Tuesday, January, 8th
Ushuaia
Stayed at Antarctica Hostel

Dear Obiwan,

Obi, me and Kelsey rode the rain at the end of the world today! The train was an old style train and had mock-prisoners on board. The reason they had these mock-prisoners was because of the history of the train!

So in summary, this prison was for “very bad guys,”…which in reality it was both people who did heinous crimes AND people who were put there for political reasons that actually didn’t do anything wrong, but just disagreed with the leaders of the world at that time. But some of the facts I can poorly remember are: the river is named after a prisoner who tried to escape and then froze to death! One person who was a prisoner there was know as “Midget Ears”…or something, and he murdered his whole family. Another prisoner set of a bomb and killed someone political…somewhere?

And also, the railroad tracks were made by the prisoners! Imagine that, building a railroad track to the prison you are staying at. Also, the prisoners chopped wood for the WHOLE CITY and you could see the tree graveyard while on the train and you could see by the height of the tree-stumps-where the the snow stopped that year.

They had both usual and cruel and unusual punishment for the prisoners. Usual being cutting wages or food portions. But some unusual punishments included only eating water and bread for weeks and one where- you are LEFT OUTSIDE IN A DARK ROOM IN WET CLOTHES! But this was ruled as mal treatment sometime later, and was not allowed to be used anymore.

This park- Tierra del Fuego, is the only national park in Argentina that has forest, mountains, and the sea!

Once off the train, our first stop had a beautiful waterfall and souvenir shop, I bought a penguin snow globe! After this the train stopped at the beginning of the park. I chose to get back on the train and Kelsey chose to explore and hike around.

The train I took back was different, it was smaller but still so beautiful. I was told on the train back that there was a legend about the Calafate berries, if you eat one, you will return back to those lands! I ate one in Torres del Paine…so I guess I will return there one day?

After a sleepy train ride back I realized at our pretty hostel and then Kelsey returned! She said she went to the post office at the end of the world in the park! So cool!

On our way to lunch, LOOK WHO I MET:

We then headed to a bunch of museams in Ushuaia!

Oh, ha, see those penguin mannequin heads? I accidentally knocked one over and it went FLYING across the gift shop, I had to chase after it and put it back on Obi!🙈

And I WANTED EVERY SOUVENIR OBI BUT I COULDN’T because I would break it or it can’t fit in my bag but look!:

Back at the hostel we met Tim, this really awesome guy from Tennessee. He laughed and felt so bad when I discovered it was HIM who snored very loudly last night and woke me up. He apologized and told me he owed me a drink.

Look at our hostel Obi…yes, that is a cat, but he is not as cute as you don’t worry!:

While chatting with Tim, these two chefs (yes both are CHEFS) from Switzerland came to the hostel who Tim had already met. The chefs were Chris and Maël and were friendly and funny. Lastly, another one of our roommates Jerimi, from…France? I think, joined us as well.

A few hours later our new crew were off to go out in Ushuaia!

Some photos on our way to the ice bar!:

Our first stop was the famous Ice Bar. This place is an ACTUAL ICE BAR. I have been to a bar where the bar was made out of ice…but never an actual, like, IGLOO!

How it works is you pay one price and they provide those ponchos with fur hoods and mittens, and then you have 30 minutes to drink as much as you can! So the first thing we did was, take shots! It was so much fun here Obiwan. All these guys were so nice and fun.

Get ready for a bunch of Ice Bar Photos Obi!:

A

After this, on our way to dinner, LOOK AT THIS AMAZING PENGUIN MURAL!:

We then we arrived to our dinner restaurant. It was a nice and comfy restaurant. We had a few bottles of wine for all of us and a lot of food. Tim and I shared our food which was perfect, I got Pasta Alfredo and he got steak and eggs and friends and we shared all of it.

OH AND GET READY OBI. Guess what food I tried tonight, crab…something? Cold Seafood bowl? Lobster bowl? I don’t know…But I liked it! It didn’t look like a crab and that’s so much easier to try!

After our amazing dinner we headed back to the hostel and had more drinks and played some card games. On the way back from the hostel we met Thiago who was from Brazil, who was also at our hostel. He was super friendly, warm, and funny. Our group just kept getting better.

After playing Kings, of all games! We went to bed.

What a wonderful day Obi.

Goodnight my Jedi,

Love, Tú Madre,

Carly