Llanos de Castor (the beaver plains)

The first day out of Ushuaia was a slow day. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth writing on such days, but I want to enjoy the magic of slow, gentle experiences as much as the magic of the rapid, explosive ones. By attempting to capture moments in writing, it’s my way of acknowledging how special they are and how very, very fortunate that we are to be experiencing them.

We took the highway out of Ushuaia winding east and north towards Laguna Esmeralda. The journey provided a shifting view of the mountains and their many layers. I’ve decided that the upper rocky layers (if you ignore the lush forest below) seem to be a scene from Mars – they are barren but have this ethereal marbled texture to them that seems to be most commonly used when depicting other planets.

We are staying in a cabin on the grounds of a winter adventure centre. The place is very simple, but the couch is comfy, the fire is warm, and the views of the mountains fade in and out depending on how much rain there is, and how low the clouds are hanging. The mountain over is a ski lodge, and it’s quite amazing to see the different ski paths gently carved out in the soil. Such a foreign sight without snow.

There’s a unknown number of greyster dogs (maybe twenty/thirty?) staying in the large kennel complex next door to us and one on our balcony, all who are no doubt hankering for next winter for a proper sledding runaround. They’re gorgeous dogs. Every half an hour or so, one of them starts a wolf-howl and they all join in for a few minutes of all-our choir. Some take on the low tuneless drone, some do the traditional parabola howl, and others chime in with some guttural barks. It’s quite melancholy music.

The final quirk about this lovely place is the fridge. Unlike the traditional whitegoods we’re used to, this fridge opens to an outdoor hutch – nothing more. Even in summer, the air is enough to keep food cold.

Day two out of Ushuaia was very cloudy and on-and-off rainy. When the rain was fairly light in the morning, we made our way to the Laguna Esmeralda trek where we started the muddiest, slushiest walk of my life. Dan has the balance and footing of a knight and gandered through, however I was less quick and less graceful. We made it through the forest sections, and then through the massive peat bog to the beautiful lake itself.

It was a very different colour to Laguna del Caminante. Esmeralda, at least today, is a pale milky blue. She’s surrounded closely by mountains, half of which were in the clouds. As we walked back, we got to enjoy the shapes the people in the tour groups made as they tried to pick their way through the obstacle course that was the trek.

We continued on a different walk back to our cabin, via the incredibly-placed Tierra Mayor restaurant for lamb stew lunch. This impressive house sits on the edge of a valley of shallow peat bog, giving it an uninterrupted view of the mountains on both sides.

For the afternoon, we curled up in front of the fire like cats, and read books like humans. Game of Thrones continues to be enthralling, so I allowed myself only an hour at a time before partaking in some other activity – stretching, exercise, Spanish (preterite v imperfect). My own personal summary of today in Spanish came to less than fifty words – I can be so concise sometimes. Just not when blogging.

We’re back in Ushuaia now, enjoying the best coffee in this town (Cafe Xpresso) and shelter from the rain. Tomorrow we’re on a bus to Punta Arenas, where we pick up a campervan for a week of motoring around the Torres del Paine national park in Chile. Once we’re in the heart of it, I’ll have an update more exciting than ‘hour nine of the bus trip – I finish one book and start another.’

VRPS

[Ushuaia]