Day 2----Tierra Del Fuego

Three Brits from London, three Argentines from Buenos Aires, 1 North American from Chicago/St. Joseph together for a day with two Argentine guides from Ushuaia at the end of the earth equals raucous laughter. After 8 hours of hiking and canoeing another more important language transcended any verbal communication----the language of connection.

I generally tell others to trust their gut or more properly referred to as intuition. And I try ever so hard to listen to that inner voice. For the most part I do but there are diversions or detours along the path due to hopes, wishes and dangerous desires.....you know or "viste" as the Argentines would say. But back to the point, yesterday when I arrived in Ushuaia I was on a quest to get my bearings and to check out what the end of the earth had to offer. Since this was a whim and poorly planned I had only a very cursory understanding of what to see. Wandering in town I stopped at a tour agency to check out possibilities. As the conversation progressed at the agency I began to envision big buses and lots of people acting like cattle. My sense was that this was not going to work for me. I tend to hyperventilate in the herd. But I wasn't sure what else might be available on such short notice. I continued wandering and found a small agency with one man at a desk surrounded by beautiful pictures of incredible terrain. We talked. I promised to return and after an hour of reviewing my options over lunch I kept my promise.


I signed up for a full day in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, four hours trekking, lunch, followed by a canoe trip from Lago Roca to the river that leads to the end of the earth. Listening to my inner voice on this one proved right. The group was great, so many stories of people connecting from different lands. The hike was challenging. Lunch was good. And the canoe trip was both incredible as well as hysterical. The insturctions alone were worth the price of the trip.

As I write this I am sitting in Ramos Generales el Almacen sipping wine while listening to a guitarist and flautist. This was another find while roaming the streets after the tour. It is 10:30PM and still light. Just as I get used to this it will be time to head northe to Buenos Aires.