Walking around Ushuaia
What it was like to explore this city nestled between gorgeous mountains and the waters of the Beagle Channel
When I finally made it to Ushuaia, I couldn’t wait to walk around. I’d been dreaming of a visit for so long, and I was finally there! I’d crossed mountains and braved a watery landing, and I couldn’t wait to explore.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06603d25-d646-4af0-820f-dff0425416fa_4032x3024.jpeg)
The city of Ushuaia is about 8.5 miles wide and less than 2.5 miles deep, nestled in the shallow space between snow-covered mountains and the Beagle Channel. When I was there, the population was about 75,000 (and it’s grown by over a thousand people per year since). It has a university and a well-respected scientific research center. Public transportation—a bus system you pay for with a card called SUBE—reaches the more distant neighborhoods of the city.
Walking is my preferred method of exploring new places, and my host family’s house was only about half a mile from the city center. I could easily walk to the museums I wanted to visit, to coffee shops with wifi good enough to check in at the office, to restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, the church I attended while I was there, and everything else I needed.
The sidewalks were sometimes more dirt and mud than concrete, but that wasn’t too much of a problem because I ended up wearing my hiking shoes everywhere, in imitation of the family I was staying with. Ushuaia, I learned, is like Portland: people go hiking so often, they tend to dress for it all the time.
The weather was sometimes chilly, sometimes rainy, but it mostly stayed in the forty-degree range while I was there. That meant it was cold enough that I needed a jacket, but not so cold it was too uncomfortable to walk.
The only problem was that it took me longer than I expected to get anywhere: on sunny days, it was hard not to pause every few steps to take a photo of the mountains against the sky.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F978b6244-9ff0-4d30-9c59-82170937a209_3024x4032.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98f9c4a2-e9d8-4cd1-a37e-62e5a5c3b6f0_3024x4032.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4de9510d-c3fc-4cb7-97c4-ce13e1a35c5e_4032x3024.jpeg)
Outside of the tourist sections, the city is blunt and pragmatic, unpretentious and a bit scruffy. Concrete houses are painted all the colors of the rainbow, and some families live for decades in what seems to be nothing more than corrugated metal sheets leaning against each other. There’s a strong makeshift, pioneer spirit left over from the days when the government sold land cheaply to anyone who wanted to live there, to encourage population growth.
I learned, eventually, that now new housing is expensive and hard to come by, especially for young adults just starting out in their careers. Government-built apartment buildings are the most affordable, but single people or childless couples can be on the waitlist for years.
A lot of immigrants, from other parts of Argentina or other Latin American countries, are attracted by the promise of jobs and undeveloped land.
“See that bare patch of mountain, with forests all around?” A member of my host family pointed at a spot in the distance. “That happened almost overnight. Bolivians staked out a part of the forest and knocked the trees down to build houses. They live there without running water or electricity or anything. Now the city is trying to figure out how to get services to them. The kids show up at school smelling awful—they have nowhere to bathe.”
Like any city, it has its problems. But it took me awhile to see them, because all around were these incredibly picturesque mountains covered in snow.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Writing Fireland to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.