Ushuaia: Fin del mundo, principio de todo

Tucked away between foothills of the Andes, right at the very bottom tip of the Americas, there’s a small city with a population of just over 80,000 people. Living conditions are harsh to put it lightly, and in winter months the sun only shines for only seven hours per day. 

It’s called Ushuaia: the southernmost city in the world.

In wintertime—as I experienced it—the city has a very strange feeling to it. Dark most of the time, snow storms galore, the occasional power outage, and a Hard Rock cafe sat in the centre of town. It is a very strange place. But that dark side to Ushuaia is part of what makes it so appealing. 

You have to be made of tough stuff to live in a place like that, the snowfall is heavy, there aren’t really any other cities close by, and even arriving in the city by plane is a hairraising task. 

Because of the geographical location of the city, and the combination of Andes mountains and Beagle channel in very close proximity, landing into Ushuaia International Airport can make for a rather treacherous flying experience. 

The funky airstreams can leave you sitting in the plane thinking it could be the last journey you take. You drop—what feels like a long way—then the pilot revs the engine and you swoop back up again, people let out a subdued scream in unison as you drop again, trying to not cause too much commotion and panic. As you look for comfort that this might be over soon, all you’re faced with out of the tiny aeroplane window are the rugged ice walls of the Andes—not a place you’d like to land. 

Obviously for the experienced—and brilliant—Aerolineas Argentinas pilots this landing was a piece of cake and no one should ever have concerned themselves with a bit of turbulence. What this landing does though, is it gives you a taste of the wild unforgiving nature of Ushuaia and its surrounding barren land. 

In keeping with the dark theme of Ushuaia, the city is well known for its former prison which housed some of the most notorious Argentine criminals over the years. 

A great way to learn about the history of the prison is to visit the actual site, which is now a museum, or take a train ride on the Tren del fin del mundo, which passes through beautiful Tierra del Fuego national park. The train journey doubles up as a history lesson about how the prisoners constructed the railways and the awful conditions in which they did it.

In terms of Ushuaia as a city, it’s quite quaint with a lot of small houses and the most beautiful scenery in the world. You feel completely isolated in the city, and the feeling of being at the end of the world really creeps up on you in a weird way. It’s incomparable to anywhere else I’ve been to.

Food wise, there’s two things you have to eat: the King Crab and the chocolate. The crab is some of the best and most fresh in the world, and the chocolate is known all over for being ridiculously tasty—although I wouldn’t recommend mixing the two. 

In Ushuaia you can also find shark in a jar, which I can’t say I was a massive fan of when trying it.

The best restaurant that I had the luck of enjoying was Ramos Generales El Almacén, a very quirky establishment, full of collected vintage items, and wooden chairs and tables. The menu is a singular blackboard which a waiter or waitress may bring over to the table, and the owner wanders around talking to tables—he’s clearly an old man that cares. 

The food is hearty and filling with the goulash being my pick of a great overall menu. The restaurant leans into the uniqueness of Ushuaia, even displaying an old prisoner jumpsuit on the wall, a nod to the city’s haunted past.