Our last day in summery Buenos Aires and we packed our carryon bags with puffy jackets and hats for our 3 hour trip to the southern tip of the continent.

Boarded a flight (lovely lots of room, smooth, mostly clear skies) 1500 miles south along the Atlantic Oceans’s southwest coastline to the tip of Argentina. Descending through the clouds the presence of fjords, and snow capped mountains signaled the end of summery weather and the beginning of our time in Tierra del Fuego.

Arriving in Ushuaia (population 80,000) we learned the City formerly served as a penal colony for Argentine convicts between the years 1900 or so and 1950. It is now an Argentine navy outpost and in the austral summer months- a massive tourist destination where many cruise and other ships are in transit to sights along the many local Tierra del Fuego waterways and of course, to and from Antarctica. Ushuahia is indeed the Fin del Mundo (end of the earth) and is truly the most southern city on Earth. The city has suffered from rapid growth and kitschy tourism but- on the plus side, its scenery including the jagged Martial Mountains and the famed Beagle Channel its breathtaking. Although we didnt dine in town, we heard the Southern King Crab is splendid!

Upon arrival at the tiny airport (laid out on a strip of land in the Beagle Channel) our Knowmad designated driver picked us up and drove up the mountain- framed by the pyramidal Mt Olivia to Arakur Resort where our rooms face out over the Beagle Channel.

As we were now 54 degrees south latitude total darkness came around 11:30 with sunset at 9:50pm. We enjoyed a great buffet dinner -all with these amazing views of the southernmost Andes now green with the new growth of late spring.