14 Curious facts about Ushuaia, the city at the end of the world

Located in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia is the southernmost city on our planet. It has beautiful landscapes, penguins, sea lions, a glacier, a historic prison and even a lighthouse that inspired the writer Jules Verne. Today we will tell you some interesting facts about this mysterious and distant land, also called “the city at the end of the world”.

O awesome.club wants to invite you to know some curious facts about this beautiful place.

Ushuaia is located in Tierra del Fuego Big Island🇧🇷 It has an international airport that is considered one of the 15 most beautiful in the world, according to the magazine “Travel and Leisure”. It is also possible to reach the place by boat: the city receives about 375 cruises throughout the year. And finally, it has land accesses throughout Chilean territory and a ferry service, but this depends on the weather and tides.

Ushuaia is surrounded by the Martial Mountains chain, which allows visitors to enjoy a landscape of snowy peaks from the very center of the city. It is important to remember that this is one of the windiest places on the planet. Before starting any of the trips to visit the different points of interest, we must take into account some details:

Onion style: it is advisable to wear clothes in layers “onion style”, so that it is easy to remove them. The climate of the place is unstable: there may be a drizzle and, a few minutes later, the sky may suddenly clear, causing the temperature to rise.
jackets: it is essential that they are warm and preferably waterproof. Not only will they be useful
on excursions, but also within the city.
Confortable clothes: many of the excursions involve long walks, so it will be important to have thermal pants and socks and good waterproof shoes.
Accessories: tight woolen hats that don’t get lost when used in that place with constant wind. Gloves, scarf, sunglasses and sunscreen (the latter is very important). To finish: a small backpack with drinks and some sandwiches.

One of the most interesting places in Ushuaia is “The lighthouse at the end of the world”, site that inspired Jules Verne’s novel of the same name, written in 1901 and published 4 years later, a few months after the author’s death. But the site of the original lighthouse is located on the island of the States, and its real name is “Lighthouse of San Juan de Salvamento”. Access to this point is very difficult and extremely risky, taking into account the fact that, in addition, the original building was destroyed for many years🇧🇷 Several boats take tourists to visit the “Les Éclaireurs” lighthouse. This one is located on the Beagle Channel, and opened in 1920, so it could not have been visited by Jules Verne, but it is used as a symbolic landmark, as it was very similar to and close to the lighthouse that actually inspired the talented writer.

This is one of the places that tourists can visit on the same day of their arrival, since it is located a few meters from the city, and you can get there by walking. The prison, known as “At the end of the world”, changed its location several times: first it was built in San Juan de Salvamento and then in Puerto Cook, but in 1902 it was decided to install it in the city of Ushuaia, where, in that At the time, there were only 40 houses. The prisoners themselves carried out the construction of the prison, which housed 600 prisoners. In 1947, citing inhuman issues for the lives of detainees, the government decided to close the prison, where at that time not only criminals were incarcerated, but also political prisoners. Today, the building that was declared a National Monument in 1997, it is well preserved and functions as a museum.

In this prison he served part of his sentence the most famous serial killer of Argentina, Cayetano Santos Godino (“El Petiso Orejudo”), found guilty of several violent crimes. Another prisoner was Mateo Banks, accused of having killed his entire family in 1922, in the city of Azul. Also serving time there was Ukrainian immigrant Simón Radowitzky, for carrying out the bomb attack that killed police chief Ramón Lorenzo Falcón. There is a myth that the famous tango singer Carlos Gardel was in this place, but there is no data that can confirm this information🇧🇷

The visit to the Martial Glacier is an excursion for the whole family🇧🇷 You can only access the place by walking, as the cable car that worked until a few years ago has stopped operating. Children and adults can take advantage of the place to zip line, cross the trees and then enjoy some of the tea houses located in the forest. Hiking on this glacier is prohibited, an activity that can be done in similar formations in other parts of the world.

Within the Tierra del Fuego National Park is the Ferrocarril Austral Fueguino, better known as the “Train at the end of the world”. A steam locomotive that travels just over 7 km in 60 minutes (the original route was 35 km). The construction and implantation of the railroad was carried out by the first convicts of the prison located in the city. He took the opportunity to take the prisoners to cut down trees and collect firewood. Currently, the locomotives are new and the wagons are designed for tourism. One of the stations where the train stops is called “La Macarena”. There, tourists can go down to contemplate the waterfall of the same name.

To get to the penguins of Ushuaia it is necessary to enter the sea. Tour companies have catamarans that first take tourists to observe the sea lion colony. From there, head towards the “Les Éclaireurs” lighthouse and from there to “Isla Martillo”, inhabited by penguins that can be seen from the boat or closer, coming down to earth and walking among them🇧🇷 Here it is also possible to see groups of furry sea lions on different islets, but you cannot disembark on them. These excursions are not available throughout the year (they only take place from October to April) and are always dependent on the weather: often, strong winds make it difficult to navigate the channel and the visit must be postponed.

In Ushuaia there are two lakes that are worth a visit: “Escondido” and “Fagnano”. It is an excursion that takes place in one day and is done by land. It is also advisable to visit the “Esmeralda” lagoon (located 12 km from the city), whose color lives up to its name. In all these tours it is important to remember that they are inside the Tierra del Fuego National Park, so you have to take care of the environment and do not leave any rubbish on the site.

Route 3 culminates your journey in Lapataia Bay. There, within Tierra del Fuego National Park, is the southernmost post office in the world. Located at the beginning of a picturesque dock, the post office offers visitors the possibility of sending a card as a souvenir from there. You too can have passport stamped as proof that you visited the site. The attraction offers tourists the possibility of camping or a day of exploration, which is ideal for observing waterfowl and walking along the coast on a less difficult path.

The gastronomic offer of the city is very varied. These are some of the delights on offer:

Black hake: also known as southern codfish, is one of the typical dishes in restaurants in Ushuaia. This fish is mainly exported.
king crab: a relative of the crab, it has an exquisite taste. It can be enjoyed with different sauces. In local restaurants customers are usually given a pair of scissors to cut the skin and eat the meat.
Trout: this dish is another of the city’s delicacies. It is fresh and cold water fish that was introduced in the region, brought from Europe.
Patagonian lamb: Patagonian lamb meat is tender and roasted on the barbecue or in the oven with sauce and vegetables. It is a lean tissue that has a very particular flavor.

During the hottest month, temperatures are close to 10°C. In winter, the thermometer shows a maximum of 1.6 °C, and it very rarely drops below −5 °C. The best time of year for tourism is during the summer, between january and february, when the sun is usually in the sky for 17 or 18 hours straight, then the nights in these months are called “White Nights”. This phenomenon causes commercial activity to extend into the early hours of the morning.

For some travelers, the city is just a waypoint for an even greater adventure. Many tour packages include a trip to the “White Continent”: Antarctica. Navigation is done in small or large ships, and the classic route takes about 10 days, but there are also excursions that take between 14 and 20 days. All ships are icebreakers with reinforced hulls to withstand the pressure ice can exert on them. The climate in Antarctica is much more extreme than that of Ushuaia, but the place has an unmissable spectacle: the aurora australis.

In recent years, a settlement even more southern grew strongly: the Chilean village called “Puerto Williams”. The right to call itself a “city” is still questioned, since it only has just over 2,200 inhabitants. But this new population, even closer to the end of the world, grows a little more each year.

Ushuaia is a city full of history and activities.

June 21th: on that date the longest night in the world is celebrated and it is almost forbidden to sleep. During this winter solstice in the southern hemisphere there is only sun between 10 am and 5 pm.
city ​​tour: Ushuaia has a colorful double-decker bus that travels through the streets on a tour of the city. Its special feature is that the unit used is a Routemaster model from 1960, brought directly by boat from England. The whole history of the city can be known in this type of transport.
Sleigh ride: in Villa Las Cotorras and in Vale dos Lobos there are two important breeding grounds for huskies. Visitors can enjoy a sleigh ride pulled by these friendly furry friends.
Brief history: the city was founded on October 12, 1884 and is named after two words from the Yámana language (native inhabitants): “Ush” (at the bottom) and “Waia” (bay). It is considered, until now, the southernmost city in the world (the most boreal is Hammerfest, in Norway) and is the capital of Tierra del Fuego. Currently, it has 58 thousand inhabitants.

Do you know this city? If you don’t know, do you want to visit?…