Just thought I´d mention another highlight of our stay in Ushuaia: our B&B. As it turned out quite appropriately, named Tango B&B.
When booking it a while ago, as with most bookings, it was simply a matter of budget and bookability over the internet, cross-referenced with a few reviews from other travellers. Tango B&B looked like a great option based on these things so I booked it, figuring the Tango part was just a hobby of the owners or a funky name.
Turns out the owners take it a step further than that: the second night we (and the other guests) were invited to their “Tango night”. This consisted of him playing a whole bunch of Tango´s on his piano accordeon as part of a “history of Tango”, followed by some simple Tango lessons for beginners, all over a few glasses of nice red wine of course. Very cool. He did an awesome job on the piano accordeon (turns out he´d been playing for over 50 years, or since he was 5 or so, followed by a professional career as a player and composer) and the dance lessons were good fun too (although more laughs than serious dancing, especially after Justine had a couple of glasses of wine 
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If ever in Ushuaia (hey, you never know), I can highly recommend it!
Or so you´re reminded on just about any street corner, billboard, t-shirt, mug, souvenir and other otherwise blank surface. If it doesn´t say End of World or Fin del Mundo, then invariably it will be something like “Southern-most <insert product trying to sell to tourists>”. I´m thinking one last spot they could remind tourists is on toilet paper, perhaps with a slogan like “Ushuaia: the arse-end of the world”.
Anyway, with a climate to match (wearing winter jackets in summer is always interesting), you have to admit you do feel like you´re running out of mainland a little bit. With a harbour full of boats about to head off to Antarctica and a chain of mountains inland with snow on them at what I would guess be about 400m altitude (remember how it´s summer), it does give you the impression you´re in an interesting location.
We did a quick day trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park, which was nice, but a little overrated and had a few too many billboards (with “southern most… or end of…” bits). I´m guessing most places are going to struggle to impress me now I´ve been to Patagonia though.
Anyway, the highlight was probably us checking into a B&B for a few days and having a few the sleep-ins to help us recover from our recent hikes (think: our own bathroom, a double bed, a heater, powerpoints everywhere… all the mod cons we´d come to miss a little bit while camping or staying in hostels).
Unfortunately, the End of the World was also the end of our stay on the Dragoman truck after 7 weeks (all the way from Cusco to Ushuaia). We´ll defn miss all the friends we made on the truck and the whole “always something happening” atmosphere. Fortunately we´ve still got a few more adventures to look forward to, so I imagine we´ll cope. Over a few glasses of red wine. And perhaps a nice steak. Hmmm… steak.
The literature will invariably tell you this is one of the finest trekking destinations in the world and that it can get very, VERY windy. Well, consider both confirmed.
With the addition that while we were there, it rained on the days we arrived and left and there was glorious sunshine on the three days in between. Can´t help but feel that we´ve been very lucky again. And that coming back in two weeks time might be disappointing unless the weather pulls off another miracle Oh well, one way to find out.
Anyway, the walks we did included the compulsory Torres del Paine Lookout, a walk up the even better (far more varied, ie hanging glaciers, mountain streams, unspoilt forest, 360 degree views of an amphitheater including the other side of the Cuernos del Paine, etc, etc) Valle de Frances (aka French Valley) and a quick walk up the Mirador Condor with panoramic (insanely windy, could barely stand up!) views of the light blue Lago Pehoe. Awesome.
Well, it´s a glacier. A pretty cool one too (no pun intended). And it´s big. Very big. And they had some great wooden platforms where you could get fairly up close (but not too close, apparently ice launched at the crowds when the glacier calved had killed 30-odd people until they restricted access in the late sixties… wonder whether the last 29 hadn´t wished they thought of that idea a bit sooner) and get some great views.
Unfortunately the day we visited it was raining and a bus tour had been organised for us to visit it, which managed to stretch a 4hr activity (1.5hr drive there, 1hr of looking, 1.5hr drive back) out to 9 looooong hrs, including viewing platforms, scenic “treks” (200m), boat rides and photo stops. Live and learn. Although having a 10 second countdown up to the glacier first coming into view inflicted on us almost made up for it due to the “OMG I can´t believe someone thought of this” factor. I guess some days you´re just meant to feel like a tourist.
A quick preview until I put up some photos properly…
Us at Condoriri base camp (near La Paz, Bolivia):
Us on the Uyuni Salt Flats (near Uyuni, Bolivia):
Us on Lascar Vulcano at 5480m (near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile)… and yes, those are other vulcanoes in the background
Us at the Torres del Paine Lookout (Chile):
