How to visit and what to see in Ushuaia (Argentina), door to the “end of the world”

Located in the extreme south of Argentina, Ushuaia can boast of the title of southernmost city in the world.

This feature makes Ushuaia be, for travelers, a beacon that points the way to the south.

El trip to Ushuaia It has a certain flavor of adventure since it has always been the destination of sailors, gold seekers and explorers.

Located on the banks of the beagle channel, In the Tierra del Fuego island, has all the ingredients to stimulate dreams and the desire to travel. Therefore, in addition to being a destination in itself, Ushuaia It becomes the gateway to a distant and fascinating territory.

Ushuaia, southernmost city in the world

It is not strange that when talking about Ushuaia, many say that it is located in “World's End".

Ushuaia appears at the bottom of the “inner port towards the west”, since this is the meaning of its name in the Spanish language. yagan o yamaná, one of the indigenous groups that, together with the alacalufes and about us, have populated these lands since time immemorial.

It must be specified that we say that Ushuaia is southernmost city in the world, but there are some very small towns located further south.

For example, in the same beagle channel, Puerto williams is in the Navarino Island. This Chilean settlement is slightly further south but, with less than 2.000 inhabitants, it cannot be considered a city.

View from the airplane window, Ushuaia It appears in the middle of a landscape made up of glaciers, canals and forests.

The entrance by road is less spectacular, but the trip allows us to feel firsthand the distance if we come from other towns in Argentina.

The ideal would be get to Ushuaia by boat by beagle channel, recognizing a landscape that he described Darwin more than a century and a half ago.

For him, the landscape was of incomparable magnificence. “It is hardly possible,” he wrote, “to imagine anything more beautiful than the beryl blue of these glaciers.”

This was the way we came to Ushuaia on our first trip, in a cruise through the Patagonian canals, and we can say that it is an unforgettable experience.

If you take an excursion through the nearby canals, it is possible to have that feeling, although it would have to be a bit of a long trip to really experience the adventure.

What to see when visiting Ushuaia

We must not forget that until 1957 access to Ushuaia It was only possible by sea due to the absence of roads and airports in this part of the world until very recently, so this would be the way to revive the local lifestyle until a few decades ago.

Once in the city, we find that it presents the unusual image of a high mountain town, only in this case it is located on the edge of the sea.

This tells us about the temperatures that can be reached in this area.

We can remember that the first European settlement in Ushuaia It dates back to 1869, when English missionaries settled on these shores.

The Argentines did not arrive until 1884, and copied the English model of colonization of distant and solitary territories by installing prisons in them.

It was the prisoners who cleared the thick jungle that reached the edge of the canal.

Ushuaia Maritime and Prison Museum

The prison was active until 1947, and to recover its history you have to go to the Maritime and Prison Museum, two institutions that are located in the old penitentiary.

There you walk through the corridors to which the tiny cells opened and you feel the weight of dozens of tragic stories.

In the same building, a set of ship models from the Maritime Museum It makes you think of the seafaring adventures of those who have sailed these waters.

The boats are very well made and worth spending some time viewing.

There are few buildings left in Ushuaia that convey a sense of history, like the Church of Mercy, palace of the Provincial Legislature and some other mansions.

End of the World Museum in Ushuaia

One of them, overlooking the coastal avenue that opens to the canal, now houses the End of the World Museum, perhaps the museum with the most attractive name on the planet, which reviews the natural history and life of the region's aborigines.

In reality the museum is distributed in two buildings, both on the Maipú Avenue and with great historical and architectural interest in themselves.

The main headquarters was built to house the offices of the National bank, while the other was Goverment house y Governor's Residence.

There we find maps, old photos, samples of native fauna, objects of ethnographic value, etc.

Probably the most notable piece is the ship's impressive figurehead. Duchess of Albany, which was shipwrecked in 1893 at the eastern end of the Tierra del Fuego island.

The main streets of Ushuaia They are occupied by modern buildings with little interest, but where we find tourism agencies, bars and restaurants, pastry shops, bookstores and sports equipment stores.

However, if we move away a little, we will begin to find old houses, usually small, built of wood and sheet metal, which speak to us of a not-too-distant time in which Ushuaia was pioneer territory.

In any case, Ushuaia It is never a goal, but rather a claim that then sends travelers to other places.

For this reason, as we have already mentioned, in its streets we will see many travel agencies that organize excursions and activities in the area.

Excursions around Ushuaia

This is how you can embark, for example, on the path towards Emerald lagoon or Martial glacier.

Steam train excursion to Tierra del Fuego National Park

On the other hand, the mythomaniac traveler cannot avoid going to the Tierra del Fuego National Park in a steam train, who also holds the title of southernmost railway in the world.

The trip is short, and if it lengthens it is only because of the incongruity that the departure station is already halfway there and that the train travels at the slowest possible speed.

If you do not take the organized excursion, it is very easy to do it on your own, you just have to ask at the tourist office to find out.

To do this you have to take a bus that takes you to the train station, where you buy the corresponding ticket.

With these steam train you enter into it Tierra del Fuego National Park, which protects a good portion of land that extends into the interior of the island from the beagle channel.

Normally, only a small part of the park is open to the public.

There are some marked trails that allow you to enter forests of trees with sonorous and strange names: coihue, lenga, ñire, which populate the southernmost forests in the world.

Beavers gnaw through logs and form dams in some streams. The sky is filled with the calm flight of the condors.

Hacienda Harberton near Ushuaia

Also on the banks of the beagle channel, but towards the other side of Ushuaia, is the Harberton Estate.

It is the oldest house in the entire Tierra del Fuego island, but at first glance it would be more than just another of those immense sheep farms that populate this region.

However, lovers of good stories cannot help but be attracted by the book he wrote Luke Bridges and what happened in these lands.

In it he narrates the adventures of his family, who settled on this farm, when the region was inhabited by the yaganes.

The book is obviously called The last end of the earth.