Llywindatravels 2022

Up before dawn, our favorite cab driver, Guillermo, came to pick us up and deposit us at the Aeroparque in Buenos Aires for our 7:50 am flight to Santiago, Chile. The flight was uneventful, though bumpy over the Andes–no surprise there.

In customs we owned up to having cheese, salami, raisins and almonds, all of which were purchased in grocery stores in Argentina, but don’t seem to pass muster in Chile. As he confiscated them, the agriculture guy said, “You can get these in Chile.” (Yes, but I’d like to use the items that I already bought in the grocery store in Argentina.) Not only that, but they didn’t pay any attention to Jonathan’s dried figs. What’s up with that?

We eventually acquired our rental car and headed for Talca, Chile and our airbnb apartment.

Did someone say sausages?

Dinner in a new place.

Stress reliever comes with the apartment.

Today’s tour guide, Andres, pointed out that everyone in Ushuaia has many names. They are all Fuegians, Patagonians, and Ushuaians, as well as Argentine. We didn’t begin to see the size of the city until our tour bus picked up passengers from several areas that most visitors don’t see. There are two parallel main streets, but Ushuaia stretches along the Beagle Channel for 5 km, perhaps more, and up into the hills around the bay. Very little of this is visible from the downtown area, and the true size of the city is not easily recognized.

The downtown waterfront features a sunken ship and a pier for cruise and container ships:

Ushuaia faces the Beagle Channel and the mountains on Navarino Island, Chile, as well as those in the Darwin Range to the west of the city and the mountains that encircle the area. These are stark and beautiful, but Ushuaia itself grew up haphazardly, with little thought for a role in tourism. As a result, powerlines and communications towers mar the view from almost every intersection. There are some attractive, small houses and hotels, but also buildings in disrepair on the opposite street corner. I don’t begin to understand the big picture. There are parts of the city that have an interesting, distinctive look, but it’s not much of a tourist destination. There is about a half day of strolling and shopping to be done and then you need to head for the hills, literally, whether to hike or ski. Otherwise, there’s a whole lot of cafe-sitting in your future. Hotel construction will squeeze out most residential housing in the central part of the city in the near future, similar to cities from Santa Fe to San Francisco.

The excursion to the national park focused on visiting the end of the Panamerican Highway, and seeing the shore of the Beagle Channel. The end of the highway is nicely marked, even though it is a parking lot.

We saw black-necked swans:

And we were reminded again that this is the end of the world:

The scenery is indeed majestic:

The trip is not without its humorous elements. We passed on the ride recreated along the line of the steam train that took the early 20th c. convicts to work every day, and we were not allowed to walk on the archaeological shell mound, though I just wanted to see what was in the excavated area…..Jonathan pouted about something–the rain? (It stopped.)

The weather was much colder than the past few days, not warmer than 50 F and probably colder. There was intermittent rain, as well. It makes the previous two days of temperatures in the 60s F seem balmy. I wore all my clothes and was fine, but I did need everything (long underwear, t shirt, collared shirt, padded vest, scarf, jacket, hat, gloves, socks, boots).

We happened past a sign that announced Carnival parades on Feb. 16 and 17. On the 17th, Tuesday, Mardi Gras, the big day, the parade went along the sea front, from 4-6 pm. Groups performed and kids from 4-18 squirted each other with foam. The more cynical sold the foam:

The enthusiastic performed (Great costumes!):

Families and small children formed the audience.

Today was our great adventure, visiting a colony of penguiuns on Martillo Island. We rode a bus for 90 minutes, then we were divided into two groups, about 12 each. Ours visited the museum and then the coffee shop at Estancia Harberton, the oldest settlement in the region. After that we rode for a few minutes in a covered zodiac to Martillo Island, where there were a zillion penguins, just hanging out. We saw Magellanic (black & white), King (cream colored chest) and Gentoo (red feet and beak) penguins.

They came over to the zodiac, “Are you my mother?” “Do you have fish?”

We love them. They make us laugh.

They didn’t run away. They were very, very cute.

This one is in a nest.

These two were asleep (their eyes are shut). These are Magellanic penguins. They aren’t very steady on their feet, so they like to lie down. (Don’t we all?)

The hour was up and we had to return to the estancia and then to Ushuaia. We saw some interesting things on the way, including trees that show the direction of prevailing winds:

The mountains were impressive, too.

Feb. 16, 2015

We got up at 5:00am to make our way to the Ezeiza airport and onto the plane to Ushuaia that left at 8:10 am. We flew for over 3 hours and were still in Argentina when we swooped down over the ocean and could see huge mountains:

The rather ordinary city with the very unusual name–Ushuaia (Oo-shoe-why-ya)–is surrounded by snow capped mountains up to 2300 m high and yet it is at sea level, so there’s no gasping for air. The scenery is spectacular, except perhaps right in town.

Tour boats pull in and out every few days on their way to Antarctica or to Punta Arenas, Chile.

We took the requisite tourist photo:

And then retreated to eat tiny fish followed by fresh king crab–really, really delicious. We had a great conversation with the couple at the next table, Dorota and Kristof, who live in Cologne, Germany. We exchanged stories and they told us about good German wine.