Tolkien drew Ushuaia

(this was written Sunday night)

I have just landed in Middle Earth. Ushaia is probably the most beautiful and magical place I've ever seen. Flying into the city was intensely out of this worldish. We flew in very low over the Beagle Channel, flying into the sunset surrounded by mountains. As we landed, the sun was painting in pink and orange the clouds and the mountains lining the westward Beagle Channel. When I got out of the airport, I could see that there were mountains encircling ALL of the city. At one point, on my way to the hostel, I had to ask the taxi driver to stop so I could take a picture of the sky over some eastern peaks that were pink and fushia.

The hostel that I'm in is also pretty amazing. The third floor has an amazing view of the Channel, and the mountains to the south and north. As I was sitting in the third floor common room, eating my empenadas de pollo and drinking my Quilmes beer, I thought to myself that maybe I would never leave this place!

I spent a long time travelling to get here, and now it all seems worth while. It took 22 hours to get from Esquel to Rio Gallegos, the town at the tip of the continent, before Tierra del Fuego. The ride through the southeastern part of Patagonia (Argentina), down the Atlantic coast, was a desolate one. On this side of the country, it's the pampa: miles and miles of desert with green bushy round balls of vegetation covering the ground. This runs straight into the ocean. It's complete desolation, with small towns every 100 or 200km, and some sheep grazing the little grass that they can find. People live in this place though: gauchos on huge estancias (ranches). I saw 4 of them rounding up a herd of hundreds of sheep. They're made of different stuff than the rest of us humans I think. To make this place your home, I would need lots of hallucinatory drugs.

Arriving in Rio Gallegos, I had to stay there for the night. I have a story to tell about that... but I'll save it for later. Sunday in the evening, I took a plane into Ushuaia, (it was not much more expensive than the bus... and faster, much faster).

I have lots of plans for this Middle Earth. It should be breathtaking. More soon. Je vous embrasse.