Tierra del Fuego - The end of the world, and we´re the last 3 in it

Day 2 of Ushuaia. Wow. Words can not express what I saw today. We woke up in the morning, me and m new friends Yang from Brazil and Baptiste from France. We rode to El Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, to hike at the end of the world. I literally felt like if I took a step into the water I would fall off the planet. We were at the farthest point you can get to before Antartica, which I am unfortunately not going to because a) I don´t have anywhere from $4,000 - $15,000 and b) this weather sucks, and wont be any better there.

 Today was snowing, raining, and somehow we managed to hike for 6 hours in it without dying of frostbite or sliding down the trails.  I fell in mud a couple of times, and Baptiste told me I jump like an American (oops) but it was well worth it because the views were phenomenal. The park sat around a lake, with snow covered mountains in the background and red and yellow trees surrounding the lake. The scenery changed every 30 minutes as you can see from the pictures. We were only on the hike from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm so it wasnt like we went so far, the park was just incredible.

I think my favorite part was when 2 little ducks came out of nowhere and swam across the lake. It was so peaceful there, I actually was walking without having a thought in my mind. I was completely immersed in the scenery and taking in everything around me, that I couldnt formulate a thought. then out of the blue these 2 ducks swam by and I remembered there was life out there aside from the 3 of us. Since we did seem to be the ONLY 3 people to hike the park today due to increment weather. But I am stubborn, and devloping frostbite in this city so need to move on tomorrow. My second favorite part of the day was getting my passport stamped at the ´´post office at the end of the world´´, which wasn´t a post office like I thought but a place where they will stamp your passport all pretty saying you were at the fin del mundo. Becca, don`t worry, it doesnt replace my love for our Macchu Picchu stamp. I am a little bit nervous that they stamped the last page OVER my passports barcode, so I hope there isnt trouble getting into any of the next 5 countries. Time will tell. So after we got back to the hostel and I turned a shade of purple Ive never seen before from frostbite followed by a COLD shower to wash off the mud (thanks hostel for the no hot water in this 0 degree temperature), I had a nice dinner of lamb (gross) and carne chorizo and felt better. Now I can knock myself out to be up at 4 am to get the bus to El Calafate. 15 hour ride with 3 hours of stops for food and checkpoints as we cross into Chile. This should be interesting, or a lack thereof. As I am typing I realize that the spanish computer is trying to autocorrect every single word I am typing. Thats pretty funny.

Also, we stopped a ta sign that marks the end of Rte 3, where we met a biker from Brazil. He had just rode down from Sao Paolo to start at the beginning of Rte 3 and was riding his bike all the way to ALASKA  He said it wound take about 200 days, which is about 8 months!! CRAZY! He was so cool, and when we asked if he was going solamente, he said he had 2 friends - god, and something in his trunk. As a typical New Yorker I anticipated a dead body to come tumbling out, but quite the opposite. It was a stuffed animal, Donald Duck, that he had his whole life. The most sentimental thing I ever saw, and this guy was awesome.

One last very important thing to mention - my Lululemon clothes were the biggest investment I have ever made. While everyone else got soaked walking around, my pants stayed dry. I was able to wash the mud off in 2 seconds and they are beautiful again. My friends loved them and I am going to have to open up locations around the world now to share the love. I cant wait to sit in them for 18 hours tomorrow!