Not Gonna´ Get Carsick

Chris and I have embraced all things tourist in Ushuaia and we’ve included 4x4ing across a pristine lake, kicking up exhaust and fumes, onto our list. Whenever I read about the environmentally friendly tourist activities around the world, 4x4ing is at the bottom of the list, along with ATVs, human trafficking, and poaching. But we’re in a spot where, to quote an English guy on our trip, “they haven’t quite destroyed it to the level we have back home” so 4x4ing is embraced.

We left the hostel at 8:40am with an Australian couple that were staying in the same dorm as us, and joined an English couple, and Austrian teacher, and an older Australian woman who had completed her Antarctic cruise the day before. Our guide was Sebastian, an Argentinean from Mendoza who looked a lot like the English actor Jude Law, which made my trip more enjoyable. We were in a 2007 Land Rover, and four of us were crammed in the back seat, two seats together on each side, facing in. About 20 minutes into the drive, Chris’ back had a spasm due to the uncomfortable seats.

Our first stop was a husky breeding farm. The company (Nunatak) breeds sled dogs for competitions and tourist activities and there were a bunch. The puppies (up to one year old) were caged and the older dogs were tied up outside. They probably could have used some more room to run around, but they had great views and live better than 95% of the dogs I have seen in South America.

After the dog farm, we started the off roading. Logging is a huge industry in Ushuaia with big companies still cutting down trees. They have to keep 40% of the forests available on their land each year that they harvest the trees. So there are tons of trails cut by the companies and we took one down to the largest lake in the region, Lago Fagnano. Which, when pronounced by our guide Sebastian, sounded like Lake Funyun. Lake Funyun is HUGE and cuts between Argentina and Chile. There is a lot of trout fishing in the area and you can pay big bucks for a private area. Sebastian said they were fishing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger one year; the Austrian in our group was impressed.

Anyway, the off roading was good. I didn’t get car sick which is a miracle because I usually do. I bumped my head and knees a bunch and no seat belt was available so we were all jostled around. The goal was the tilt the truck to almost a 45 degree angle and I think that goal was met a few times. We headed down into the lake and drove on that for awhile too. Our truck was new and didn’t have a snorkel so we couldn’t go deep but one of the other trucks (there were three in our group) went out far.

We stopped for lunch, which in Argentina lasts about three hours. They piled a ton of meat (sausage and steak) onto a BBQ and there was wine, salad, bread, and dessert. A family of red foxes lived near the BBQ site and we quickly found out why, as some of the group from Buenos Aires began feeding the foxes. I hate it when people feed wild animals and we asked them to stop but they wouldn’t. Our guide said this was the mentality of most Argentineans on vacation… they don’t leave behind only footprints and take only pictures.

After the lunch, we went to another part of the lake for canoeing. Chris’ back was really bothering him but he was a trooper and went with me around the lake. It was flat which made me happy, because I didn’t want to tip over in that cold cold water. I like it out here because you don’t have to sign a bunch of “I promise I won’t sue you if I get hurt” forms. We were asked if we knew how to canoe, we said that we guessed we did, and then we were put in canoes. Everyone made it out OK and I appreciate the lack of safety restraints here.

After the canoeing, we off roaded some more. We went on part of the old Trans American highway that ran from Alaska to Ushuaia. The road is hardcore; very steep, dusty, and unpaved. Buses and trucks used to road until the 1970’s when the government was tired of too many people dying on the road and shut it down. If I was on a bus on that road, I would get out and walk. It was another 45 minutes back into town on the nice new paved road and the whole trip cost us $220 pesos, which is appox. $73 US… a fair price for lunch, canoes, and off-roading.