Two hitches to Ushuaia!

Argentina
1/16/2009

So leaving Rio Grande by bus costs more then our budget allows, so we had to resort to our old way of transport, Hitch hiking! We walked to the edge of town, stuck our thumbs out, and waited.... 1/2 hour went by, and we needed to change our strategy. I got a big peice of sheetrock, and wrote "Amamos Viajar X Argentina" (we love to travel across argentina) and quite rapidly got picked up by a truck, who was headed to town halfway. The ride was boring except for the occasional Guanaco, a llama relative. When we got closer to the town of Tolhuin, the view got much more interesting. We got dropped off and then headed back to the high to start hitching. Tolhuin was significantly colder then Rio Grande, and we could see snow up on the mountains, which was a chilling sign. We got our second ride quickly, because of our fancy sign, and he took us straight to Ushuaia. The last 40 minutes of the drive to Ushuaia are unbelieveable. The mountainous relief is right up next to the road, and at some points you can´t see the top of the mountains right next to you. Alos there is a lake here that is very large, and the water is soo blue, that it is very impressive. The mountains go straight down into the lake, and it is very beautiful. Rounding the final turn, we can see ushuaia, a coastal port town, and supposedly the southernmost town in the world. Ushuaia is tucked away in a pocket of mountiansthat are all snow capped and spikey. Across the bay there are more mountains, and they are also very dramatic. There are many boats in the bay, some sailboats, and some cruise boats that are headed to Antarctica(only 620 miles away). We found a nice hostel, that was absolutley packed, and made a meat filled dinner, and went to sleep.
Today we walked around most of the town, it is cloudy, windy and rainy. I expected this weather, because I read a book about this Tierra Del Fuego, and how inhospitable it can be. We walked down onto the causeway, and ate uch and watched the Kelp and Dolphin gulls. They were picking up mussels and flying into the air, to drop them frmo a height, to crack them for food. From the causeway you can see most of ushuaia, I got a picture, and Ill upload ASAP, and the mountains and dark clouds behind the town.

In our new hostel, there are many Isaelis, in the room i am in right now there are 4, and outside there are at least 4 more. They are very friendly and fun people, and there are many of them. We are yet to run into a person from the US in this part of the world... Interesting..

We will do some hiking in the area for the next few days, I will try to upload the pictures, but mostly we will rest from so much travel.