it all worth it ❤️.

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