After another thrilling 24 hour plus bus ride, we arrived in Punta Arenas, gateway to Tierra del Fuego and our most southernly destination of the trip. Originally it seemed impossible to get this far south and stay on schedule. Later we realized that since all buses to Torres del Paine (which is in fact farther north) pass through here… let´s hop on a ferry and tag mythical Tierra del Fuego!

Punta Arenas itself isn´t too accommodating to the budget traveler, with the exception of one place serving the finest in Churrasco sandwiches at a very reasonable 1000 pesos ($2). So we ate every meal there for two days and I am currently in rather serious withdrawal.

Our hopes of setting foot on the land of fire were briefly dashed by a sudden change in the ferry schedule, but we dealt with the setback by changing our bus tickets, renewing our hostel stay and eating more churrasco. Then one rainy afternoon we boarded the none too trusty Melinka and crossed the Strait of Magellan. We had a whopping 25 minutes from docking to reboarding, but we milked it for all its worth: eating over priced ice creams, documenting every sign featuring the words ´Tierra del Fuego´ and staging the playground series of forlorn sepia photos.

53 degrees south. I´m not going to lie. I feel pretty cool.