Beagle Canal cruise

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!!

The Bone House

At some point in your travels you cease to see all of the amazing, culturally significant, stuningly beautiful scenary/temple/sight and just want to spend a few days veg-ing on the sofa or spending some time having a completely different experience. Now at 6 months into our travels, we find ourselves in Ushuaia, the southermost city in the world which as the aptly named nickname of the "End of the World" or "Fin del Mundo" and we have run out of things to do. Sure we could go to the national park and go for walks, but the walks we went on in Bariloche are reported to be much better... there is a glacier, but once you've seen the magnificent glacier Perito Marino, nothing will ever come close... and there are penguins but we've seen them at Milford Sounds so what do we do?

We briefly entertained the idea of picking up a last minute cruise to Antartica but have I mentioned that we are at the end of our trip so neither of us could justify the £6000 that it would cost... even though it would be amazing and allow us to check off another continent.

Thankfully, our friends that we had met in Salta/Mendoza/El Calafate had arrived in Ushuaia the day before us so we headed over to their hostel and discussed our plight. We decided that since there were 5 of us, then it would be a good idea to rent a car and drive over to the Estancia Haberton and see if we could get a cheaper trip to the penguin island than we have seen advertised. Worst case scenario, we would head to the nearby lakes and do a hike or two. So after staying up far too late playing cards (Johan won again), we agreed to meet up at 9:30 the next morning and try to find a car.

The next morning we piled into our little VW Golf and headed the 85 km down Route 3 to the estancia. Even though they drive on the right, Argentina is a very easy country to drive in with only 4.67 cars per sq km making it #70 in the world (UK has 101 cars per sq km, Sweden 45), and when you drive in Ushuaia, you may not even encounter that many cars in your journey.

On the way we made a brief stop at the infamous flag tree of Ushuaia. A lot of wind for a long time does that to a tree, and the conditions are perfect here for trees to live very very long, even after they die. There are literally thousands of deat trees lining the hills, a remnant from a big forest fire almost 100 years ago. But temperatures here range between -10 and +18, not warm enough for bacteria that breaks down wood, so even the dead trees hang around for a long time.

An estancia is the Argentine word for a ranch and here they span hundreds of thousands of sq kms and are used to rear sheep in Ushuaia and more commonly, cows in the rest of the country. The land owned by Estancia Harberton was a bit too hilly for sheep rearing to be profitable so now they concentrate on an income from tourism. Having said that, when we arrived at the sleepy ranch, we could find very little sign of any tourists at all except for a little wooden sign pointing the way to "Information" which led to a cute little cafe. The guy inside kindly let us sit at the tables to eat the sandwiches that we had brought and while I went on the tour, apparantly Johan and the rest of the gang managed to eat their way through the entire menu of cakes on offer!

After learning that Estancia Harberton has the oldest continually occupied home in Tierra del Fuego and that the current occupiers are descendents of Thomas Bridges who was one of the first European settlers to the region, we headed for the little museum that we had passed on the hill before the estancia.

The museum, called Acatushun, is the name that the native occupants of Tierra del Fuego called themselves and it turns out that it is actually not a museum really, but a working labortory for the study of marine mammals and birds of southernmost South America. We were met at the door by a post-graduate student from Peru who talked us through the many skeletons of birds and mammals displayed there. Apparantly, there is fierce competition for places at the museum/research centre and when not giving tours at the museum, they spend their time cleaning skeletons of birds and sea mammals that die along the nearby beaches. We got shown some of the skeletons in the many closets and the final stop was the Bone House.

stop reading now if you get grossed out

The Bone House is the first stop for the sea lion, penguin, whale etc carcasses that they get at the centre and this is where all of the hair, skin and meat is removed, leaving only the skeletons. Because the heads are so much more complicated to clean, they are removed and stored until there is time and manpower to clean them. Our guide showed us a huge crate fulled with decaying sculls of various birds which were waiting their turn.

safe to read again

It turned out to be one of the most interesting days on the trip, we even learned the difference between a sea lion and a seal - no, they are not the same creature, a sea lion has visible ears, toenails and "knees" while a seal is more streamlined and has finger (or fin) nails.

Our journey back through the bumpy unsealed road and back to R3 was uneventful however when we were still a little way from Ushuaia, the little electrical glitch that we had noticed in the car took an unexpected twist. The little car decided to stop and despite our best efforts, refused to start again. Now, you will remember the sparseness of cars in Argentina and the desolate nature of our location however Johan had spotted a lone turn-off a few hundred metres away from where we were stranded. He and Felix headed off to call the car rental company who eventually sent a mechanic to rescue us.

The result? Still an interesting day with a little adventure thrown in for good measure. Highly recommend going to the Estancia but only if you also visit the museum.