Three days ago we were in Ushuaia, Argentina. It started off a beautiful sunny day, the first for a long time. The wind was fierce but in the shelter of the town the sun was pleasantly warm.Carlos and I decided to catch a bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Carlos is from Cozumel, Mexico and has been struggling to cope with the cold temperatures in this region. In Cozumel the temperature rarely drops below 25 degrees celsius.

The bus left Ushuaia and made it’s way along a dirt track into the park. It dropped us off close to the Bahia Ensenada. It was a short 1.4km walk to the bay. An easy walk with lots of downhill, which meant lots of uphill on the way back. The blue skies had disappeared and I felt some drops of rain.

But it was worth it when we got to the bay. It’s a beautiful setting. The sea was a dark gray and on the opposite sides of the bay were black snow covered mountains. Above the mountains, dark clouds and streaks of falling rain. It was like someone had drawn the scene with charcoal.

We walked through the forest along by the sea. The trees are gnarled and twisted by the fierce patagonian winds. Little wisps of lichen grew on the trunks and moss covered the ground. Autumn was coming, and little splashes of brown, red and yellow appeared amongst the greenery.

This is a quiet, mysterious place. A place to sit until the noise of the few people around fades away, to contemplate the atmosphere, the gnarled trees and the distant mountains. It’s easy to imagine the time before the Spanish came, and to picture the indigenous people making their way through the silent trees. I could imagine their narrow canoes on the dark gray waters, and see them walking through the eerie forest like spirits.

We took photos and made our way back uphill to wait for the bus. It was full of backpackers and locals returning from the park. The weather was turning for the worse, and as I walked along the pier back to the ship we were hit by strong winds and a hail storm. The wind was strong enough to blow me into the sea and I felt like I’d been caught in machine gun fire.

Looking out over the Beagle Channel from Tierra Del Fuego National Park.

A few days ago I went on an excursion to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. It’s just 12km from Ushuaia, a short trip by bus. Along the way we passed by the world’s most southerly golf course, which our guide said lies under a metre of snow in the winter. Even in the middle of summer the weather was cold and cloudy, but our guide described it as a ‘beautiful day’ in Ushuaia. At only 1000km from Antarctica, I suppose this is as good as it gets.The national park, of which we only saw a small corner, was stunningly beautiful. Our first stop was the Bahia Ensenada, and we had time to walk along by the water. The path twisted up and down between gnarled moss covered trees and large grey rocks. Across the water were snow covered mountains.

Then we went to Lago Roca. There was a large campsite by the lake with lots of tents and families having barbecues. It was Sunday and a lot of local people were enjoying the park.

To finish we had a short stop at Bahia Lapataia. There’s a wooden boardwalk over waterlands with a spectacular view at the end of islands in the sea and distant mountains. The light was dark and gloomy even in the middle of the day.