Postcards

A Postcard from Ushuaia

Oosh-why-a – that’s how you pronounce it; and just the name is enough to excite curiosity. Amongst Argentinians, Ushuaia has connotations of extreme travel and grand adventure. They come here to ski and snowboard, but more than anything they come here to stand at the End of the World.
Still, if it were called Martinsville or Buenas Nieves I doubt if this place would be so popular.

A line of huts on the quayside caters to tourists who want to pay a visit to the local sealion colony
A line of huts on the quayside caters to tourists who want to pay a visit to the local sealion colony

Even before we came south, I was already eager to visit Ushuaia; but having now visited it several times I must admit that I’m disappointed. The contrast between Puerto Williams and Ushuaia is such that it’s always fun to pop across the channel – after three months in Trumpton even the most parochial-minded of us fancies a visit to a supermarket and the chance of croissants for breakfast – but on each occasion that we visit the place I am less enthralled. You see, to be frank, Ushuaia is a bit of a dump.

The high street, one road back from the seafront, is the place to buy designer-label ski jackets, chunks of quartz carved to resemble a penguin, and souvenirs emblazoned with the words Fin del Mundo
The high street, one road back from the seafront, is the place to buy designer-label ski jackets, chunks of quartz carved to resemble a penguin, and souvenirs emblazoned with the words Fin del Mundo

Now, the problem with the camera is that it jolly well can lie. It can make a Southern Ocean gale look like a force three in the English Channel and it can never even begin to do justice the majesty of a glacier, but put an SLR into the hands of an artist and she simply can’t avoid seeking out the best lighting and the best angle. The camera might not be able to grab and pixelate awesomeness, but it is certainly capable of making a crumby town look as pretty as a postcard. So, in choosing the images with which to illustrate this article I’ve compromised. For every arty pic I’ve included one honest view of the concrete and grime.

Let’s start with something scenic.

This is the tug, St Nicholas, which lies on the foreshore in front of Ushuaia. It's been there since 1959, making it one of the oldest things in town
This is the tug, St Christopher, which lies on the foreshore in front of Ushuaia. It’s been there since 1959, making it one of the oldest things in town

This photo reminds me of a postcard which I once received. It showed three camels trudging across a lonely sand dune, and on the back my friend had written, “Behind the photographer there is a line of hotels”. In this case, there are no hotels but the photographer is standing by the side of a very busy road. Come to that, just beyond the sunlit tug you can see the container port – and no container port is ever going to win an award for beauty.
Still, in the distance beyond the port you can see the snow-capped mountains. And that’s what Ushuaia is all about: It’s all about the setting.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the bay…

Every town should have a wrecked fishing boat where the graffiti artists can play
Every town should have a wrecked fishing boat where the graffiti artists can play

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and nowhere is this more true than in the case of graffiti. Hate it, ignore it, you can’t love it, can you? Not unless you’re the doer.
Well, I can. Just this once. In this particular setting, on this old boat abandoned on the foreshore, I think it’s certainly an attraction. The weird tiger-men have been there for at least a year, but the face on the port bow appeared one night during our recent visit.

I’m wondering whether, some day soon, someone will pluck up the courage to nip through the barbed wire fence and do something similar to this piece of military memorabilia.

This sinister machine stands very near to the graffitied fishing boat, just outside the Afysyn marina. It seems to be an MTB (motor torpedo boat), and a relic from WWII
This sinister machine stands very near to the graffitied fishing boat, just outside the AFASyN marina. It seems to be an MTB (motor torpedo boat), and a relic from WWII


The Argentinian authorities are rather fond of adorning their towns with glorious sights which, one assumes, are intended to invoke nationalistic pride. I don’t know what effect they have on the locals but personally I just find them rather depressing.
According to the plaque which stands in front of it, this DC3 made several trips around the Horn and in 1962 was the means by which the Argentinian flag was first taken to the South Pole – all of which is fine, and very interesting – but it seems a shame, since they’re so proud of it, that the plane isn’t in flying order.
For me, a derelict plane, with its engine cowlings missing, is just rather sad.

Again, I've cropped out the clutter in order to home in on the beauty - the beauty of flight, and the beauty of Monte Olivia. That little plane just coming in to land takes sightseers for a fifteen minute spin, and the flight path passes close by that majestic sunlit peak
Again, I’ve cropped out the clutter in order to home in on the beauty – the beauty of flight, and the beauty of Monte Olivia. That little plane just coming in to land takes sightseers for a fifteen minute spin, and the flight path passes close by that majestic sunlit peak


Monte Olivia is one of my all-time-favourite mountains. However, I don’t call it Olivia; I call it Grinch Mountain. I christened it thus before I knew it’s real name, because it just looks so much like the crazy, impossible peak in Dr Seuss’ story.

I can just picture the Grinch hurtling down from the summit on his sledge...
I can just picture the Grinch hurtling down from the summit on his sledge…


Besides a display of weaponry, the other thing that every Argentinian town has is a memorial to the victims of the Falklands Conflict. This usually takes the form of a
plaza, but in Ushuaia they have an ‘eternal flame’. Behind the flame there’s a list of all the Argentinian men who died for the glory of their nation. I’m told that many of them were conscripts.

The eternal flame. (And there's me, thinking of the environment and trying to be sparing with the gas while I cook...)
The eternal flame. (And there’s me, thinking of the environment and trying to be sparing with the gas while I cook…)


The first time that we visited Argentina, 15 years after the Conflict, there wasn’t much talk of the
Malvinas, but just as Galtieri used them as a means of rallying the people behind him, so Christina Kirschner, during her presidency, did the same. This memorial dates from her ‘reign’ and from the 30th anniversary of the dispute.
We’ve noticed that there is far more interest in the islands in this region than in Buenos Aires. Some of the people down here are almost as passionate about them as the folks who live there.

Again, I just find this monument very depressing, partly because war is depressing, but also because it’s not remotely scenic. (Behind the photographer there is a conglomeration of concrete edifices.)

You know, thinking about it, I can’t come up with a single South American town which isn’t verging on the side of ugly; and that includes Rio de Janeiro, which is simply a mass of concrete tower-blocks interspersed with ghettos.
Is it a matter of finance – is it simply that these ‘developing nations’ can’t afford to invest in more attractive architecture? – or is concern for such things purely a European foible?

Am I the only one who thinks that 90% of these buildings would look nicer if they were bulldozed? (I would leave the pub standing, of course)
Am I the only one who thinks that 90% of these buildings would look nicer if they were bulldozed? (I would leave the pub standing, of course)


Maybe it doesn’t matter what the place looks like. Perhaps the desire for ‘prettiness’ is bourgeois?
Or maybe it reveals too much attachment to things of the senses?

A last vestige of old-time Ushuaia, surrounded by the ugliness of modernity
A last vestige of old-time Ushuaia, surrounded by the ugliness of modernity


“Oh, but it
does matter!” cries my heart.
Where there is beauty then my heart is uplifted. Where there is only ugliness I feel glum.
I’m not alone in this, I know, for why else would so many people find beauty and perfection and some sort of solace in the wildness of Nature? I’m not sure
why it matters, but it really does matter; and I wouldn’t mind betting that people who live and work in a utilitarian environment are less productive and less creative than those who are surrounded by things which please the eye.

Perhaps it all comes down to a difference in taste. After all, somebody actually designed that nightclub, on the far side of the street. Somebody actually wanted for it to look like that!
Perhaps it all comes down to a difference in taste. After all, somebody actually designed that nightclub, on the far side of the street. Somebody actually wanted for it to look like that!


If we can mange to ignore the entangling wires, the concrete, and the street signs, then the old corrugated-tin cottage on the right-hand side of this picture still retains its charm.
What I don’t understand is why people don’t design and build things like that any more. Is concrete really so much cheaper?

Here’s another old house. This one has now been turned into a hostel.


Peering through the windows I noticed that the furnishings were just as quaint as the cottage itself and certainly a lot older than the pink paint – the cooker looked to be of vintage c.1950, and the dining room table was very rustic – so, evidently, anyone who stays here will gain an appreciation of the way things were.

This 'shanty town' crawling up the mountainside behind the city is made up of little tin cottages
This ‘shanty town’ crawling up the mountainside behind the city is made up of little tin cottages

Perhaps city planning, or the lack of it, really is just a matter of cost – of cost, and of lax building regulations. From a distance these cottages look colourful and quaint, but one suspects that on closer inspection they would prove to be not so well built as the early to mid-20th century houses in the previous pictures. Still, they do have one thing that those houses in the heart of the city now lack: They have the most marvellous view.

That’s what Ushuaia is all about – as I said before, it’s all about the setting. People don’t come here to admire the architecture; they come to get out of the town and onto those snowy slopes.
Those of us who have had the privilege of visiting other, more remote regions of Tierra del Fuego are simply spoilt. Too spoilt to appreciate the spoiled…

Mollymawk against a backdrop of utterly unspoiled mountains immediately east of Ushuaia
Mollymawk against a backdrop of utterly unspoiled mountains immediately east of Ushuaia


But even here, in Ushuaia, we yotties have the advantage over almost everyone else. Moored to the jetty at AFASyN, we get the best view of all of the mountains.

The view from Mollymawk across the bay, one not very wintry winter's day
The view from Mollymawk across the bay, one not very wintry winter’s day

2 Comments

  1. The tug is not the St. Nicolas, but the St. Christopher,ex HMS Justice (W140).

    Regards, Hans van Hage.

    1. Thanks for that, Hans. I always get those two muddled up. St Nick is the patron saint of seafarers and St Chris is the saint of travellers – and for me they’re the same thing, so… !

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.