Tierra Del Fuego is the Southernmost point on Earth before Antarctica. It is basically a huge island located below Chile and Argentina. It is shared between the two countries, but Chile has the Southern half of the island, and therefore the Southernmost owned territory in the world. We stayed in Ushuaia, the southernmost city of Argentina. Mountains climb straight out of the frigid sea, and like all Patagonian mountains, make you feel absolutely microscopic.
Due to Tierra Del Fuego's southern location, it is freezing. There is about 17 hours of daylight in Ushuaia during the summer (the sun sets around 11:00 at night and rises at about 2:00 in the morning), and during the winter there are very few hours of daylight. After the claustrophobically hot and humid days in Buenos Aires, the cold mountain air was a relief to my lungs and my soul.
Being on the opposite side of the globe as us, they have quite different flora and fauna than in Truckee. It is not very often you see a pine tree, and instead of being annihilated and hated, Scotch Broom is admired and grown in gardens. Penguins, guanaco, and cormorants are three types of animals that you will not find in Truckee, but you will in Tierra Del Fuego.
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