Nieve y Fuego

Coming to you from the southernmost city in the world! Bienvenidos a Ushuaia, el fin del mundo. Beth and I arrived here Saturday at about noon after having stayed up most of the night (or in my case all night) packing up and getting ready to head out. We still have two days in the city after we leave Tierra del Fuego, but I won't be living in Marta's house anymore, and my South American life is once again packed away into two carry-ons and a rolling suitcase so large my whole family could probably have a party in it. This time there's a large duffel bag added to the mix to help distribute excess weight, and hopefully I won't go back to the northern hemisphere with my bank account having been lightened by the heaviness of my bags (see what I did there?).

So far this place is amazing, and although I feel pretty incredibly lucky to get to experience it, I'm not sure if I could live with so little sunlight for such a big chunk of the year. It's the beginning of winter now, and the sun only crosses about a quarter of the sky, maybe not even, per day- sunrise happens at around 10 AM and sunset at about 5 PM. Even after a full night's sleep, 10 AM feels like 6. Crazy. I think we've both taken at least one nap per day. Also really interesting is how warm it is for how low the latitude seems- daytime temps average about 34 Fahrenheit, which means that the cold isn't unbearable, but makes it just warm enough every day that the very top layer of snow on the ground will melt slightly and turn all the sidewalks into sheets of ice for the next day once the nighttime freeze hits. So far I haven't fallen like a fool (fingers crossed) but I do feel like Bambi on a frozen pond everywhere I go.

 Snow pants.

The past few days we've ridden in dog sleds, trekked across a valley in snow shoes, taken a boat tour of the Beagle channel, explored the port, eaten lots and lots of polenta, which I am currently obsessed with, drunk mate, and snowboarded down the street outside the hostel last night in the fresh snow. Tonight we're planning to do some ice skating, and tomorrow we'll be making the most of the last day taking a long walk/hike through the national park and going to the Martial glacier to do some real snowboarding. Excited!! Time in Argentina is almost up. But shh, we don't talk about that, and it feels too unreal anyway.