Chilean border official, a man in his forties, had a clever way of "making new international friends" as he put it. First he insisted on taking a picture of me (and Chris was allowed to join after some persuasion) with the small Chilean flag on the immigration counter. He would then show us photos from his phone of penguins and snowmen (which in spanish is called snowmonkey, I learned) and talk and talk about the great Chile. Finally we were allowed back in the bus where one of the staff came to ask an Austrian girl and me for our facebook address in behalf of the immigration officer. No wonder it took us forever at the border...
And forever took the journey as well. We left El Calafate at 3 am and were supposed to arrive in Ushuaia at 21.30. We crossed from the main land to the Isla with a small ferry in a crazy wind. Then after hours of slowly driving the dirt roads through the vast empty land of Tierra del Fuego, it became pretty obvious that we wouldn't quite make it in the estimated time. Entertainment (and irritation) was brought to us by a cute little monster sitting on the seat in front of us. He insisted that we do some coloring book coloring and he was super psyched about that (WOOOOOW!!! WOOOOW!!! he would yell every time we finished colouring a drawing) up to a point where he would just start throwing the pens around the bus.
Around midnight we arrived in Ushuaia and starving and tired we bought some yoghurt from the gas station and headed to the only available bed in Ushuaia, in a beautiful but expensive B&B. We had three different hostels during our Ushuaia stay because everything was so booked out. But after the good night sleep and fantastic breakfast we didn't really mind.
We spend a lot of time organizing stuff again, it's lame but needs to be done especially with the high season. Things tend to be booked out in no time. Like the ferry from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas. And to get to Puerto Williams was super expensive so with heavy hearts we dropped the plan to visit this "southernmost town" in Chile (Ushuaia being the southernmost city). Most people went to Puerto Williams for the legendary Dientes de Navarino trek but it felt too hard core for us so the trip wouldn't be worth it. We also skipped a tempting but highly expensive cruise to Cape Horn and glaciers and Punta Arenas and decided to settle for the views from the bus window. And the views of Beagle Channel, this one we didn't skip!
At the border of Chile and Argentina
Ferry to the Isla
Colorbooking 
Charmer 
Sunset So the next day we hopped in a tour bus early morn' and drove through beautiful mountains and sea views to Harberton ranch where I practised my Spanish on a tour in a marine animal museum. Then our group hopped in a small zodiak boat to an island FULL OF PENGUINS! For such a long time I've wanted to see them little penguins and there they were, one meter away, some curious and some completely ignorant. These quite small Magellanic Penguins had many cute chicks too, these were even more curious. The other species of penguin on the island were the Getoo Penguins that are considered some what rare for South America, it was a small rookery compared to the one of the Magellanic Penguins.
And just as I said to Chris how I'd love to also see these King Penguins, there it was! One solitary King Penguin in the middle of all the others, and no one knew why it was there! The guide told us that it's quite the mystery...Later we heard from a guy that their group had spotted a whole family two days later, two adults and two chicks! How cool is that.
Ushuaia in the morning
West wind shaped trees
And windy it was 
Museum 
Happy penguin fans! 
Next: million pics of penguins! 
Grannies from BA taking pics with their tablet thingy!!
Camouflaging as part of the rookery
King Penguin! 
Big and angry bird
Our trip continued back to Ushuaia in a catamaran, riding through the Beagle Channel and spotting more wildlife. We saw two colonies of sea lions, amazing! The catamaran got super close and we were watching intrigued how the massive male sea lion Boss was roaring load and keeping discipline. The smaller ones reminded me of the Donald Duck cartoon where a small seal escapes to Donald's house, hehhe, good stuff.
Faro
And now a million pics of sea lions
Next day we visited the pretty but well-trodden paths of the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. Public minibuses take you there easily with 150 pesos unless of course you are a group of Israelis and make a little "side business" offer to the driver Gonzalo. The group paid 130 peso each and got picked up from their hostel while Gonzalo pocketed the money himself. Clever, but not entirely fair especially since the driver had to move some full paying customers to other buses and refuse to take some in on the way back (next bus went two hours later...not too nice) because of these illegal passengers. Gonzalo was lazy too, he dropped off everyone in the first stop of the NP and tried to hurry back to the city. Unfortunately for him we wanted to go to the last stop. He tried and tried to convince us that we should hop off earlier and that the last stop was just horrible and what not. We were persistent. On the way back he was again moving passengers away to someone else's bus, so that his Israelis would fit, when he spotted us. "Amiga, tú y tu novio, vamos!". Right. I guess I said "no" firmly enough since he just smirked, shaked his head and left it at that. Still, an idiot.
The national park was pretty but didn't feel so special with so many people around, and cars and roads. The wildlife consisted of a cool Fuegian red fox, tame as a dog, begging for food from the park visitors. I like foxes. We walked for some 4 hours before cathing the bus back home.
No feeding Zorro
Beaver dam but no beavers :/ We dined on local specialties like King Crab and lamb, planned our future travels some more and met nice people in our hostel. One of the most special things we did in Ushuaia, apart from the penguins and sea lions of course, was climbing in a local bouldering gym, probably the most southern climbing hall in the world ;) Open only 3 nights a week and highly difficult to find, we considered ourselves lucky to get to climb there. The local guys from Club Andino were great, showing us routes and everyone climbing together! It felt so good to be climbing again after such a long time.
Ushuaia climbing gym
Chris on the wall
And Inka tooAfter five nights in Ushuaia we left at 5 am with a bus towards Chile and Punta Arenas. New country, currency and accent to learn. I of course got into trouble again on the border because of a sandwich and a very well-trained bordercontrol doggie with a nose for some salami. Trouble is maybe a bit of an exaggeration but yeah, I was supposed to either eat the snack or discard it. The man at the border was more interested in Finlandia vodka though it seemed.
Only 1,5 hours late this time we arrived in PA. Our strange but beautiful hostel Imago Mundi was excellent for a couple of reasons: they had a climbing hall and an amazing terrace with a great view over the city (and a hammock too). In PA we took care of a lot of organizing but also had a chill day with only climbing and sight-seeing: we went to a magnificent cemetary and a viewpoint and of course we ate well in a local market hall filled with super fresh seafood!
We took a bus to Puerto Natales and here we are now. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for a looong trek, wish us luck! ANd hey sorry, some of the pics weren't fully uploaded, can't do much about it now because of sleepytimes. Adios!
Imago Mundi, cultural center
Breakfast at the terrace
Hammock chill
Imago Mundi, climbing gym
Chris training 
Inka training 
Punta Arenas sunset
Punta Arenas sunset 2
OMG
What is this sign supposed to be, ha?
Cemetary
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