Ushuaia is a long way away from everywhere - we saw this sign and were reminded of our journey - we entered Argentina through the border town of La Quiaca, it feels like a long, long time ago!The following day we woke up to another day of glorious sunshine so decided to make good use of it. So we headed out on a boat trip on the Beagle Canal which is the body of water separating the various islands of Tierra del Fuego. October to March is a good time to visit these parts because there are large populations of sea lions and birds which populate the islands in the canal during this time and a boat trip is the best way to see them all.
Before we reached the first stop, we saw a disturbance in the water where what looked like hundreds of birds were converging. Our driver slowely inched towards it and we noticed that there were several huge shoals of fish in the water which were attracting the birds.
And what a collection of birds! I can't quite remember all of the names but there were definately cormorants (various types such as common, rock and king), an albatros or few and we even saw several penguins. The guide on our boat said that it was very unusual to see penguins because they don't normally come this way so we were very lucky to see the ones that we did. I also made up a little for the fact that we didn't get a chance to see them from Harberton Estancia.
We continued on.
First stop, the sea lion island and if I hadn't seen this place for myself, I may not have believed how many sea lions there were in the wild just sitting there. They didn't seem to mind our boats coming up to them (we were not allowed on to the island or even too close to them) and dutifully ignored us. The talk that we had been given at the museum the day before about the distinguising features of a sea lion vs a seal made it all the more interesting to see them. The males were clearly the bigger sex and the dominant males could be seen surrounded by the females and some of the younger sea lions.
The next island on the tour was the infamous lighthouse at Ushuaia which had apparantly been photographed for the cover of a version of Jules Vernes book titled "The lighthouse at the end of the world". Our guide was careful to explain that there was indeed another lighthouse near States Island which is the real lighthouse at the end of the world and the picture on the book was really a mistake. Whatever... we have been to see the lighthouse at Ushuaia and we have the picture to prove it!The next stop was at an island that was completely covered with cormorants and several other species of birds. Hundreds of them. Possibly even thousands.
Our final stop was one of the islands where we were allowed to disembark and do a short hike. Our guide pointed out the local vegetation and we even managed to taste some of the edible berries (one was a little yucky and the other didn't taste of anything).We managed to get a jumping shot in at the top of the viewing hill :)
Our guide then also told us a bit about the Yaghan, the native people of the area who used to live on the island. Now there are no signs of any habitation but in those days, the yaghan used to live naked on the shores and hunt sea lions and gather mussels for food. Charles Darwin, on his historic trip to the region, called them the most primative people on earth. Needless ot say, the one remaining pure blood yaghan is now in her 80's and lives (in clothes) on the Chilean side of the boarder.
In all, another good day.PS. a picture of the penguins!!
