Ushuaia - WikiHQ

Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 89,606 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, Ushuaia claims the title of world's southernmost city.

Ushuaia is located in a wide bay on the southern coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. It is bounded on the north by the Martial mountain range and on the south by the Beagle Channel. It is the only municipality in the Department of Ushuaia and has an area of . It was founded on 12 October 1884 by Augusto Lasserre and is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel surrounded by the mountain range of the Martial Glacier, in the Bay of Ushuaia. In addition to being an administrative center, it is a light industrial port and tourist destination. Ushuaia is located roughly from the Antarctic Peninsula and is one of five internationally recognized Antarctic gateway cities; it is one of two South American cities with that status along with Chile's Punta Arenas.

Toponyms

left|thumb|[[South American fur seal|Seal colony on the Isla de los Lobos]]

The word Ushuaia comes from the Yaghan language: and ('bay' or 'cove') and means "deep bay' or 'bay to background'. The act creating the subprefecture in 1884 cites the name "Oshovia", one of the many orthographic variations of the word. Its demonym is .

History

The Selkʼnam people, also called the Ona, first arrived in Tierra del Fuego about 10,000 years ago. The southern group of people indigenous to the area, the Yaghan (also known as Yámana), who occupied what is now Ushuaia, lived in continual conflict with the northern inhabitants of the island. Escape from Tierra del Fuego was similarly difficult, although two prisoners managed to escape into the surrounding area for a few weeks. For this reason, it is considered the only trans-Andean city (ciudad trasandina) in Argentina.

Ushuaia has long been described as the southernmost city in the world. This results in Ushuaia receiving an average of 3.93 hours of sunshine per day (an annual total of 1,434 hours) or about 30.2% of possible sunshine.

Summers tend to be cloudy and windy, with maximum temperatures averaging around during the day and about at night.

|source 2 = Secretaria de Mineria (extremes and percent sun, 1901–1990)

Flora

Ushuaia is surrounded by Magellanic subpolar forests. On the hills around the town, the following indigenous trees are found: Drimys winteri (winter's bark), Maytenus magellanica (hard-log mayten) and several species of Nothofagus (southern beech). Trees in Ushuaia tend to follow the wind direction, and are therefore called "flag-trees" for their uni-directional growth pattern. "Originally this life form was considered genetically determined [Holtmeier, 1981] but the term was subsequently used to designate all genetically or environmentally determined stunted and dwarf trees at the timberland."

Economy

thumb|View of the port

thumb|Ushuaia Harbor

The main economic activities are fishing, natural gas and oil extraction, sheep farming and ecotourism.

Tourism

thumb|left|Female [[sea lion and her pup]]

thumb|[[Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, located in Ushuaia]]

Tourist attractions include the Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay. The park can be reached by highway, or via the End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo) from Ushuaia. The city has a museum of Yámana, English, and Argentine settlement, including its years as a prison colony. Wildlife attractions include local birds, penguins, seals and orcas, many of these species colonizing islands in the Beagle Channel. There are daily bus and boat tours to Harberton, the Bridges family compound, Estancia Harberton. Tours also visit the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse. Les Eclaireurs is sometimes confused with the "Lighthouse at the End of the World" (faro del fin del mundo) made famous by Jules Verne in the novel of the same name; but the latter lies some 200 mi (320 km) east of Ushuaia on Isla de los Estados (Island of the States).

Manufacturing

Ushuaia's industrial sector, led by the Grundig Renacer electronics factory, is among the largest in Patagonia.

Arts and culture

Since 2007 Ushuaia has hosted the Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo del Fin del Mundo (Biennial of Contemporary Art at the End of the World), created and organized by the Patagonia Arte & Desafío Foundation under the rubric "South Pole of the Arts, Sciences, and Ecology". The Bienal has gathered over one hundred artists from five continents addressing the motto "think at the End of the World that another world is possible". As a pedagogical project it encourages students at all levels to "think about a better world".

Sports

thumb|Trekking in the Andean Club

As in most of Argentina, football is a popular sport in Ushuaia, and in 2010 the TV show FIFA Futbol Mundial did a story about the sport's development in this locality. In 2015 Ushuaia hosted the first PATHF Snow Handball Panamerican Championship.

Ice hockey

A popular sport in Ushuaia is ice hockey, and low temperatures all year long make the city a perfect spot for practicing it outdoors. In 2010 the city opened an outdoor short track and ice hockey Olympic-size ice rink (), the first of its kind in South America. After this Argentina became the first South American nation to be upgraded from affiliate to associate member status of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Since 2005 the Municipality of Ushuaia and the Argentinean Ice Hockey Federation (FAHH) organize the yearly End of the World Cup (Copa del Fin del Mundo) that has gathered ice hockey teams from Ushuaia, Buenos Aires, Punta Arenas and São Paulo and includes seven different competitions: one for men, one for women, four junior categories and an international tournament.

Beside the local league and the Copa del Fin del Mundo, in 2016 the city hosted the first ice hockey Patagonian Championship, with teams from Ushuaia, Río Grande and Punta Arenas. After the tournament a new plan to build a roof over the ice rink was announced. Ushuaia has two rival teams: Club Andino de Ushuaia (CAU) and Los Ñires. and in 2015 it hosted the Interski Congress and World Cup, organized by the International Ski Instructors Association, which was its first ever event in the Southern Hemisphere.

The glacier is popular even during the summer months, when the chairlift operates in both directions. Hiking trails lead from the city's edge to the base of the glacier, which has retreated considerably over the past century, as shown in photographs on display at the Antarctic Museum of Ushuaia. and the Ushuaia Loppet, a full distance marathon that is one of the 20 members of the Worldloppet Ski Federation. Usually this race starts the Federation's Marathon Series in August.

In October 2014 the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) revealed the plan to use the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, to be held in Buenos Aires, as the launchpad for a bid in the near future. The Committee identified Argentina's south-eastern region of Patagonia, which comprises the southern section of the Andes mountains, as a possible location to host the Winter Games. In 2010 it was suggested that Ushuaia would be the main option for a bid. Before the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach visited Ushuaia and talked about the possibility of holding the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics there.

Education

Ushuaia has twelve secondary schools, four of which also provide adult education.

Transportation

thumb|[[Celebrity Cruises's MV Zenith and Orient Lines's MS Marco Polo cruise ships at Ushuaia]]

thumb

Air

Ushuaia receives regular flights at Ushuaia – Malvinas Argentinas International Airport from El Calafate, Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile.

Sea

In addition to being a vacation destination for local and international tourists, Ushuaia is also the key access point to the Southern Ocean, including subantarctic islands such as the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and to Antarctic islands such as the South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands. Its commercial pier is the major port of departure in the world for tourist and scientific expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula. Several cruise and freight lines also provide transportation between Ushuaia and Valparaíso, Punta Arenas, Buenos Aires, and local seaports and settlements.

Road

The south terminus of the Pan-American Highway, which is also the south end of Argentina National Route 3, is located in Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Health care

Located at the corner of Avenida 12 de Octubre and Maipú, the Hospital Gobernador Ernesto M. Campos

In 2014, BBC car program Top Gear visited Ushuaia at the conclusion of their "Patagonia Special", with the intent of constructing a stadium and playing a game of car football there. Before they could do so, however, they were chased out of the city (and subsequently across the border into Chile) by mobs of people angered by an apparent reference to the Falklands War encoded in the registration plate of presenter Jeremy Clarkson's vehicle (H982 FKL).

The summit of Cerro Alarkén served as the finishing line for the second series of the BBC program Race Across the World in 2020.

Several scenes in the 2015 film The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, were shot in Ushuaia from July through November 2014.

The Apple TV+ original television series Long Way Up started its journey in Ushuaia.

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Ushuaia is twinned with:

{| class="wikitable"

! Country

! City

| Eilat

Gallery

File:Ushuaia_port.jpg|Port

File:Hafen von Ushuaia, Argentinien.jpg|Harbor

File:Cruceros en el muelle, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.jpg|Cruise ships in Ushuaia

File:Patagonia-lighthouse.jpg|Lighthouse

File:Ushuaia city view.jpg|City view

File:Pinguinoak.jpg|Penguins on Martillo Island

File:Beagle Channel - La Isla de Los Lobos.jpg|Los Lobos Island

File:Shipwreck (8320375418).jpg|Shipwreck near Ushuaia

</gallery>

Notes

References

</references>

External links

Museo Marítimo y del Presidio de Ushuaia
Municipality of Ushuaia (official website)
Online community of residents
Interactive city map (requires Flash)