Ushuaia

Ushuaia (pronounced [u'swaia]) is the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and is sometimes considered to be the southernmost city in the world. It is located in a wide bay on the southern coast of the island of Tierra del Fuego, guarded on the north by the Martial mountain range and on the south by the Beagle Channel. Its population is estimated today at about 60,000. (2001 population: 45,450 )

For most of the first half of the 20th century, the city was centered around a prison for serious criminals. The Argentine government set up this prison following the example of the British with Australia or the French with Devil's Island; escape from a prison on Tierra del Fuego was similarly impossible. The prisoners thus became forced colonists and spent much of their time cutting wood in the forest around the prison and building the town. They also built a railway to the settlement, now a tourist attraction known as the End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo), the southernmost railway in the world.

Ushuaia claims to be the "Southernmost city in the world. There are two other contenders for the title of southernmost city: Puerto Williams on the Chilean island of Navarino and Punta Arenas, in Chile (much larger but farther north). Several continuously inhabited settlements also south of Ushuaia include Puerto Toro on Isla Navarino, Chile, Orcadas in the South Orkney Islands, and Esperanza, an Argentine base in Antarctica. Each of these settlements has fewer than 100 residents.

Ushuaia viewed from Pasaje Pedro Luis Fique.The main reasons that Ushuaia can claim to be the "Southernmost City in the World" are that Ushuaia has a fully functional hospital, institutions of higher learning as well as secondary schools, industrial sector which is mainly the presence of the large Grundig electronics plant, currently named 'Renacer', an organized transportation system and a functioning municipality, all of which allow to make it an actual city on its own right: "an urban settlement of a particularly important status". Ushuaia is also the capital of the Tierra del Fuego Province.

The climate is maritime subarctic. Averages temperatures coldest month: 1°C (33°F) and warmest month: 9°C (48°F). Record low -20 °C (-4°F) (July), record high 31 °C (87.8°F) (December) and record low ever recorded in summer -6 °C (21°F) (February). Towns in the world with similar climate include Thorshavn, Faroe Islands; Dutch Harbor, Alaska; Reykjavik, Iceland; Stanley, Falkland Islands.

The tourist attractions include the Tierra del Fuego National Park to see Lapataia Bay; the park can be reached on the End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo) from Ushuaia. The city has a museum of Yamana, English, and Argentine settlement, including its years as a prison colony. Wildlife attractions include local birds, penguins and orcas as seen on the islands in the Beagle Channel. There are daily bus tours to Harberton, the estancia of the Bridges family. Some tours also visit the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, known as the Lighthouse at the End of the World (Faro del fin del mundo) — although it is not the same lighthouse as the one made famous by Jules Verne in the novel of the same name.