Day 38 - 12 Jan.2012 - Ushuaia

Today was a relaxed day in Ushuaia. The mechanic from the garage gave us the tip to go up the mountain towards the Canyon Negro. We drove up by car till the car park and set off on foot. At first it appeared to be not really a secret tip, as half of the tourist community from Ushuaia seem to go up the hill. But it looked like that all of them went to see the small glacier on the mountain and nobody really took the path to the Canyon Negro. There was almost no path to the canyon at all but the way was well marked with Cairns. When we reached the top we were rewarded with a spectacular view into the Canyon Negro – and we were all alone up there. However, soon after we got to the summit the weather started closing in and it began to rain a bit so we decided not to dwell for too long up there as we really did not know how the weather behaves here. The way down was a bit challenging, as we had to cross the field of loose stones. By the time we reached the first plateau again to join the crowd, the weather stabilised and we went to a viewpoint from where you can look down over Ushuaia. We took our Scottish flag out, given to us by our friends, dressed our Caminho-Sul T-shirts and took a series of pictures for the “been-there-done-that” records.
In the evening we made another BBQ with Chorizo. Our neighbour from Nova Scotia (Canada) who just arrived on his BMW at the campsite had some meat on the grill and offered us a steak and cooked veggies. In exchange we gave him some of our salad and all of us had a good meal.
In general the campsite is populated with a lot of foreign tourists. There was another couple, Suse & Axel from Germany, riding through South America on their motorbikes. It is always good to exchange some travel tips where to go and what to see. There were other guys at the campsite who travelled down here by expedition truck. These vehicles are designed to cross the Sahara desert and it seem to be a bit of overkill for the South American roads. At the end it doesn’t matter what means you travel with. To the guys on the bicycle we probably look as well as being over the top with our car and all the gear.