The only way is up! (Admit it, you added 'baby' to the end of that phrase!)

My journey to Ushuaia from Punta Arenas was scheduled to start at 8.30am with a bus to Rio Grande that was due to arrive around 4.30pm. I was then to change and take another bus from Rio Grande, leaving around 5pm, eventually arriving in Ushuaia at around 8pm. So it was going to be a looooong day. I have to admit, I was really fortunate with this journey, it went so smoothly and we ended up arriving almost 90 minutes earlier than expected!! There were multiple opportunities for us to be delayed but we weren't in the slightest! Ushuaia is situated on the island of Tierra del Fuego and so it means you have to take a ferry. We were really lucky and it was there when we arrived, so we hopped off the bus and made our way onto it. 

My hostel in Punta Arenas was called 'Endless Sky' and I loved the whimsical nature of the name. Never has a description been more apt for the sky we saw on that ferry ride. I've been on boats where all you can see is sea in every direction, but somehow there seemed to be a limit to the sky. On this boat, you could see land, but the sky did feel like it went on forever; it was endless. 

My photos in no way capture its beauty, and I have to say, had I not experienced the same sensation on the ferry journey on the way back, 

I could have believed that I'd imagined it in some way.

On arrival on Tierra del Fuego (TDF) 

one of the first signs that I saw said 'Las Malvinas son Argentinos' which translates to 'The Falklands are Argentine'. These signs were everywhere on TDF, on buses, as you drive along the road etc. etc. And I must admit to at times feeling slightly wary of my British accent and it really forced me to use my Spanish which is a good thing. It's the only time I've come across anything about the Falklands in Argentina but it really brought it home that I was in an area close to where we had been at war. 

Fortunately, on the journey to Ushuaia, I was easily distracted by the scenery. 

There is no way to hide the fact that I have been really sad to leave Chile. I adored that country and despite me originally taking this trip mainly to see Argentina, it's been Chile that's captured my heart. But, I decided I have to give Argentina a fair shot at it too, and to be fair, it got close on that journey. The Autumn colours in Chile were bright and playful, whereas on TDF, they were darker. I described it to my parents as Chile being a childhood Autumn whereas Argentina is a mature Autumn! Whilst darker, they were richer and more elegant.

We arrived in Ushuaia around 6.45pm and again, not where I thought we would, and again, it was closer than I'd anticipated, luckily, because the sun was setting and I just had to get out and take some photos! It was stunning!

Unfortunately, on the previous night I'd had another 3 bedbug bites and so once the sun had set, I went to the supermarket to buy disinfectant and cloths and ziplock and black bags for the second attempt at Operation Death to Chinches'. The next morning, I put on clothes that I mostly wouldn't mind throwing away and took everything else that was material to the launderette to be hot washed. Achieving this is tricky in Latin America, they generally do not hot wash stuff (no surprises you get bedbugs in the first place really). When I said I needed it washed hot, he asked me 'trente?' (30) which received a 'No, MUY caliente' (no, VERY hot) from me! Fortunately, the hostel I was in, I was the only one in the room on the first night and so that morning I was able to scrub my rucksack and every item in it really well and then douse it in lavender disinfectant (bedbugs don't like lavender apparently and yes Shalini, I'll replace your rucksack on my return!). After that, it had been a while since I'd been in touch with my family, having had terrible wifi for quite some time, so we chatted and then that afternoon I went for a wander around Ushuaia and took a trip to the Information Office to get my Ushuaia stamp in my passport!

Ushuaia is all about being at 'El fin del mundo' needless to say 'The end of the world' which is a bit of a con really as there's still Isla Navarino and Antartica to go before you get to the end of the world, but they've made their name on it so who am I to argue?! This sign does bring home how far away you are from everything though!

The following day I decided to take a walk up to Glacier Martial. Everything tells you to take a cab to the start but I really wanted to do a decent walk so I opted to walk to the start. I didn't start out as early as I'd hoped as I had to go get my laundry and I really wanted to inspect it well. Multiple items had shrunk which I took as a good sign that it had been exposed to heat at some point and so I started feeling a little calmer about it all, although my pyjamas went straight in a ziplock bag and I couldn't bring myself to wear them, having been what I was wearing the night I was bitten so badly. By the time I had a shower and set off it was around 1pm but this turned out to be a good thing, otherwise I wouldn't have bumped into Johnson! Remember, from the Navimag ferry!! We'd said he'd be the sort of person you bumped into randomly, and turns out we were right! He'd been in Ushuaia around a week and had decided he'd seen enough of South America for this trip and had found a cheap flight to Panama so was going to spend the rest of his time until he goes back home. On the ferry he'd had a hat with a Union Flag on it. He was still wearing it in Ushuaia but had sensibly turned it inside out so it now appeared to be plain!

There were two options to get up to Glacier Martial, walking on the road or through the forest. 

I decided to do the road on the way up and forest on the way down, Johnson having said the views were better from the road and they were beautiful. 

On the way, we had snow on and off which made everything so pretty! 

This was lucky as the climb to the Glacier was steep so it took your mind off that! Of course, this meant amazing views, but sadly it also meant I was unable to actually reach the summit and see the glacier because of course the higher I got, the worse the snow got. Around 500m away, there was around 15-20cm snow on the track and whilst I wasn't too concerned going up to the glacier, without trekking poles or appropriate footwear, I was very concerned about coming back down again. It would have been just behind the top left of this picture.

It turns out I wasn't the only one, everyone I saw who went after me stopped around the same place as I had. I guess we all had the same thought. Anyway, the scenery on the way had made the walk totally worth it 

and the guidebook had said if you'd seen Perito Moreno glacier, which I have, then this one will seem like a postage stamp! So I wasn't at all sad I didn't quite get there.

And so I then headed back down the mountain. It was absolutely freezing. Going up you get warm, but gravity is with you on the way down and you just don't generate anywhere near the same heat and it was soooo cold. My fingers felt like they were going to fall off, and the track through the forest was VERY muddy, so I did half through the forest and half on the road to get back.

Not sure the walk did me much good as the next morning I woke up feeling shocking. I was aching all over and just had no energy at all. I'd been planning to go to the Tierra del Fuego National Park that day but knew there was no way my body would face another trek. But the weather also wasn't great. These are the mountains that were in the sunset pictures but now they're obscured by cloud!

So I decided to go to the mall to see about buying myself some new pyjamas. This turned out to be a pointless exercise as it was a 2.5km walk to the most useless mall in the world. However, it was made interesting by the fact that I passed the Ushuaia Naval Base where there were boards with information about the sinking of The General Belgrano. 

Further along the path had also been a monument to Las Malvinas. 

It was very touching and also melancholy with the General Belgrano being an official war grave.

Anyway, having been completely unsuccessful at buying pyjamas, I decided to head back to hostel and make use of the good wifi to download a few episodes of Designated Survivor on Neflix for my 12 hour journey the next day to Rio Gallegos. This I achieved and then headed out for a delicious, yet expensive fish casserole (small bowl of, with a glass of house wine - £18!) before settling down for a few hours kip before my alarm went off at 4am ready for my 5am (yes you read that right) 5am bus to Rio Gallegos!

I do genuinely believe I didn't do quite as much in Ushuaia as it is possible to do but I hit a physical low point there. As the title of the post says though, the only was is up, geographically, physically and metaphorically and so I'm now heading back up the east coast of Argentina on my way to Puerto Madryn, via a stopover in Rio Gallegos, because I'm a wimp, and couldn't face a 12 hour followed by a 16 hour bus on consecutive days!!