The temperatures kept rising here in Paraguay so I decided to escape the heat and head to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. I went to visit a couple of friends, Javier and Ciro, who I met while I was on exchange on Buenos Aires in 2009. I flew into Ushuaia, which is the southern most city in the world and then headed to Rio Grande, where Javier lives. The temperature never got over 50 degrees and there is a constant wind of a least 30 miles an hour and its not uncommon to reach 50 miles an hour.
Abandoned pier.
Flying club of Ushuaia.
The second day in Ushuaia Ciro and I hiked to glacier, or what's left of it, called Martial Glacier. There is a ski resort there in the winter, but in the summer they have a few hiking trails. To get to the glacier you can take to chair lift up about 1/3 of the way and then you have to hike the rest. All tourist activities in Tierra del Fuego are twice as expensive for foreigners so we decided to hike the whole thing. It took us about 3 hours round trip.
The chair lift we didn't ride.
Most of the time I spent in Rio Grand at Javier's house. We went to a beach just outside of Rio Grande called Cabo Domingo, checked out an old pier, went bowling with some of his friends, brushed up on my truco (a poker like game played with Spanish cards) skills and went out for pizza and ice cream for another friend's birthday. I also made chicken fajitas with home made tortillas and lasagna.
Cabo Domingo. It was very windy.
A night on the town in Rio Grande.
Chicken fajitas and lasagna.
Mate on the beach in Rio Grande.
Javier is a contractor and has a project in Ushuaia so we headed back there for a couple of days. While he was working I hung out with my friend Ciro. Ciro has his pilot's license and is a member of a flying club so he showed us all the planes. Unfortunately he isn't licensed to take passengers yet, but we did get to sit in the plane he flies and look at all the knobs and gages.
Ushuaia
The little plane Ciro flies.
In the afternoon we headed out to a park just outside of Ushuaia called Playa Largo (long beach) and strolled along the trail for a bit and then scrambled down the rocks to look at tide pools.
Playa Largo Park.
Javier and I camped in Tierra del Fuego National Park. Being that far south the sun doesn't set until about 11:00pm which is nice for getting the tent set up, having dinner and taking an evening stroll around the lake, but it also means the sun comes up around 4:00 am which isn't so nice when you are in a tent.
Lago Roca inside Tierre del Fuego National Nark
At 10:45pm and the sun just disappearing behind the mountains.
The second day in Ushuaia Ciro and I hiked to glacier, or what's left of it, called Martial Glacier. There is a ski resort there in the winter, but in the summer they have a few hiking trails. To get to the glacier you can take to chair lift up about 1/3 of the way and then you have to hike the rest. All tourist activities in Tierra del Fuego are twice as expensive for foreigners so we decided to hike the whole thing. It took us about 3 hours round trip.
Base of the ski hill, just starting our hike.
We finally made it to the top!
The last day I was in Rio Grande, before flying back to Paraguay, we had an asado because, after all, it wouldn't be Argentina with out one.
Lake Fagnano, located along the boarded between Argentina and Chile, and the Pipo River.
The trip was a much needed break from the heat and Paraguay in general. It was nice to live in relative luxury for a while. I don't know exactly what the best part was, but the front loading washing machine is defiantly in the running. Now that I'm back in Paraguay I'm readjusting to the heat and the frogs in the bathroom while trying to figure out what to do this coming school year.
