Ushuaia, Argentina

We awoke to an incredible sunrise this morning. Well I should say I did. Noah begrudgingly stuck his head out the window only long enough to get a glance before curling back into the warmth of his sleeping bag! It seemed fitting for our final day of driving before we hit the end of the road. A monumental day indeed… It eerily reminded me of our very first morning on the road, when we awoke to a similar sunrise in the desert, only a lot colder!

Once underway we crossed back into Argentina territory relatively quickly and thankfully, back to pavement. We headed down the coast and passed through the historic town and over the river bearing the same name, the Rio Grande, home to one of the largest runs of sea run browns. Unfortunately locked down by private estancias and luxurious lodges, it was a river we wouldn’t be able to cast a line in. Even the small section of public water required an extra stamp on your fishing license that cost $75/day for a ‘conservation’ fee.

After snapping an obligatory picture with the humungous trout in town we continued on and watched as the terrain quickly changed from bleak plains to mountains, glaciers, and loads of water. We even had one more mountain pass to climb over before we could declare victory. For as much as we had thought about this day and contemplated if we would really make it here, our arrival into town came with little fan fare. We rocked out to various tunes that seemed fitting for the occasion, and gave each other a celebratory high five as we passed the sign marking the entrance of town. Once we parked we were left with a ‘what now’ feeling. We decided that a celebratory drink was in order, so we made our way to a small pub, and toasted a whiskey in honor of arriving to Ushuaia in one piece. We sat in relative silence, each contemplating the events that got us here. It was amazing to think that at this point, we were closer to Antarctica than anywhere else. The realization of just how far away from home we were was finally setting in. With a final swig of our whiskey we declared that we were now official ‘certified bad-asses’, and left to find a hostel, where we expected to find other travelers that we could maybe share our story with.

We browsed some of the local stores and ended up running into a guy that spoke pretty good English, who told us about Hostal Freestyle. It sounded exactly like what we were looking for. After a quick search we pulled up, and when we went in we were greeted by ‘Rasta Max’ who proceeded to demand that we accept a gummy bear. He was sporting dreads and the whole nine yards. When we asked about parking he was curious to know what kind of vehicle we were driving, and when he found out it was a V-dub, he immediately made us an offer! The offer was ridiculously low, but it was entertaining nonetheless!

We needed to synch up with the world, so we spent the next few hours on the computers. After dinner we returned to find a group speaking English and playing Uno. We introduced ourselves and ended up meeting Dallas from Australia, Sylvia from Arkansas, Stephen from San Diego, and Arne from Germany. They turned out to be a great group! We played Uno until the wee hours of the morning before heading off to bed, where we shared bunks with a couple of German guys that we never did really properly introduce ourselves to!

While we <i>were</i> in Ushuaia, and the self proclaimed 'end of the world', we hadn't actually made it to the official 'end of the road'. To remedy that fact we left the hostal and headed towards Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, where Ruta 3 actually comes to an official end. An hour later and a few more miles of bumpy gravel we were at the farthest point south that we could drive on the road. Anything further would require a boat and involve the continent of Antartica. More pictures were required, then we sat in amazement, just looking at the van, wondering how two gringos with mediocre Spanish and mechanical skills were able to get themselves this far from home. 18,723 miles and 134 days on the road to be exact. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.