Chimu adventures’ Miles Buesst describes Ushuaia – right at the very bottom of Argentina.
Population: 74,000
No. of Irish pubs: 2
Ushuaia, as everyone knows, declares itself as ‘the most southerly city in the World’ and gateway for Antarctica expeditions. Its remoteness made it an ideal spot for a prison colony from 1884 to 1947: the inhospitality of the surrounding terrain was a sufficient deterrent to escape, just like Devil’s Island for the French or Tasmania for the British.
It also gives marketers an ideal opportunity for evocative names, one of the most notable being El Tren del Fin del Mundo – the End of the World Train – a narrow-gauge railway built by prisoners in order to help with the transport of materials, mainly wood, from the surrounding forest to the burgeoning town. Now, artfully converted into a tourist

Ushuaia
attraction, it is a very pleasant hour-long journey through the Fuegino countryside, with a history of the train piped into the carriages with a trilingual voiceover: the English voice used is so posh, it would embarrass the Queen!
The train ride is combined with a trip to Tierra del Fuego (‘Land of Fire’ – another slogan-writer’s dream!) National Park, which is wonderfully located, abutting the Beagle Channel, the Martial Range, which are part of the Andes, and the frontier with Chile. There are countless sensational walks to be had here and a must on an Ushuaia tour; and this is also where the Pan-American Highway ends (or begins, depending on how you look at it), so be on the lookout for motor homes, cyclists or motorcyclists making this classic, trans-Continental journey. Their state of bedragglement should indicate whether they are starting or ending their journey!
Overall, the city is a wonderfully interesting destination and perfect for an Ushuaia stopover tour before or after an Antarctic expediton.


















