A lovely day in Ushuaia, the 'town at the end of the world'. We're staying in a lovely hostel and after a good nights sleep we had a good self service breakfast (they obviously don't get too many hungry cyclists) of coffee, bread and medialunas (croissants) and jam. We put a few clothes through the wash as we have free use of the washing machine, but were certainly both wishing that we hadn't recently spent a morning hand washing all our clothes at the campsite in El Calafate.We then wandered into Ushuaia itself to pick up a pair of ski trousers each that we are borrowing for tomorrows trip to Antarctica. Then a quick cafe stop before beginning a hike up to Glacier Martial.
We had about 7km walking along quiet roads and using paths to cut corners as the road went round hairpins, quite a few people miss this out by using a taxi, but it was a nice walk. After passing club Andino and what looks to be a winter base for cross-country skiing we opted to continuing walking the next km instead of the 50pesos each to take the chairlift. Not a bad walk and from the top of the chairlift there was about a 45minute trail up to the base of Glacier Martial at 825m. This gave us stunning views of Ushuaia and the port. We had good clear weather all day, which is lucky as it can change very quickly here. The wind is usually blowing a cold westerly wind that can bring all sorts of weather with it including rain and snow. Sometimes you get rain, sun and snow all in the same day in quick succession even in the summer. Today it was cold, especially when the sun went behind the clouds for a while, but apart from a few flakes of very fine snow as we approached the glacier the weather stayed clear.
Back at the hostel now and my face is glowing. I feel like I've spent the day outside skiing, probably all the wind chill. One more night on land then the next 11 nights will be at sea on our way to and from Antarctica.
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