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Tierra del Fuego
is archipelago, at the southern extremity of South America. In shape the
main island, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan, is a
triangle with its base on Beagle Channel. The total area is 28,473 sq mi
(73,746 sq km), about two-thirds of which is Chilean and one-third
Argentine. The boundary, agreed upon in 1881, follows the meridian 68°36¢38²
W, from Cabo (cape) Espíritu Santo on the Atlantic, and the east–west Beagle
Channel. Lennox, Picton, Nueva, and several small islands at the mouth of
the channel are disputed between the two republics.
Roads are poor in Tierra del Fuego, and there are no railways. Air services
however, link major settlements to Punta Arenas, Chile, and Río Gallegos,
Argentina. Sea communications are also important; a regular service links
Porvenir and Punta Arenas, and naval vessels supply Ushuaia and the Isla
Navarino, Chile.
There is little agriculture on the island, but oil and gas reserves have
been developed. Many textile and electronic firms have been established at
Río Grande and Ushuaia, the island's two main cities.
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Right after we arrived to Ushuaia we took a tour to
Tierra del Fuego National Park.
By the Pipo River, in a outstanding place surrounded by mountains, stands
the station of the Train of
the End of the World. It belongs to the Ferrocarril Austral
Fueguino (Southern Railway). It is a small train with capacity for 36
passengers that goes into the National Park with several intermediate
stops in different panoramic points. The train uses the original
terreplein of the old small train that worked until 1947 and that
transported prisoners from Ushuaia's jail to the saw-mills where they
worked daily. The steam trains have been specially designed and built in
Argentina for this railway. The train goes through the Pipo River across
the Quemado Bridge and makes its first stop at the De la Macarena Cascade.
Here, you can see the reconstruction of the Indian campings of the Yamanas
and Shelkman cultures, called "Rio Ajej", which recreates their
customs. In the final part of the journey, along the Canado del Toro,
there is a tourist circuit and 4.5 km from the departure point, you can
either choose to continue the visit of the park by bus or to return to the
station by train without stops. One of the outstanding parts of the park
is the Lapataia Bay, the final point of the only road that goes from
Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, 3300 km away. Here, it is sometimes possible to
embark and to combine the tour of the National Park with the navigation
through the Beagle Channel. Sailing across Ushuaia Bay, you can
admire an impressive view of the city and the mountain range that
surrounds it. At the end of the bay, the Chico Pass indicates the entrance
to the mythical Beagle Channel with its history and mystery of old
shipwrecks.
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| The End of the Transamerican Highway |
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Lapataia Bay.
We could not travel any more south |
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The southernmost railway station |
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Beagle Channel
Trending east–west, is about 150 mi (240 km) long and 3 to 8 mi wide;
it separates the archipelago's main island to the north from Navarino,
Hoste, and other smaller islands to the south. At its western end the
channel splits into two branches that encircle Isla Gordon. The eastern
portion forms part of the Chile–Argentina border, while the western
portion lies entirely within Chile. The three islands at the channel's
eastern end, Picton, Nueva and Lennox islands, were the subject of a
territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina that began in the 1840s
and which almost led to war between the two nations in 1978. The dispute
officially ended on May 2, 1985, when a treaty awarding the three islands
to Chile went into effect between the two countries. The Beagle Channel
was named for the British ship Beagle, in which Charles Darwin
explored the area (1833–34).
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| Sea Lions |
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Penguins |
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Ushuaia
- is the capital of Tierra del Fuego provincia,
Argentina, on the Beagle Channel. It lies on the main island of Tierra del Fuego
Archipelago at the southern tip of South America.
The site was first settled by Wasti H. Stirling, an
English missionary, in 1870. In 1884 an Argentine naval base was established,
and in 1893, after the archipelago was partitioned between Argentina and Chile,
Ushuaia was declared a city. Lumbering, sheep raising, fishing, and trapping are
the city's principal economic activities. Ushuaia has the distinction of being
the southernmost city in the world.
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| A view from mountainside |
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General view |
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| Main Street |
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