Ushuaia, Argentina - the "End of the World"

Ushuaia is the town farthest south in the world and they delight in mentioning it. It originated as a penal colony and struggled to be more that that until now where it is the starting port/spot for exploring the Antarctic. So tourism is it's number one industry and the town has now swelled to 80,000 inhabitants.

Waiting for a berth...we arrived early due to a medical emergency and so the captain hightailed it into port 4 hours early - bypassing a brief stop in Port Williams - supposedly for passport perusal by the Chilean port authorities.

Next morning - the mountains (Andes) had a dusting of snow overnight. (remember, this is their summer!)

The day started out rather dreary but the snow capped mountains

made a beautiful backdrop to pictures of the town.

Our excursion today was to Tierra Del Fuego National Park.

We traveled on Highway 3 which is part of the Pan pacific Highway

...this is the end of the line

The park is full of beech trees which are relatively young as this preserved area was clear cut by the prisoners to build the town of Ushuaia. The trees are very closely spaced in this "new" forest. These trees turn red in the fall....