Look Ma, I´m at the bottom of the World!

I spoke to a German chap who said that he didn´t like Ushuaia as it reminded him of Austria. Miserable git. Last time I looked Austria was landlocked and didn´t have the meeting point of two mighty oceans just below it:

I on the otherhand very much liked the ´Most Southerly City In The World´and, truth be told, wish i had spent more than my 4 nights there. Living in London its not everyday that you can walk along the street and look up and see snow capped mountains.

I stayed at a Hostel called Yakush which was very nice indeed and there were some good people there and also two people who were a bit freaky. One was an english chap in his early 50s who was the spitting image of Little Britain character Denver Mills (can´t find a photo anywhere) and the other a strange young german full of fantastical stories and a bizarre know-it-all attitude. You´ll have to take my word for it that they were weird... the only evidence i can offer is that they had both been staying in the hostel for about 6 weeks and while travelling independent of each other they had seemingly not paid to eat as they simply took turns to get up early and raid the kitchen and fridge for food that had become "free for all". (in fact, their plan cocked up one day as the kraut had mistakenly/ deliberalty drunk the very special Polish Beer that Denver had bought).

I also met a lot of people who were either going to Antartica, had come back from Antartica, we´re trying to get a deal to Antartica or we´re due to goto Antartica but their boat, the EXPLORER, had sunk a few weeks before. The tales I heard, the books i read and the photos i saw all point to the fact that Antartica would be an amazing place to visit and i toyed with the idea of blowing a cool two grand on a weeks cruise. However, I figured i would have to cut short my trip significanlty which might equate having to be in a place of work again so figured that perhaps it´s one for the future.

Instead of Antartica, Marcello from Napoli and I headed out for a sail boat trip on the Beagle Channel which was as brilliant as it was wet and windy. I also walked up the hill / mountain behind the city and was humbled by the view over Ushuaia, the beagle channel and down onto Chile.

Over a beer in the ´Most Southerly Irish Bar in the World´ (across the street - due south - was unsurpisingly another Irish Bar), Marcello and I swapped tales and discussed what we where doing next. He was headed to Bs As and I was, as advised by Darren Low, headed north, but where? Having never really been sure if I´m the outdoor type it made sense to put it to the test in some style and follow Marcellos advice to head to Chiles very own Parque Nacional Torres del Paine for a 4 day walk full of wind, rain and pain(e).