Lapataia is where the road ends, and that is the whole point. Ruta 3, which begins in Buenos Aires, runs for more than three thousand kilometres to this quiet bay in Tierra del Fuego National Park, and a wooden sign by the water records the distance and invites you to have your photograph taken. The bay lies on the Beagle Channel, in a landscape of forest, peat bogs and snow-covered mountains, with the water dark and still and the opposite shore, belonging to Chile, only a short distance away.
The final stretch from Ushuaia, about seventeen kilometres to the east, is a beautiful ride through the national park. The road is paved, with gentle bends and frequent viewpoints, and traffic is light outside the high season. In summer, tour buses and cars can crowd the car parks, so aim for early morning or evening. Weather is changeable, with rain, wind and sunshine in the same hour, and the temperature seldom rises far above ten degrees. Waterproofs and warm layers are not optional. The best time is from November to March.
You will pay an entrance fee at the park gate, and rangers can advise on trails and conditions. A short walk from the car park leads through the beech forest to the waterfront, where you can look across the channel to the mountains of Chile. A longer path leads along the shore, past beaver ponds and peat bogs, and the smell of damp earth and moss is strong.
The name Lapataia comes from the Yámana language and is usually said to mean something like wood bay, and the Yámana people, who travelled these waters in bark canoes and lived on shellfish and seals, left shell middens along the coast that archaeologists still study. Their way of life, spent in the cold and wet with little clothing, struck early European visitors as incredible. Today, the forest is quiet, and you may see Magellanic woodpeckers, kelp geese and the odd fox. Stand at the end of the road, take in the view, and enjoy the feeling of having reached the bottom of the world.