Ushuaia: A Long Way From Home

Most of my flight to Ushuaia was over water, but as the plane approached, the land started to unfold beneath us, showing off mountains and winding rivers. When we landed, I could see a town in the distance that looked just like Canmore. The airport was even a wooden lodge with a peaked roof! Right away, I felt at home.

After 40 degree weather in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Ushuaia was a nice change. It's summer here in February, so the temperature was around 15 degrees each day, and I was lucky to have lots of sunshine. The wind that blows in from the water is cool and smells like fish. Many boats come in and out of the harbour each day to bring supplies, fish, and people on cruise ships. Ushuaia is the town the furthest south in the Americas, and they like to call themselves 'The Tip of the World.' It definitely felt that way because all around you is barren (empty) land. Instead of lush green trees, there are lots of greyish bushes, and orange lichen grows on the rocks. It looks very similar to pictures I've seen of the Canadian North in summer.

If you remember back to my post on longitude and latitude lines (click here for a reminder), Ushuaia is 54.8 degrees South of the Equator. That means Ushuaia is roughly as far south from the Equator as Grande Prairie, Alberta is North of it (at 55 degrees North).


Think about that: Ushuaia is the furthest point south that you can go in South America, but in North America, you can go a lot further north and still be on land. There's still Northern Alberta, and then the North-West Territories above it. So even though we might think that Ushuaia would have similar weather to the Canadian North, it's really not far enough away from the Equator for that.







The other neat thing is that the further you are from the Equator, the longer the days are in summer (meaning the more hours of sunlight you have in a day), and the shorter the days are in winter. In Calgary we notice this. It gets dark as early as 5pm in winter time, but in June and July it can stay light until 10pm. The further you are from the Equator also means that the sun rises and sets slower in the sky. (Earlier in my trip, when I've been close to the Equator in countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Malaysia, I couldn't believe how quickly the sun set!) For my first night in Ushuaia, it was clear enough that I enjoyed the most beautiful sunset I'd ever seen...and it lasted for over an hour!

From Ushuaia, I also spent a day hiking in the Tierra del Fuego National Park to see the beautiful scenery and walk as far south as you're allowed in South America. It is where the highway ends that links Alaska to Ushuaia (that's one really long road!).