El Fin De Mundo-The end of the world

2-3
Had a liesurely breakfast at my fancy hotel and then took a cab to the airport. I couldnt find Ximena, so I wrote her a thank you card to have someone give her b-c she had been very helpful. But she happened to be at the gate when I was boarding and she gave me a big hug and then a couple Argentine kisses. The argentine kisses are much more involved than the european kisses which are often just cheeks touching and a kissing sound. In argentina, they give you the full on kiss. You can imagine that special ted likes this!
The flight into Ushuaia was gorgeous. We had to circle around several times for some reason, so we got to keep flying over the snow-capped mountains. The landing strip is just one runway on a little spit of land on the beagle channel. When I exited the airport, I walked into town. One of the beauties of not having my big luggage was that it was easy to walk the 5km into town. Ushuaia is small so they didn´t have buses, and I wouldn´t pay a taxi for 5k or less. Turns out it was great I walked bc the views were spectacular. The area is supremely gorgeous. You had to walk on this isthmus to get to town with the ocean on both sides and tall, glaciated, steep, and very pointy mountains rising on all sides. One of the mountains was a mountain of dreams. It looked like that perfect mountain you see before watching a movie with one of the producing companies...but can´t remember which. It was just so cool to see snowcapped peaks rising right out of the ocean.
My hostel is very cute and nice. I met 3 american girls (one from CU) studying spanish in BA as well as Lisa (english name) and Japanese girl getting ready to sail to Antarctica on a cruise. The girls were so fascinated with Antarctica and that you can actually live there and that it is pretty normal really with bars and gyms, etc. The town is nice, with just one main road. Ushuaia is the jumping off point for cruises to Antarctica and there are lots of people walking around proudly with their antarctic patches and stuff. I am not a one-upper kind of person, but I have to admit I felt a bit of pride to see all these people who had paid a lot for a cruise to Antarctica thinking they were the coolest, since not many people do them, and to know inside that I had actually lived there! Just FYI b-c a few friends, mainly the Jovial Bison, had been wanting to do an Antarctic cruise. This time of year, which I think is towards the end of the time to go, I saw in the window signs for 10 day to 3 week cruises for 3000 to 3900 bucks. Don´t know what it includes or how good and didn´t want to ask for fear of being convinced to go since you know me and my live for snow, ice, mountains, and wildlife. These tours go to more of what I call the soft portion of Antarctica, the palmer peninsula and south georgia island. The scenery here is nicer, more icebergs, and much more wildlife than Mcmurdo and through channels with huge mountains, and I can imagine someday I will do one of these cruises if I never end up working at palmer. I think one of the best trips you can probably do
2-4 Woke up to pouring rain and still not luggage, and I was feeling a bit bad. Just hung out at the hostel with some folks and then decided to go for the hike to the glacier Martial after lunch b-c it had started to clear up a bit. It was still a bit drizzly and cloudy, and keep in mind I didn´t have my umbrella or rain jacket yet, but I couldn´t be kept in the hostel all day or I would go crazy considering the stress of the bag as well. It is 7km up to the chairlift of the ski area, and then from there I just hiked to the top of the ski hill instead of taking the chair. Going through the forest (not much forest bc tree line is so low down here) was nice bc it is beginning to be fall colors down here. As I continued up the mountain after I reached the top of the ski hill, the sky started to brighten, and all of a sudden the mountain and glacier in front of me opened up! It was gorgeous, and they had received quite a lot of new snow. I kept hiking and all of a sudden the mist below me, ascended quickly right through my elevation and then disappeared leaving a stunning view down towards Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. What a view! When I got to the glacier, a small one, maybe wider, but shorter than Andrew´s glacier in RMNP, but definitely thicker, I decided to keep going to the top of the mountain. I hiked a bit on a part of the glacier I knew was safe and then made it to a ridge, white with fresh snow, where I continued to the top of the peak. When I crested the peak, my jaw dropped. The view on the other side was amazing. Jagged peak after Jagged peak after Jagged peak, all with hanging glaciers clinging to their steep slopes. Of course on the other side was sunny Ushuaia and the beagle channel with mountains on the other side of the channel in Isla Navarino (Chile). This was the argentina of dreams with those amazing irradically pointy peaks! I had some fun glissading down the glacier and even with the late start made it back to Ushuaia town in time to buy some bread at the panaderia and make it to 8pm Sunday mass. I feel very blessed and lucky to have had the weather open up right as I got to the glacier b-c the views were just tremendous!

Ushuiaia is known as the end of the world b-c the southernmost road ends here. You cant (supposedly, but I guess they don´t know about the vans in mcmurdo) drive a car any farther south than here. This is where the road ends! A lot of bikers are here who have motorbiked from N. America down to here, traversing all of the americas. I met two guys from Colorado who had started in Denver to make it down here. From here, there is a sign (17,000km) to Alaska. One heck of a journey

3-5 Still calling and trying to deal with baggage issues, but will be taking a boat trip later this afternoon.