By John Huxley
Ushuaia looks particularly picturesque under a dusting of snow.Credit: Alamy
Maybe they're still jet-lagged. Maybe they've been made drowsy by premature doses of sea-sickness tablets. But, understandably, many international visitors to Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Argentina, wander round the town in a daze, dawdling away the hours until it's time to board their cruise ship to Antarctica.
Of those who do linger longer in the town of about 70,000 inhabitants, many seem to come away complaining. Typical, is Welshman John Humphreys, a former BBC radio and television newsreader.
He recently nominated, the self-styled "city at the end of the world, start of everything", the capital of Tierra del Fuego ("land of fires"), for inclusion in the "World's Worst Dumps" column in the influential British magazine for empty-nesters, The Oldie.
Pausing only to praise its magnificent setting – crouching beneath snow-covered mountains, looking out across impossibly silver, grey-blue waters which lead south into the famous Beagle Channel – he writes off Ushuaia (roughly pronounced Oosh-why-a), as an "unappealing mess".
Its slogan, he wrote, has been "flogged to a premature death". Its new casino is "hideous". Its souvenir shops selling polystyrene penguins are "endless". Its suburbs are "shabby" and "haunted by packs of wild dogs".
Far from being an escape route into the wild, the nearby woodland trails have been "cluttered with ramps and chicanes intended for mountain-bikers and BMX maniacs".
Sea lions lounge on an island near Ushuaia.Credit: Alamy
And his catamaran cruise round a bay dotted with shipwrecks is ruined by the "touchy-feely penguin film Happy Feet, played at full volume".
Come on, John, chill out! While Ushuaia's official motto may be over the top, and its architecture a colourful jumble of shapes, styles and materials, the city and its surrounds have plenty of things to see and do, plenty of places to eat and drink. Ideally, over a few days.
Its history, told in several indoor and open-air museums, is fascinating: a story of early settlement by Yamana Indians, the arrival in the mid-1880s of British missionaries, followed quickly by the Argentine government which decided the desolate spot was the perfect site for a prison.
Ushuaia's architecture is a colourful jumble of shapes and styles.Credit: Alamy
It was based on the model of Port Arthur in Tasmania: cruel, harsh and remote, but as happened in Australia, the prison population became colonists.
The prison is long gone, but its neat buildings still run above the bay. The railway, by which the freezing felons were delivered, has been re-opened as – guess what? – the End of the World train.
Ushuaia also has a fascinating present. A large monument reminds visitors that the city stands on the front-line in the drive to "repossess" a near-by, rocky outpost known to the British as the Falkland Islands and to the Argentinians, who lost 649 men in the 1982 war, as Las Malvinas.
Ushuaia harbour at "the end of the world".Credit: Alamy
Meanwhile, Ushuaia has reversed the long-term decline it experienced after the prison closed. Its population is rising, and new employers, electronics companies have moved in, explains bus driver/guide Pablo Damien, who moved to Ushuaia several years ago from Buenos Aires.
"It's a great place to live. And, well, we get by. We've still got the fishing, sheep-farming, a bit of gas and oil exploration and, of course the cruise ships," he explains, adding that domestic tourism from elsewhere in Argentina is strong and reliable.
Like many in the city, whose isolation is reflected in relatively high prices, he is happy to provide a service to the thousands who pass through like cruise ships in the night. But he also points to the growth in local eco-tourism.
It's true. Ushuaia is enviably located within easy reach of bays, parks, islands, offering ample opportunities for cyclists, canoeists, canopy-fliers and day-cruisers, trekkers, anglers, birdwatchers and divers, who have many local opportunities.
One favourite dive is to the wreckage of the SS Monte Cervantes, a luxurious German passenger liner, dubbed "The Titanic of the South", after it sank in 1930 after striking submerged rocks just 30 minutes off Ushuaia.
Surprisingly, for visitors at least, despite its deep-south location the city at the end of … sorry, it's habit forming … is not an especially cold place to stay and explore.
On the two half days in February my wife and I spent there, the top temperature was 24C. "That's rare," explained local guide, Debora Schmidt. "Normally, I'd say, expect about 10C in summer, 0C in winter."
Either way, winter or summer, do as Captain Erwann Le Rouzic of the Le Boreal, one of the luxury ships cruising the Antarctic, does, "enjoy this funny, friendly town that looks so marvellous, especially under a fall of snow".
Scenic Tours' Ultimate Antarctica Cruise, departing from Ushuaia, explores the icy peninsula, visiting attractions by inflatable Zodiacs. There are three departures next season: February 3, 13 and 17, priced from $12,895 per person, twin share. See scenictours.com.au
The writer was a guest of Scenic Tours.
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