Ushuaia

We are now on the 5th of December. Ushuaia is a relatively big city with 57.000 inhabitants who mostly live from tourism. The cruises to Antártica start here.  The wind is strong,  it is raining and 5 degrees. Taking the chill factor into consideration it feels as if it were 2 degrees. In Oslo at the same time it was 4 degrees. The only difference is that it is summertime here! We really feel that we are at  “El fin du mondo”.

 Today we have planned a boat trip on the Beagle Channel in the morning and a trip to the National Park Tierra del Fuego in the afternoon.  Again an early start. The sea is quite rough, that is why we have the boat trip in the morning because in the afternoon it will be even rougher. The boat goes towards the Atlantic Ocean. The channel at its widest is 18 km and at its smallest 1 km.

First stop is at a very small island full with cormorants. The next stop at the lighthouse Les Eclaireurs, a favourite spot for taking pictures. We decided to use the on board photographer to take pictures since the weather was so bad. If you’re not careful enough, you risk loosing your phone in the sea. Together with the pictures you get an usb stick with information and video's over the channel and Ushuaia.
Later, on the righthand side, we pass by Puerto Williams, the southernmost city in Chile. We continue to an island with lots of penguins. This island is in the neighbourhood of Estancia Harberton ( also a museum).This was the first missionary post on Tierra del Fuego. One of the groups on board  disembarks here and returns to Ushuaia by bus. Estancia Harberton is 90 km from Ushuaia, so the trip takes some time. 

In the afternoon we visit the P N Tierra del Fuego. Luckily it was not raining any longer, but it was still very cold. After a short lunch, a local guide took us for a walk along Lake Acigami. He told about the flora. You have 3 types of trees. The Nire and Lenga, the 3rd forgotten. All with small, thick leaves. The same goes for the wild strawberries and blackberries.

 The Yamanás was a group of Indians who lived here. They are all dead except one woman who lives in P Williams. The reason why was due to changes and illnesses the white people brought to the area. They lived nearly naked in tough weather conditions, they found that better than being dressed in wet clothing. They mainly lived from sealions and other seafood, berries and mushrooms in the season. We drove on to Bahia Lapataia where we made another walk.

It was extremely  cold this day and it was good to come back  to the hotel at 7.30 PM. We needed a hot shower to warm up and afterwards we got an aperitif from Sinterklaas (our tour leader)

On the 6th of December some of us should go for a 6 hours walking tour, but when we heard that it started at 2 o'clock PM and ended at 8 PM no one was very keen anymore. The tour was cancelled. Instead we decided to take the day off and walk around in the city. We went to the Museo Marítimo y Presidio. This museum is in a building which previously was a formal prison. The prisoners who were sent here were first sent to Isla de los Estados. From 1911 they had to build there own prison and we can tell you it is huge. Nowadays they have different exhibitions in 5 different wings of the building. One wing showed how the cells really were. Another showed an exhibition about prison life. A third wing was about expeditions to Antartica. A lot about the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Much to Per's interest of course.

Later we walked to the main street San Martin, had coffee with Eugenie, Louise and René and then is was time to take the shuttle back to hotel Los Nires. We really enjoyed a lazy afternoon. 

Today, the 7th of December, we leave Ushuaia and return to Buenos Aires with the 15.45 flight from Austral Airlines. That means that we had some time in the morning to visit other museums. When we arrived at Museum “El fin del Mundo” it did not open before  1 PM and the museum about the Yamanás did not exist anymore. Again It was a very cold day in Ushuaia, so we took a taxi back to the hotel. Next time we will tell more about our last 48 hours in Buenos Aires before we come home on the 10th of December.