Tierra Del Fuego National Park, Argentina

The relentless rainfall forced the clouds to surrender to a peacock blue sky the next morning. We downed our breakfast of toast with fresh fruit preserves and freshly squeezed orange juice. Then, a quick walk downhill from our b&b led us to the port of Ushuaia. As we looked around at the landscape, we noticed how stunning this place was. The next instant touts hustled us into the first rattling matador queued up to leave for Tierra del Fuego national park. The park is located thirty minutes outside of Ushuaia. Buses run frequently every hour in both directions. The ride out of the city offered us a full view of the mountains that almost seemed to rise out of the ocean glistening with snow-capped peaks. The city itself is a narrowly inhabited strip carved between the mountains and the Beagle channel (named after the vessel on which Charles Darwin sailed around the world for five years). At first glance, it reminded us of a much smaller and shoddier version of Sausalito - only far far prettier. Soon our lungs and nostrils were choked with dust as we rambled along the unpaved path that leads up to the national park. Tierra del Fuego - the land of fire - was thus named by Magellan when he first gazed upon the land blazing with fires lit by native Indians. The bus stopped at the park entrance where foreigners get to pay more than the locals. Very unlike American national parks, there are no visitor centers, marked trail heads, or souvenir shops even. This is as rustic and natural as it gets. We opted to get off at Lago Roca and hike up to Bahia (bay) Lapataia, which officially marks the southernmost tip of Argentina. Unmarked trails are filled with adventure. Of course we started off in the wrong direction but our first wrong turn brought us upon stunning views of Lake Roca. Emerald waters stretched towards cliff in the distance.The most notable aspect of our trek was the green carpet walk throughout. Lush green grass padded our steps throughout the trail. Enroute we came across multi-colored lagoons (green and black), lush valleys, soaring peaks, marine birds, and millions of rabbits.. Here´s one for you botany buffs, what is a Peat Bog (Turbal in spanish)? The black waters that characterize a peat bog are caused by plants that survive in waters filled with dead plants. Lack of oxygen and presence of special chemicals prevent the dead plants from rotting. The surviving plants have special acquatic qualities that allow them to thrive on the dead plants. The effect is a surreal body of black water. Well that´s the end of today´s botany lesson. We´ll talk about Ecotones in our next blog¨:-) After a two hour hike we reached our destination - more than 17,000 km from Alaska - the end of the last national highway in Argentina. The views from Lapataia Bay were splendid. We stopped awhile to picnic and ponder about our long journey.