Date:         Tue, 13 Feb 2001 08:33:54 -0600
Reply-To:     Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET>
Subject:      they make it  to Tierrgo del Fuego
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Volks,
    This group left from the east side last summer.   I
returned from vacation and this note was in my mail.
Sorry if someone else posted this info.
    In the note I received said they are 16,776 miles
from West Virginia.
Darrell


February 9, 2001 - Bahia Ensenada, Parque Nacional
Tierra del Fuego near Ushuaia, Republica Argentina

Here we are finally in Parque Nacional Tierra del
Fuego, some 12 miles W of Ushuaia. We are at the end
of Ruta Nacional Numero 3 which is the road that
brought us here. For us, it was the culmination of our
goal to drive as far S in the world that one can go by
road so we popped a bottle of champagne and sprayed
our vans which carried us here while we danced and
cheered in front of the sign announcing the end of
route 3. Some tourists who were walking by gave us a
round of applause.

The town of Ushuaia is on the shore of the Beagle
Channel across from Isla Navarino which is Chilean.
The town is backed by year-round snow capped mountains
which rise to no more than a few thousand feet but
appear to be tall like the Rockies in the US because,
like the Rockies, they are young mountains---jagged
and barren at their tops. Just below the snow are
scree slopes of loose rock which are colonized by many
different types of flowers and mosses. Below that,
just under the tree line, begins a thick miniature
forest of lenga or southern beech. A few hundred feet
further down, the trees grow taller and then further
down the slope begins the outskirts of the city.

Ushuaia offers not much to travelers like us but
plenty to the tourists that arrive by the
boatload...T-shirts for $18 to $28, a cup of coffee
for $3 or a small ice cream for $2 and this is not at
the Ritz-Carlton either. One thing we learned fast was
to stay away from drinks in eating places-cokes are $2
and a liter of beer is $4. We on the other hand ate at
the cafeteria at the TIA supermarket which was
reasonable.

The weather was-how do I say this---different. Kai had
his bathing suit ready to go to the beach because he
heard it was mid-summer here and where he grew up 55
degrees N near Hamburg, Germany, there was a summer
and it was warm and you could go to the beach.
However, here in Ushuaia four days ago there was a
blinding snowstorm.

Three days ago, approaching town, everyone was
thrilled and excited to finally reach our
destination-Ushuaia! We looked and looked for the
"Welcome-Bienvenidos-Bem Vindo-Willkommen to Ushuaia"
sign. We even had on our party hats and the champagne
was chilled and we were ready to pop the tops on our
imported (from Chile) beer. Guess what..NO DAMNED
SIGN. No sign of a sign anywhere! Three days later, we
still haven't found the damned sign! We couldn't even
get our resident artist, Jozey, to make a sign!

And to fellow travelers who plan to do this trip, do
it, but bring your own sign!

Larry & Will, Kai & Valeria and Les, Vicki & Jozey