Ushuaia, Argentina

Greetings, coming from Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, city of Ushuaia, province of Tierra del Fuego, country of Argentina. Leighton and I have had quite an interesting experience so far in this so called “Land of Fire”, with a hand full of adventures to tell about. Tuesday the 13^th of December, we left the city of El Calafate at precisely 4 a.m. With the arrival to Rio Gallegos at 8 a.m. From there we had to wait about an hour just to board another bus headed for Ushuaia (The Southernmost City in the world). We arrived to the city about 8 p.m. We had to switch buses in a little city on the island called Rio Grande, the bus we got onto had a big protection mesh on the windshield, which didn’t seem to help much being as there were cracks and holes throughout the whole thing. From there it was about another 4 hours on dirt roads straight through the mountains in order to arrive to Ushuaia. It was a great ride, however uncomfortable. When we arrived to the entry point of the city, it was everything I had been expecting since the desire to go there was formed in my mind. We came flying up through the mountains in the bus, and all of a sudden we get to a clearing in the mountains. Just to see the little port city surrounded by tall snow peeked mountains and a pretty big bay filled with big fishing boats all the way down to your normal sailboat. It was gorgeous, and immediately I loved it here. The weather could be better here though, the Lady in the Hostel was saying you can see the three seasons which they have in one day here. We are about 5 days from being in summer and the sun rises at about 4:15 a.m. and sets at about 10:15 p.m. and is light until about 11:00 p.m.

We met these Israeli’s on the bus trip to Ushuaia, there were a bunch of them. Leighton and I were trying to figure out what language they were speaking, but couldn’t do it. So we started talking about world politics (a subject which he is brushed up on pretty well). Well one of the Israeli girls was apparently listening in on our conversation, because while we were talking, we got caught up on a word, suddenly she turns around from where she was seated and blurt out “Jury”. Leighton and I just looked at each other and then said to her, “ Thank you very much”, she replied with a “You’re welcome, it’s just, I agree with what you are saying”, “Great” said Leighton. So that sparked up a little conversation between the three of us, and we found out she was from Israel. Well when I heard that, my ears perked up, because I want to live there one day and I immediately realized it was Hebrew that they were speaking. I told her that, but I don’t think she believed me until later when I said I was serious that I really do have a desire to live there one day and that I wanted to move there and learn Hebrew and everything else. That gave me an opportunity to share with her why I had that desire, and I said “Because it is the land of Jehovah, and He loves it, and if He loves it, so should I.” “Also, one day the Savior of the world was born there, lived a perfect life, and then died there for you and for me”. Well, she acted very interested in all that she was hearing, but I mean that was no news to her, being a Jew and all. She knows that stuff. But she’s not saved, so she has no hope. So we arrived to Ushuaia still talking and she wanted to do stuff with us here. We went to this hostel and there was four beds in one room, two for Leighton and I, two for the other two girls. Well, she wanted to go in on the deal together; well I knew that would not be a good idea. So they stayed there and Leighton and I went to a Hostel down the road, which turned out to be nice. She wanted to meet back up with us though to go to a bar, there came the Holy Spirit again to my rescue and I knew that was also a bad idea. So we kind of gave them the idea that we might return, but what we should have done is just said “no”. Any way we ended up not going back to see them, which is probably a good thing. I can’t even remember their names, they were very hard to pronounce (I’m so bad). When we got to the Hostel, there were only two beds available and they were in a joint room with two other backpacking strangers. We paid 23 pesos each for one night, breakfast, and free Internet. It worked out very well, I had probably the best night sleep on this whole trip (because it was in a bed!), even though it was only about 6 hours. We had stayed up until about 2:45 that night just chilling out, talking to the people, and looking at some pictures on the computer. We came across this Lady from England; she was just a lost traveler. She was funny, but lost. Leighton and I talked to her for probably two hours, just sharing talking about places she had been, as well as what our plans were. We came across this girl from Holland, she was very pleasant and fun, also there were two guys from the states that had studied in Mendoza (another Province of Argentina) for the past 5 months. The Lady that owned the Hostel said that almost all her guests were from Israel, it was very enlightening. I think Leighton and I have had our eyes opened by being here in Ushuaia. It seems like everyone we have talked to has been traveling South America for 5 months to 1 year, it just amazes me how these people live, they just go from one place to another, and it’s not rare either. We figured out that the whole world is like this, traveling maniacs, that all know more than one language. I think a lot of people in the states are very closed of to the idea of traveling, or learning another language. Also, Leighton and I were sort of coming into this trip kind of with the thoughts that no one else would be traveling by bus from here to the states, and that’s true to a certain extent. But what we have found out is what we’re doing is normal down here. I mean we have met people from all over the world already in just one week of being on the trip. But this is what so many people are doing, traveling, and just passing the time by doing nothing and it’s meaningless. I mean, I watched these Israeli’s in the Hostel to see how they lived their lives, and I realized something, that they are just like the rest of the world, which is dying and on there way to hell. They cooked food, smoked, and drank. That’s all they did in the Hostel. I came to a realization very profound. That is, if a life is not dedicated completely to our creator and we are not into deepening our love relationship with Him, and if we are not in His work and serving Him with a one hundred percent undivided heart, then life is a waist, it is worthless, meaningless, without purpose. I just hope and pray that the Lord will strengthen me to not fail Him, but to live every day under His grace and love to be able to overcome the enemy.

Here is a great story, so we heard that if you wait until about 8 o’clock p.m. they will not make you pay to get into the National Park. So we hired a minivan called (Combi) to take us there at about 8:15, therefore saving about 20 pesos each. So we were saying to ourselves “This is great”. Well our driver said he could only take us to the entrance of the park, but he said that our campsite (Camping Lago Roca) wasn’t that far of a walking distance from the entrance, also if he dropped us of there it would be even cheaper for us. Again we said to ourselves “This is great”. Well, we arrived at the entrance, our driver dropped us off and said “Chau!” we started walking thinking it would be a great walk to the campsite. All of a sudden we see a sign on the side of the road that read like this: “Camping Lago Roca 9 Kilometros” that would be about 8 miles. At that point our mouths dropped and we started laughing hysterically and just saying wow this is great. We thought we would not get to the campsite until about 5 hours later. Also we had bought a lot of food to cook at the campsite, so here we are walking with 60 pound backpacks on our backs and bags of food in both hands, laughing along the way, realizing we had a long walk ahead of us. Well thankfully a really nice couple from Spain drove by in a car, and quickly sticking out our thumbs, they picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. Real nice people, we ended up walking only about 10 minutes, so what seemed to be something bad turned out to be good, Thanks Lord!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Yesterday was not a very productive day until about 5 in the afternoon when we set of on a hike. In the morning we went to the end of route 3 in Argentina, which is supposed to be “the end of the world”. But in reality it is the last point where you can drive in Argentina, it is pretty south though. It was really cold, we took a couple of pictures by the signs that said “Fin de Ruta 3”. Then walked a few little trails that were nearby. We then came back to our campsite for a little lunch. After a little while we decided to go out for a little hike, we arrived to a cross in the path. Two signs which read: “Frontera de Chile 3horas. Ida y vuelta” which means “Boarder of Chile 3 hours. Round Trip”, the other one read “ Mt. Guanaco 4horas Ida” which means “Mountain Guanaco 4hours there”. So, when we were discussing which way to go, two guys walked buy and told us it was only four hours to get to the top of the mountain and to return to the campsite. So with a little persuasion on Leighton’s part we were off. Well it turned out to be more than a four-hour hike there and back. We ran into a couple of bogs, and a lot of mud. When we got to the top, it was snowing and we could barely see 15 feet in front of us because of the fog. It ended up taking about 5 hours to the peek and back down again. It was a hard hike but very much worth it. Leighton and I figured out that both of us are way out of shape when we got back down. We got back to camp around 10:00 p.m. We ate two ramen noodles each, showered up and went to bed.

Today didn’t do much either, woke up, ate something, and stayed in the tent because it was raining. Leighton went of to go see Chile, the boarder is about an hour hike from here, I decided to stay because I didn’t want to get my only pants wet. Maybe a half-hour after he left snow started falling from heaven it was great. Now it is pretty calm, so I hope Leighton is all right. Tonight will be our last night in the “Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego”. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving from here to spend the day in the city of Ushuaia. Then Monday we will be leaving here to head for Rio Gallegos. From there we will try to get a bus that goes directly to Mendoza, Argentina. From Mendoza we will have to grab another bus going to Santiago, Chile. From Santiago we will be getting on the final bus that will take us to Valparaiso, to hopefully spend Christmas with Christine, but if not with her, there is someone else there that wants to spend some time with us. I’m not sure when we will end up arriving there, but hopefully we will get there a couple of days before Christmas.