ARGENTINA

THE BOND BETWEEN BUENOS AIRES AND CAGLIARI

On 2 February 1536, Pedro de Mendoza, a Spanish explorer, founded the Ciudad del Espíritu Santo y Puerto Santa María del Buen Ayre.
After four years, though, the natives attacked the settlers and forced them to leave the town.

In 1580, the Spanish explorer Juan de Garay founded the city for the second and final time, naming it Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Buenos Aires.
The city was baptized with this name in honor of the Madonna di Bonaria of Cagliari, in Sardinia.
That’s why Jorge Mario Bergoglio made his first trip as Pope Francis to Cagliari.

I’ve been waiting a long time and postponed too many times, but finally in 2022 I made it to Buenos Aires.

VAMOS MUCHACHOS

For me, Argentina has always been synonymous with football.
It’s not just Maradona and Messi. There have been hundreds of players who have come close to winning the World Cup for Argentina but haven’t quite made it.
Fortunately, the curse was broken in 2021 when the America’s Cup was won at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
This was followed by “The Finalissima” in 2022 and the third triumph, with the World Cup raised by Leo Messi in Doha on 18 December 2022.

And Argentina are the Barra Bravas: River, Boca, San Lorenzo, Newells Old Boys, Independiente, Estudiantes, Banfield… there are hundreds of fans who have made their teams known on the world.

PATAGONIA, TIERRA DEL FUEGO AND END OF THE WORLD

I’ve always been interested in geography.
In my experience as a traveller, I’ve been able to reach places I studied in school books.
For me, going there means being at a point of arrival.
That’s why I decided to go to Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the city of Ushuaia.

There are a number of ways to reach this southern extreme point.
I flew first from Santiago de Chile to Punta Arenas and then took the famous Ruta Nacional 3 bus route, which starts in Buenos Aires and runs all the way to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.

Ushuaia is a point of arrival, a historical geographical place like North Cape (or better Knivskjellodden), Svalbard Islands, the equator, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the data change line, Antarctica.

You can get to Antarctiva by ship from Ushuaia, which is the ideal port for this trip.
It’s on my travel list, and will definitely be a future destination.

WHAT TO DO

USHUAIA

Argentina and Chile are opposed for many reasons, so they also have to fight for the “title” of the southernmost city in the world.

There are less than 100 people living in the village of Puerto Toro, on the Chilean island of Navarino.
They are too few to take this title away from the Argentine Ushuaia, a city of 56,000 inhabitants, just north of Puerto Toro.

From the port, ships for Antarctica set sail and this makes me think I’ll be back here again.
I was here during the southern winter. It was snowing and the wind, which comes straight from the South Pole, dropped the temperature well below zero.
I love the heat, but here, at the end of the world, I’m looking forwars to experiencing this climate.

Heading up to the Martial Mountains, which are behind the city, the landscape is even more stunning: Ushuaia is nestled between the Beagle Channel, the glaciers, the snow, and the woods.

It is impossible not to participate in some of the many excursions that start here.

TIERRA DEL FUEGO NATIONAL PARK

This amazing 4-square-kilometre Argentine National Park will keep you on your toes.

The park has some amazing panoramic walkways where you can take some incredible photos of the waterfalls, rivers, beech forests, mountains, valleys, glaciers and glacial lakes.
If you’re lucky, you might even spot some of the animals that live there, like guanacos, llamas, Andean foxes, Andean condors and the stunning Patagonian peaks.
There are also marine species like mussels, scallops, crabs, sardines and jellyfish.

You can also take the ‘Prison Train’ from here.

THE TRAIN OF THE END OF THE WORLD

If Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, then everything nearby is also “the southernmost in the world”.
This applies to bars, hotels, schools, and so on.
And there could only be the train to the end of the world.
My life as a traveller is linked to the Trans-Siberian train and I had to travel on the old steam train at the end of the world.
This was the means used by prisoners to transport wood to the Ushuaia prison.
The train of the end of the world was born in 1902 to transport prisoners.
From the prison, it skirted the old city and ended its run in the forests. When there was less wood, the length of the rails in the middle of the trees increased.
This went on until 1947, when the prison was closed.
The railway line was finally abandoned in 1952, and then reborn in 1994 as a tourist train.

EXCURSIONS IN THE BEAGLE CANAL

From the tourist port of Ushuaia, various companies organize boat or catamaran excursions along the Beagle Channel.
It’s really exciting to see the city of Ushuaia disappear from view as you sail south, and the landscape is wonderful.

You’ll see hundreds of sea lions and cormorants in their permanent habitat on the islands of Los Lobos and Los Pájaros.
You can also get close to the Martillo Island beach, where the colony of Magellanic penguins nest during the summer season.
They’re very curious animals and it’s common for them to swim close to people.

When you geto to Cape Horn, you just start thinking about your next trip: further south, to Antarctica.