We score a deal on car rental in Punta Arenas from our waiter, so we drive south. Flat plains are filled with guanaco, which look like skinny llama. We hop a ferry and then we are on Isla de tierra del fuego. A few more hours and we have an uneventful border crossing into Argentina.

The plains rise into mountains an hour outside of Ushuaia. We arrive before dark (easy even after a long day of driving at this lattitude) and drop our things before dinner. In the morning, we hike to glacier martial, just outside of town. We pass tourists in the rain. Before the final climb, Tom decides to turn around, worried about time, and Shake’nBake and I run on ahead to the toe of the glacier. We run back down, catch Tom, then hustle to the harbour where a boat is waiting for us. We leave Ushuaia and make for three islands. The first has cormorants, the second sea lions. But the third, the third has penguins! The boat half beaches itself and we look down at the penguins as they look up at us, everyone equally curious about the strange creatures in front of them. In the morning, we head to Tierra del Fuego National Park. There’s free camping, so we set up our tents before heading off to climb Cerro Guanaco. We take one pack between us and I insist on carrying it. I get a lot of strange looks- hiking in a dress and carrying a large pack while the boys have nothing. The trail rises steeply to treeline. In front of us we can see the peak, part of an exposed, steep ridge. Behind us, snowcapped mountains rise from aquamarine lake. It snows a little just before the peak and then we are up, looking back at the ridge and down at Ushuaia below. We dart back down, racing the wind. Back at the lake, we take a side trail to the Chile/Argentina border. I just can’t stop walking to borders, it seems. The cold drives us into our tents early, but it stops raining just before it’s time to pack up in the morning. We drive back as fast as we can to make a bus to Puerto Natales, stopping only for food and to pick up hitchhikers. Shake’nBake and I do have a hitchhiking debt to pay back after all.