Patagonia Peregrination Part 2

Okay so let me first start by saying that originally I was just going to do days in my journey, but realized about an hour and a half into today's trek that I was going to have to break today up into 3 different parts. That being said let's get to business because I have a lot of pictures and information to post.

START of DAY 2

Today I got up bright and early had my typical Argentine breakfast, that is an oxymoron trust me, and headed out. My first stop on today's adventure was El Tren del Fin del Mundo....for my non-Spanish speakers, The train of the end of the world. It sounds so dramatic doesn't it? I was so excited for this actually. The way it works is it picks you up at the original train station and brings you into the Tierra del Fuego National Park.


Now the Tren del Fin del Mundo is cool for a lot of reasons but the one that everyone knows pretty much off the top of their head if they are traveling in this region is that its the train that carried the prisoners to jail in Ushuaia. That's right a regular old prison train. Add this to the fact that the prisoners were sent to this area to build their own prison and then occupy it and you have yourself a doozy of a time trying to realize what exactly it is you are doing.


Having heard all of this information as a sort of prologue to my journey to the train I was expecting a lot. I was thinking that I was going to be herded into a train car prisoner style, maybe expected to stand, as I road the train to some remote region in Tierra del Fuego where I would find a broken down prison and maybe be able to see some sort of frozen tundra. I realize the sheer geography of me being able to see frozen tundra is a bit ridiculous considering Antartica is about 1,000 km away, but I can't help the image I had created in my mind. My imagination per usual was extremely inaccurate.


When I arrived at the train station I was actually reminded of something like a cross between Kittery Trading Post in Maine and the entrance at the Blue Hills. It was VERY touristy. This is not to say it is bad, just not anything that I was expecting. I was thinking that the place was going to be deserted, I mean what kind of crazy tourist wants to take a prison train to the end of the world right? I mean besides me obviously.


After getting over the shock of the train station I saw the train. No joke I actually thought it was a model. It slightly resembled one of those trains you would see in Storyland in both size and theme. When I was told that was the actual train I was shocked. We were then herded into the train cars which were all very nice, just again not what I was expecting. The train made a stop along the way where we were actually able to get out and walk around. There was even a waterfall and a lot of horses. I question whether or not the horses were truly wild horses as they all appeared to have been branded. The train ended in the middle of Tierra del Fuego.


Everything was more than beautiful and I have the pictures to prove it. El Tren del Fin del Mundo is definitely worth the time to go and see and enjoy, just try and go without expectations....unless of course you have read my blog and know exactly what to expect.


Without further ado some pictures from the end of the world:

 

This use to be a giant forest...then the prisoners cut it down to build the city of Ushuaia.

The station at the end of the line.....