Friday, January 28, 2011

We had a fabulous day in Ushuaia, the city at the bottom of the World. It reminded me of a Colorado mountain town and is my favorite port city so far. The city population is 64,000 and as the world's southernmost town, lies on the triangular-shaped island of Tierra del Fuego. Its steep streets overlook the green watera of the Beagle Channel, named after the ship on which Charles Darwin (Origin of the Species) sailed in 1832. We went on an Ensemble Experience with our umbrella travel company and toured the area. Ushuaia was founded in the late 1800's as a penal colony for Argentina's most dangerous criminals. The legendary Jail at the End of the World was constructed in 1902 and continued until 1920. It was closed in 1947 and today it is a museum that shows the life of the inmates. Next was a visit to the End of the World Museum which housed a collection of exhibits relating to the first settlements of the area, the expeditions, the shipwrecks and the origins of the first men to venture into populating these latitudes.
Last was a wine tasting at the Restaurant Gustino where we tasted some of the unique grapes which are grown in some of the southernmost wineries on earth!

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