Globerovers Magazine, July 2019

Argentina: The South
USHUAIA
The world’s southernmost town is also
the gateway to a lot of adventure.
Ushuaia, pronounced [u’swaia],
is the capital of the province of
Tierra del Fuego in southern
Argentina. Lonely Planet Travel guides describes
the town as “A sliver of steep streets
and jumbled buildings below the snowcapped
Martial Range. Here the Andes
meets the southern ocean in a sharp skid,
making way for the city before reaching a
sea of lapping currents”. How idyllic!
While this is not the most southern
settlement, it is generally labelled as the
“southernmost town” in the world, a title
long disputed by the much smaller Puerto
Williams.
Although Puerto Williams, southeast of
Ushuaia on the Chilean island of Navarino,
is farther south, it has only 2,900 inhabitants
compared with Ushuaia’s population of
more than 60,000. As Ushuaia is commonly
regarded as the “southernmost town,” it
leaves Puerto Williams with the title of
“southernmost village.”
Ushuaia is located in a wide bay on the
southern coast of the island known as “Isla
Grande de Tierra del Fuego.” Guarded on
the north by the Martial Mountain Range
and on the south by the Beagle Channel,
the first humans to settle in the Tierra del
Fuego date back about 10,000 years when
the Selk’nam Indians, also called the Ona,
arrived. Their southern splinter group, referred
to as the Yaghan or Yámana, occupied
the area which now is known as Ushuaia.
British missionaries founded the town
of Ushuaia in
1884, and the
town’s population
slowly
grew. However,
epidemics
including
typhus,
pertussis, and measles decimated the native
population and by 1911 the Yámana had all
practically vanished.
The original train line was constructed
in 1902 and shuffled around on wooden
rails with flatbed wagons pulled by oxen. In
1910 a steam engine was brought in and the
gauge was widened, presumably with steel
tracks. The 1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquake
caused a landslide which blocked
much of the line just two years after the
prison was
closed, so
gone were the
labourers to
remove the
blockage. The
blockage was
cleared by
non-prisoners but again closed in 1952 due
to a lack of money.
Being so close to the bottom of the world is a
special feeling, in particular when you are surrounded
by beautiful scenery and wildlife.
To boost the small population, the
Argentine government started sending reoffenders
and dangerous prisoners, as well
as political prisoners from Buenos Aires to
the new jail in Ushuaia which at this time
was known as Presidio, meaning “the jail at
the end of the world.
The prisoners were subjected to hard
labour both inside the prison grounds and
outside. As forced colonists, they spent
much of their time building the new town
of Ushuaia with timber collected from the
lush forest around the town. They also constructed
a short railway to transport rock,
sand and timber to expand the prison and
the town.
Fast forward to 1994 when the line was
reopened and upgraded, with the addition
of a new steam engine from England. Now
known as the “Southern Fuegian Railway”
or “End of the World Train,” it serves champagne
and dinner to tourists on a short ride
along Pico Valley in the Toro Gorge. At the
Macarena Station passengers learn about
the Yámana indigenous people and then
continue on through the scenic Tierra del
Fuego National Park.
Guess what? It is indisputably labelled
as the “southernmost railway in the world.”
The original jail, closed in 1947 by President
Juan Perón, today serves as a museum
known as the Museo Marítimo de Ushuaia,
which is the southernmost museum in the
world, we assume! One of the cells known
as the Ala Histórica remains almost intact
to demonstrate the mysterious and dark
atmosphere inside the cells, complete with
memorabilia from the last prisoners who
lived here.
Another pleasant day trip is to explore
the Beagle Channel and Lapataia Bay by
boat. The channel, named after the explorer
Charles Darwin’s ship which sailed here in
1833-34, separates Isla Grande de Tierra
del Fuego from the southern islands of Navarino,
Nueva, Lennox, Picton, and many
other smaller islands.
Lighthouse, Beagle Channel.
As your boat sails past the Les Eclaireurs
Lighthouse and many islands, look
out for breeding colonies of sea lions, imperial
cormorants, dolphin gulls, and steamer
ducks.
Feature • Argentina | 31