Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
77) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - What a cool experience - literally. We had an all day excursion today - a combination bus, boat and hiking trip in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The Glacier Perito Moreno, the third largest glacier in Argentina, is famous as the most accessible glacier in the world. It is just an hour from El Calafate. It is also famous because it straddles two lakes and some years it has enough ice growth over the winter to actually dam the channel between the two lakes. When this happens the spring melt is a special occasion as the dam melts out and eventually breaks releasing a flood from the southern lake (Brazo Rico) into the northern lake (Lago Argentino). This last happened in 2017 - no such luck for us this year. The bus tour involves a drive into the national park (requiring a $13/each entry ticket) to a view point opposite the face of the glacier. There is an elaborate boardwalk and viewing platform system built allowing you to walk nearly down to the water level as well as to see both the northern and southern faces of the glacier. At its maximum height it is 120 feet tall above the water line but the ice extends, at the deepest part, down more than 300 feet below. That is a lot of ice! Not surprisingly the gusting wind coming off the glacier was pretty chilly! We spent one and a half hours walking the viewing area. We saw about a dozen small calving events but the couple of big ones were out of sight when they occurred. We could hear the booms and see the waves but missed the crashing spires of glacial ice. We brought a picnic lunch and found a moment when there was a break in the clouds and the sun warmed us enough to eat on a bench looking at that magnificent blue wall towering over us.
78) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - After our visit to the viewing overlook we re-boarded the bus for a short drive to the tourist port on Brazo Rico. Here we boarded a catamaran for a 30 minute cruise along the southern face of the glacier. Again, the view was amazing but no big calving events. We split our time between being inside (for the 10 minute trip out from the port), on the viewing deck (where we basked in the view while our faces were blasted by the wind until our cheeks and noses were numb) and back inside where we tried to regain feeling in our extremities.
79) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - From the water you get a better idea of just how big the glacier is because that wall of ice really towers overhead. As we backed away from the face I was able to get a panorama showing the width, as well as the height of Glacier Perito Moreno.
80) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - The boat dropped us off on the opposite shore from the port near where the side of the glacier meets the valley. As we stepped off the boat the clouds blocked the sun and it started to snow. We were getting the full Patagonia experience. A guide met us when we exited the boat and separated the eight English speakers from the 100 or so Spanish speakers. Yay, a small group tour! We walked down to the shore close to the face of the glacier with it soaring 100 feet above us. Wow!
81) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - Naturally, there was a photo-op at a flag pole. Normally, I skip the "Insta" shots but with the glacier as a backdrop and the snow falling I couldn't resist this one!
82) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - Then we walked back a bit to see the moraine field - all the dirt, stones and boulders left behind as the face of the glacier recedes. The natural cycle of a glacier is that the face extends forward in the winter and melts back in the summer. For this glacier, like most on the planet, the annual average is for the overall mass to shrink which means it melts back more in the summer than it pushes forward in the winter. As a result the moraine field is a series of ridges, almost like ripples in a pond, showing the furthest extent of the glacier over the past few decades. The surrounding forest eventually grows over the moraines so there is also an advance of the trees and bushes that corresponds to the retreat of the glacier. How fast is that retreat? In the last two years the face of the glacier had receded a quarter of a mile! And just in the past month it had melted back 50 feet. It was shocking to see the guide point out large rocks which were on the glacier just a couple of weeks ago and are now on open ground. We eventually worked our way to the edge of the glacier where we could touch the ice and even climb into an ice cave.
83) Glacier Perito Moreno, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glaciers National Park), El Calafate, Argentina, November 13, 2023 - Fortunately, the snow had stopped by then and a little sun peeked through the clouds which allowed us to experience the incredible blue color of the light filtering through the ice and illuminating the inside of the cave. Again, wow! The fascinating tidbit of information the guide shared at this point was that it takes 500 years for the snow that falls on the Southern Ice Field to compact into ice and flow down the Moreno Glacier to the lake so we were touching ice that formed 500 years ago! The last bit of the hike went to the edge of the moraine field and through the forest where the guide pointed out the various grasses, bushes and trees that advance each year onto the reclaimed land. We circled back to the beach where we boarded a boat for the return trip to the port. Along the way we were offered a drink of calafate fruit liquor with glacier ice plucked from the lake. Jamie had the calafate hooch (he said it tasted like cough syrup), I had "orange juice" (really more like Tang) and Jonna had water. Jonna probably made the best choice! However, given the amount of oil and/or diesel exhaust floating in areas of the lake from all the tourist boats it is possible that skipping was actually the wisest choice of all. We all got back on the bus and had a quiet hour drive back to town. Once back at the hotel Jamie and I immediately jumped into a taxi to go pick up our laundry. The sketchy looking house had two bags of clean clothes waiting for us. We think one piece of underwear was missing but we didn’t find a house full of people wearing our clothes and a "closed" sign on the door as I half expected so we’ll call it a success. Back once again at the hotel we decided to go grab dinner. It was 7pm already which is about when the tourist restaurants start serving so out the door we went. The front desk clerk recommended a good place for vegetarians and despite it being a 25 minute walk in the chilly evening air we chose to walk. There are a lot of stray and/or free roaming dogs in El Calafate but all of them have been friendly. We encountered a bunch and one gave a short growl but all of them were wagging their tails. The locals must take care of them because dogs definitely have blocks that are their home territory. We walked to the main tourist street and walked about 10 blocks to the recommended restaurant. Unfortunately, the host said they were already fully booked for the evening... clearly it was a popular place. We decided to walk back to the hotel but along the way we stopped to check out the menu of a super fancy grill we had passed on the way into town. It looked outside our price range but when we checked their posted menu we realized it was quite cheap by US standards. It was attached to an equally fancy hotel so we felt very underdressed walking in wearing our hiking clothes. The hostess seated us without batting an eye so I guess the color of our money was right even if we didn’t have the dinner jacket and party dress attire. The food was great! We had a baked cheese appetizer. I had beet gnocchi while Jonna and Jamie each had grilled fish. We all had side salads along with two baskets of bread and a total of five bottles of water. Tasty and filling. Once again, I had to avoid seeing the sad sight of lamb carcasses being spit roasted in the in-house wood pit. These Argentinians do like their grilled beast! Once again the bill was shockingly low compared to US prices. The total for everything was $40, $44 with a 10% tip. We couldn’t get three side salads for that price at an equal quality US restaurant. The walk back to our hotel wasn’t as cold as when we left earlier mainly because the wind had died down. In the room, I took a shower while Jonna and Jamie both crashed. I did the same soon afterwards! It was a very, very cool day and thankfully it went by at a glacial pace so we got to savor it all.
84) Parador La Leona, La Leona, Argentina, November 14, 2023 - Uh oh! I woke up this day with a sore throat and our second big hike was the next day. Fortunately, this was a low energy kind of day as we were mainly in transit. For one thing our pick-up was at a leisurely 10am - a luxury during a trip where we are often out the door by 7am. I slept in until 7:15am then got packed way ahead of time and then had breakfast without a deadline hanging over my head. We went into the lobby of our hotel at 9:30am to use the wifi which had been out all night in the rooms. Our driver arrived on time and we were surprised to find it was a taxi. The trip to El Chaltén is over two hours so we were expecting to be in a van with other travelers not a small car taxi. No problem for us and I’m sure the driver was happy to get the fare for the trip (and he may well have been making a return trip from bringing some to the airport in El Calafate.) The drive was a scenic one. The landscape was the steppe pampa but in a rocky terrain. If I didn’t know better I would have assumed I was in eastern Utah or northern Nevada. One sight we weren’t used to in the US west were the herds of guanacos. These llama-like camelids are very prevalent! For the two hour drive there were very few times we couldn’t spot one. Sadly, we also saw dozens of dead guanacos hanging from the fences that run everywhere here. Not unlike the American west in the mid-twentieth century the whole land is divided and sub-divided with wire fencing. The guanacos have to leap over these to move around and sometimes get a leg caught. It is beyond tragic to see all the corpses hanging on the fences. Hopefully there will be a movement here to remove fences and re-open the grasslands as has been done in some parts of the US. Most of our drive was along Route 40 the famous north-south road that spans Argentina. We made one stop - mainly because there is only one place to stop and a little because there is a bit of history to draw in the tourists. The old ranch of La Leona has been around for awhile but is famous because Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid and Ethel Place hid out at the ranch for a month back in 1905. In reality it is a oldish looking but probably not 120 years old building that sells $4 coffee and $10 hats to tourists.
85) El Chaltén, Argentina, November 14, 2023 - We continued on after a brief stop (and a $4 cup of tea) and arrived in El Chaltén at 12:30. We checked into our hotel and immediately went out to check out the town. After decades of being a fashion outcast I have found my place. This town exists for only one reason and that is mountaineering so everyone and I mean EVERYONE is wearing hiking boots, fleece or heavy outdoor coats, conversion pants and beenie hats (no blue jeans, which would normally make me an outlier but given the weather here the synthetic pants are required.) I could walk tall among my people without having my clothing clash with khakis or tennis shoes or, gods forbid, neckties. Any building that isn’t lodging or a restaurant is selling Patagonia or North Face or Columbia or two dozen other brands of outdoor gear. I couldn’t give a flip about shopping but at least these places were selling things I actually own and need. Our first order of business was to get lunch. We found a cute cafe and after a short wait got a table. My sandwich was massive and came with a platter of fries. Okay, is it feed a fever, starve a cold or the other way around? No starving happening today! Our next task was getting food for our hike tomorrow and we quickly found a deli with pre-made sandwiches, pre-packaged snacks and a selection of fruit...clearly this is a need they deal with every day. After some searching Jonna found a store with snacks she could eat (no sugar, no carbs - things that normally fill out every box lunch.) The weather, already chilly and windy, turned to sleet. Typical Patagonia weather when you are within hiking distance of the great Southern Icefields. Next we walked all the way through town to a national park ranger station just south of town. There were a few trails that ran directly from there so we took off up one of them that was short. If I had been wearing the layers for hiking I would have been fine but in thin hiking pants and with no base layer under them the wind was biting! We walked as fast as we could in order to generate some body heat but it was a steep trail up to the top of a hill overlooking the town so we were speed limited.
86) Mirador De Los Condores, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 14, 2023 - The trail was called Mirador de los Condores and true to the name there was a big condor floating over the top of the hill as we neared the top. The wind and sleet kept our visit short but the view over the town was worth the hike up. The big mountains behind the town were completely shrouded by the snow clouds so it was like the town had a giant white sheet hung behind it. Sort of like being in a giant snow globe. Jamie wanted to hike a spur off the trail so we split up. Jonna and I headed back down with a quick stop in the ranger station to warm up while looking around the various displays about mountain climbing and hiking in the area. All the signage was in Spanish but we got the basic idea. Then we walked back through the town.
87) Heladeria Domo Blanco, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 14, 2023 - As we passed an ice cream shop we’d read great reviews about I was suddenly chilled and felt the need to step inside - just to warm up for a minute you understand. ...and you shouldn’t take advantage of a business without buying something, I mean that is just rude if you don’t, so I *had* to buy a cone with two scoops - one of passionfruit and the other raspberry. It was a sacrifice but that is the kind of good person I am. After warming back up we made the last leg to the hotel and settled down to rest. Jamie came in an hour later after doing a circuit of the north end of the town as well as the trail he’d started down. Coincidentally, he also got cold walking past the ice cream shop and had also been forced by honor to buy a cone. We are like the gallant knights of old living by the code of honor. Once we had all regrouped we went back to the main tourist strip to find a fast, light dinner. The first place we tried was booked up but the second had a open table and vegetable soup on the menu. Just the thing for a head-cold. We beelined it back to the hotel but not before noticing that the snow was sticking on the hillsides above our hotel. I think we’ll be hiking on fresh snow all day tomorrow. I downed some NyQuil and headed to bed early since we had to get up at 6:30am in the morning.
88) Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, Rio Electrico Trailhead, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - Despite my head-cold I managed to complete the big hike up to the Fitz Roy viewpoint. I'm not sure I'd have put money on my making it when we started out the hike in the morning as I was feeling pretty lousy. Nonetheless, we got up early so we could grab a quick breakfast at the hotel and then paid a taxi to drive us 15 kms north of El Chaltén to a trailhead on the Rio Electrico. The clouds had broken up a little which means we started the hike in cold but dry weather.
89) Mirador del Glaciar Piedras Blancas, Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - The trail was beautiful starting out going up a river valley and then climbing up onto one of the valley's ridges. The first scenic overlook was a view across the valley onto the face of the Piedras Blanco glacier. A giant wall of blue ice peaking out between two peaks.
90) Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - Perhaps the most scenic portion of the hike was cross back across the valley floor but in an area covered with short bushes which offered a stunning view of the towers that were to be our destination.
91) Mirador Fitz Roy & Mirador A La Laguna De Los Tres, Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - I will say that it was a beautiful hike with a number of different spectacular viewpoints. Sadly, the grand peak of Fitz Roy was cloaked in clouds so we only got a few fleeting hints at what it looks like. The clouds had closed in and it was snowing/sleeting by the time we climbed up to the Laguna De Los Tres overlook.
92) Mirador A La Laguna Sucia, Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - We missed out seeing Monte Fitz Roy but from a nearby hilltop we did get a spectactular view looking down onto Lago Sucia. Unlike Laguna De Los Tres which was frozen over Lago was filled with striking blue glacial water.
93) Mirador Fitz Roy & Mirador A La Laguna De Los Tres, Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - The other memorable (and not in a good way) part of the hike was the sheer mass of people who were doing the hike. This view, looking back on the Laguna De Los Tres ridgeline, gives a small idea of just how many people were pushing and shoving their way up the trail to get to the top.
94) Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - Back down off the peak the trail going back down to El Chaltén was sparsely populated and showed the familiar signs of spring in the mountains with flowers blooming and butterflies flitting from blossom to blossom collecting pollen.
95) Mirador Laguna Capri, Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - Despite being tired we did make a very short detour up to Laguna Capri. The weather was much warmer and hikers were relaxing on the shore soaking up the sun and dipping tired feet in the water. We didn't stop that long but we did enjoy the view of the mountains across the water.
96) Sendero Laguna De Los Tres, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 15, 2023 - It was a strenuous eight hours of hiking and when we got back to the hotel my body pulled the emergency brake. I managed to strip out of my gross hiking clothes and collapse into bed where I stayed for the next 16 hours. Jonna and Jamie went out for dinner and brought me back some fruit and some orange juice but for the most part I just laid in bed and let my body go about the job of fighting this cold virus. The weather throughout the day continued to be the typical Patagonian variety where we had sleet, rain, warm sunshine and crazy wind all at various times during the day. The next day was a free day so I plan to rest and see if I can feel a little better to prep for our last few days down in Ushuaia.
97) Hotel El Barranco, Room 9, El Chaltén, Argentina, November 16, 2023 - My big accomplishments for this day were: waking up, getting out of bed and leaving the room for breakfast, leaving the room to eat take-out empanadas in the hotel lobby for lunch and then finally walking out the front door of the hotel at 5pm to go eat dinner and to find a pharmacy to get some anti-histamines. Other than those amazing milestones my day was spent lounging in the room letting my body deal with the head-cold. Jonna was a bit more energetic so she got up earlier to have breakfast and then walked into the center of town to take a mid-day yoga class. On the way back she stopped at the same take-out place, Simple, where I’d bought my sandwich for yesterday’s hike and got some empanadas and a torte. We ate those in the lobby then returned to the room to nap. Jamie, ever the Energizer Bunny, got up early and despite the howling wind and horizontal rain headed out to hike Laguna Toro and to see the Rio Túnel Glacier. He froze, baked, got soaked and was wind burned when he got back but sounds like it was another awesome hike. If I had been healthy I would probably have been jealous but I was not. A warm bed and a window to block the rain and wind was just fine with me. The highlight of the day was joining Jamie in a trip to the excellent ice cream shop so he could celebrate his big hike. Naturally, he looked pretty lonely having an ice cream by himself, so...
98) Ushuaia, Argentina, November 17, 2023 - This was primarily another travel day so not the most exciting. We had a 7am pick-up at our hotel in El Chaltén so we got up early. The hotel breakfast technically starts at 7 but lucky for us they started putting food out early. We were able to grab a cup of caffeine and at least get a bite of something before the van arrived. The van made a loop around town picking up people heading to the airport in El Calafate until there were fourteen of us then we beelined it out of town to start the two and a half hour drive. Just like on the way in we stopped at La Leona ranch for a quick leg stretch and then resumed the drive. We’d already seen this landscape so I kept my eyes peeled for critters - there were plenty of Guanaco and Rea to be seen along with variety of birds that I couldn’t identify. We got to the airport on time and had a couple of hours to check-in our bags and get a bite to eat. The airport food was as bad as expected but unlike the US where airport passengers are fleeced the prices in El Calafate were super inexpensive. I had some cheesy bread, advertised as a pizza, that was $3. Crap food but cheap. Our flight actually boarded and took off early. I am sure the landscape as we flew south was incredible but a low cloud layer meant all we could see for the entire one hour flight was the white tops of the clouds. As we banked into the Ushuaia airport we broke through the ceiling and could catch a glimpse of the snow-covered mountains that hem the city in against the famous Beagle Channel. Ushuaia is on the southern tip of South America and bills itself "The End of the World". My first impression is that it feels similar to small cities in Alaska. Remote, semi-industrial or ex-military in architecture that has been polished by a booming tourist economy. We had a driver who picked us up and gave us a ride to our hotel. Along the way Santiago recommended a restaurant that serves the iconic King Crab restaurant that this area is known for. We unloaded into the hotel and went straight back out to see some of the neighborhood. Our first stop was dropping off a load of laundry at a laundromat. The first place we tried couldn’t turn the clothes around before we left but they pointed us to another place a few blocks away. This place said they would have the clothes ready at 8:30am the following morning so, done! Next we found a postoffice so we could finally send off a few postcards. Finding postcards to send has been a challenge for our past few trips and that is true here as well. Fortunately, the last couple of towns we visited did have postcards in their tourist shops so we were able to get at least a few to send. We also found the restaurant our driver had mentioned and made a reservation. As long as we were on a food roll we found a bar that was open in the mid-afternoon to get a light lunch. (We didn’t want to spoil our fancy dinner.) Our final stop was finding the office where we have to check in tomorrow for our excursion so we could pick up our clothes, return them to the hotel and then beeline to the right office all on a tight schedule. The whole time we were walking around the temperature was in the mid-30s and it was raining/sleeting. After one and a half hours walking around we were getting chilled so we returned to the hotel to rest.
99) Maria Lola Resto, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 17, 2023 - At 8pm (this is the earliest the restaurant opens!) we walked the three blocks to Maria Lola’s restaurant. It was a fancy place but they didn’t blink at our decidedly not fancy clothing. We got the corner table with glass windows looking out over the harbor. Jonna and Jamie ordered a few dishes with a variety of seafood while I had spinach gnocchi with a cheese sauce that was reduced enough to instantly cause cardiac arrest in anyone with a cholesterol problem who was sitting within two tables of us. I think Jonna and Jamie both enjoyed their meals but weren’t as wow’ed as the build-up had set their expectations. Still, it was a very nice meal with a very special view. After dinner I headed straight back to the hotel to type up my social media posts and get to bed early. Jonna and Jamie walked down to the waterfront and located an ice cream shop before coming back. Now wee called it a day so we would be ready for our last two days in Patagonia!
100) Alicia Island, Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - Today, the penultimate day of our trip, was a busy one so we had to get an early start. We got up at 6:45 in order to eat breakfast at the hotel as soon as they laid out the sparse selection of food. As soon as we ate, Jamie and I walked down the hill in the mixed sleet/rain to the laundromat where we had dropped off our dirty clothes yesterday. As they had promised they had our clean clothes ready for pickup at 8:30 which gave is time to carry them back up the hill, leave them at the hotel and to pick up Jonna. Then it was down the hill again to go to the tourist port. We had two back-to-back excursions scheduled for today so we headed straight to the kiosk of Patagonia Adventure Explorers the operator of our morning tour. PAE operates small boat tours in the Beagle Channel. We boarded the Telienka along with 17 other passengers and 3 crew for a four hour cruise. The clouds that were dropping snow or sleet or rain (it changed minute to minute) were low enough that they covered the mountains and even the higher parts of Ushuaia. However, as we sailed out into the channel the precipitation stopped and we could make out the faintest glimmer of the sun behind the clouds. Our first stop was a small island, Alicia Island, that is home to huge colony of Imperial Cormorants. At first glance it looks like a penguin colony because the cormorants have similar black and white markings. The birds were packed side-by-side on the mostly barren rocks. It was quite a sight but it was even more quite a smell.
101) Alicia Island, Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - A few thousand cormorant nests, each made out of bird poop makes a strong olfactory impression!
102) Bridge Island, Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - Next the boat cruised over to Bridge Island which is a slightly larger island but with a high enough elevation that the waves from big storms don’t inundate it. As a result it has an interesting ecosystem.
103) Bridge Island, Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - All of Tierra del Fuego was under 3,000 feet of glacier ice 25,000 years ago. As the planet warmed the glaciers melted from this area and the combination of glaciation and melt run-off created the Beagle Channel. The islands in the channel like Bridge Island were barren rock around 8,000 years ago. The first plants to get a foothold on these rocks were lichens and micro-plants. Overtime these plants broke down the rock to form soil and larger plants could take hold. We took a 30 minute nature walk on Bridge Island and got to see some of these species of micro-plants still in place and still breaking down the rock. One, which unfortunately I didn’t catch the name, was very cool. It only grows 1mm a year and looks like a miniature succulent. But what makes it so interesting is that it is super hard. It looks like a green rug laid out over a rock and touching it was like touching a porcelain sculpture of a plant. I assume it is processing some sort of mineral out of the rock as it breaks it down. Fascinating!
104) El Faro Les Eclaireurs (the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse), Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - After our walk we got back on the boat and continued east. The water conditions were thankfully very calm. We had light wind coming out of the south. Since wind from that direction starts 1,000 kms away in Antarctica a southern wind is a cold wind. But since there is a string of islands along the Beagle Channel they protect the water from wind driven waves. A west wind would be warmer but can churn up big waves. I’ll take having to wear a jacket over being seasick any day. The boat took us out to El Faro Les Eclaireurs (the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse) which was our turn-around spot. The lighthouse is part of a small cluster of rocky islands which are home to clusters of sea-lion harems. Each harem had a large male, a couple dozen females and a whole bunch of pups. The sea-lions share the islands with a variety of seabirds like both Imperial and Black-Necked Cormorants, a species of Tern, some unidentified seagulls and even some geese. The sea-lions are a noisy bunch, especially with a horny male chasing the females around, and with the pup barking trying to find their mothers when they come ashore after their morning swimming lessons.
105) El Faro Les Eclaireurs (the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse), Beagle Channel, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - While we were taking in the whole scene - the rocky islands, the lighthouse, the sea-lions and the seabirds - two huge Andean Condors swooped down over the lighthouse stealing the show. Wow! This was our last stop on the cruise so we settled into the cabin of the boat to drink (instant) hot chocolate and warm up a bit. The clouds began to break up and rose up off the peaks giving us a beautiful panorama of Ushuaia and the mountain of Tierra del Fuego for the cruise back to port. We unloaded, hit up the port tourist office to use the restrooms, bought a couple of snacks from a street vendor and then walked to the kiosk of Piratour who was operating our afternoon tour. No rest for the weary!
106) Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - For this one we boarded a bus for a one and half hour drive to Estancia Harberton - the oldest ranch in Tierra del Fuego. The drive went through the Andes mountain range just behind Ushuaia which was spectacular scenery. A line of jagged, snow-covered mountains that are between 3,000 and 4,000 feet tall. Not high by Colorado standards but impressive since they start at sea-level just a few hundred meters away. As we drove inland it started to snow again. They guide explained that winter is the only season in Tierra del Fuego with maybe a 20 degree Fahrenheit difference between annual average low and high temps. This area is home to the planet's southern most forest range but also the southern most ski resort. After crossing through the mountains we moved back into the forest and turned onto a gravel road which we took back out to the Beagle Channel at Estancia Harberton. When we emerged from the forest we were on the grassy peninsula where the Harberton Ranch was founded in 1886. Our bus load of visitors was split into two groups. Our half went to the cafeteria for snacks and a bathroom stop then did a guided tour of the historic ranch, while the other half took a boat out to the private penguin island in the channel. After an hour the two groups swapped and we got our chance to visit the penguins. The afternoon tea break (and standing next to a very warm wood stove!) was nice. Learning about the history of the ranch and the families that established it was nice. But let’s be real the reason we were here was to see the penguins so let's just jump ahead to that part.
107) Isla Martillo, Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - We took a zodiac boat out to Isla Martillo which is home to around 10,000 penguins. Other tour companies bring their boats up to the shore but only Piratour has a permit to go ashore. As a result we unloaded and walked around on the island. We saw three different species of penguins - the King, the Magellanic and the Gentoo. Interestingly, the Magellanic is a warm water penguin and spends the non-breeding half of the year swimming north towards the equator. The Gentoo and King penguins are cold water penguins and they spend the non-breeding half of their year swimming south to Antarctica. However, they all co-exist during the breeding season on this island. The Gentoo and King penguins build raised nests out of rocks and sticks.
108) Isla Martillo, Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - The Magellanic penguins dig tunnels which they line with grass and leaves. We saw all the types and in nearly all the activities: making nests, sitting on eggs, defending their nests, swimming, hanging out on the beach, etc.
109) Isla Martillo, Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - We were about a week too early to see chicks but I feel like we got some quality time with the penguins. ... and let's face it what really counted was the cuteness factor and we had about 40 minutes of continuous "Awwwwwwww…"
110) Isla Martillo, Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - We returned to the beach to await our pick-up by the zodiac and got a final chance to watch the Geentoo penguins as they came ashore from fishing.
111) Museo Acatushún, Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 18, 2023 - However, when we got back on the zodiac we were frozen. Despite a brief moment of sun (and a faint rainbow for a second) most of the time it was cold, humid and windy. At one point there were dime-sized snow flakes flying horizontally. We got off the boat and climbed onto the bus ready to seal it up and crank up the heat. The guides had a different plan. There is a small museum on the ranch started by the mother of the couple that currently own the ranch. She was a US citizen who had studied marine biology in college. Our enthusiasm for unloading to see some rinky-dink barn full of bones was low but we all did it. Well. Score one for the guides! The Acatushún Museum of Birds and Marine Mammals was really interesting. The museum is full of skeletons of everything from penguins to sea lions to whales and dolphins. More importantly, the museum tour is given by a working marine biologist based at the museum. Our guide provided a 20 minute overview, in English, of all the types marine mammals using their skeletons to explain unique behavior. All three of us walked out saying we were glad we went in. All day Jamie had been coughing and showing signs that he’d finally succumbed to the cold we’d passed around but we finally realized he was really sick when he got back on the bus and said he wanted the temperature *warmer*. That statement alone would normally justify a trip to the emergency room because something must be seriously wrong! We all settled in for the hour and a half drive back to Ushuaia. The bus windows fogged over immediately so the drive back was quiet as everyone napped or zoned out. I warmed up enough to remove a layer but Jonna and Jamie were both freezing the whole trip back. When we got off the bus at 9:30pm, 12 hours after we started our first tour in the morning, we were all in various states of sick, cold and tired. This lead to a few bad decisions to finish off the day. Since we’d missed lunch we quickly chose a buffet place we’d walked past yesterday as the spot for a late dinner. It was about five blocks in the opposite direction from our hotel. When we got there is was very crowded but we got seated pretty quickly. The food was mediocre at best - quantity over quality. I ended up eating more than I wanted which left me feeling overly full. Because it was going to be a long, cold walk back to the hotel we decided to get a taxi. We hopped in one but had a total communication failure. It became obvious the driver didn’t know where we were going even after showing him the address and he basically dropped us off three blocks later in a part of town none of us recognized. After some unnecessary backtracking we figured it out and had a freezing, sullen march for eight blocks to get to a warm room. Have you ever tried to make a cup of hot tea with a tea bag that has already been used a couple of times? Well, the color of the resulting tea is the color of the water in the pipes here. So I took a warm shower tonight but don’t know if I was washing off dirt or adding it. I think we all had a fantastic time on our excursions but we were also happy for the day to be done!
112) Río Lapataia, Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - This was our last day of adventure on this trip. Once again we we packed it full to see and do as much as we could while visiting this amazing place. Our day started early once again. We dragged ourselves out to scavenge for breakfast from the sparse options at the hotel and then got suited up for a day of outdoor adventure. As has been the norm here the temperature was mid-30s and it was snowing. Our guide for the day jokingly referred to this as "Island Weather Antarctica Style". The van picked us up and we found we would be sharing this tropical with nine others - an older couple from the US, a travel agent from Buenos Aires and a big family also from BA. Most of the talk as we drove was about today being election day in Argentina. Two candidates that are generally disliked by the majority but with some strong opinions about each one by a minority. Lots of disinformation, nationalism and rhetoric from both sides. It would be interesting to hear the results later that night... Our destination was nearby Tiera Del Fuego National Park. This is a large park set aside to protect the unique Andean Sub-Antarctic Forest that only exists in the southwestern corner of the island of Tierra Del Fuego. Our morning excursion was a raft trip on Rio Lapataia - a snow fed river that flows south into Lapataia Bay and then into the Beagle Channel. The last few miles of this river is a tidal estuary which is home to fish, seabirds and marine mammals. We layered up with practically one of everything we brought: base layer, hiking pants/shirt, winter "puffy" coat and rain gear on top. Then the rafting company provided us with dry suit pants and knee high rubber boots. I wore liner gloves with winter gloves on top, my fleece winter beenie and pulled up the hood of my rain jacket.
113) Río Lapataia, Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - There were six paddlers and a guide in each raft and when we first got on the water it was bitter cold especially my feet that weren’t well insulated in the rubber boots. We had a steady but not too strong headwind which meant we had to pull on the paddles hard right away (and two of our six paddlers, the older couple from the US, had no intention of doing a thing. Both put their paddles in their laps and spent the next two hours sightseeing and taking pictures. The lady’s paddle only got wet because is slipped out of the boat at one point and we had to circle back to recover it!) Away, after just a few minutes of digging away with the paddle I was unzipping layers and trying to cool off! I actually felt fine for most of the river trip just getting chilled a couple of times when the wind caught me while we were drifting. The park and even the snow covered mountains looming over us are the border between Argentina and Chile which was a theme for our paddle - see that mountain? Its peak is in Chile. See that passage in the bay? That is the border with Chile. See that trail? You can hike to Chile in 4 kms there. This brackish section of the river is also a border but between fresh water and the sea. Fish like trout and salmon live in it as do seabirds like fresh water geese and salt water cormorants.
114) Río Lapataia, Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - We were spotting various birds as we paddled but the big wildlife encounter was right where two rivers converge and become the bay. This is an area where juvenile male sea-lions hang out during the breading season - basically a place they can eat, play, learn to fight and stay well clear of the adult males who are beating the crap out of each other trying to protect or steal females from each other’s harems. When we reached this area there were a few sea-lions swimming around and they were curious about the lumbering red rafts floating through their playground. They would surface just a few feet away and look up at us or even swim underneath the raft to pop up on the other side. We spent about 15 minutes watching them. We finished the paddle and pulled the rafts out of the water at kilometer 0 of Ruta 3. The end (or the beginning as the Argentinians claim) of the Pan-American highway the other end of which is in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. There is even an official Fin Del Mundo (End of the World) sign. We may not have driven, ridden, cycled or walked the whole thing but pulling a raft out of the water and carrying it through the crowds, most of whom arrived by tour bus, allowed is to feel like we accomplished a little something. After we put way all the gear we loaded onto the waiting van and drove straight to the park visitor center where bathrooms awaited. From there we drove to the edge of the park to visit Lago Acigami (Lake Acigami) that is, surprise surprise, the border with Chile but it was just a quick photo stop. By now the intermittent snow had stopped but it was still cold and overcast. We back-tracked to the visitor’s center and crossed back over Rio Lapataia to a domed tent where the river guides for all the days rafting trips knocked out a camp-style lunch: lamb, pumpkin & lentil stew (minus the lamb for a veggie version) along with Malbec wine and a chocolate brownie/whipped cream dessert. Not gourmet by any stretch but a adventure themed meal for tourists (many of whom didn’t appear to be the outdoorsy types).
115) Senda Costera (Costal Path Trail), Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - After lunch we drove south towards Lapataia Bay where we had started our afternoon excursion - to hike the Coastal Path which is a hiking trail through the sub-Antarctic forest the park was created to protect. The hike was beautiful going through a pristine forest and along the shore of the bay.
116) Senda Costera (Costal Path Trail), Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - Hiking with a group wasn’t really our thing. The hike isn’t very long nor very strenuous but we were still hiking slower and with more frequent stops than we would naturally do. Because the hike was point-to-point we had to stay as a group since the guide would use a radio to call the van for a pick so we couldn’t just take off at our own pace even if the guide had allowed for it.
117) Senda Costera (Costal Path Trail), Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia, Argentina, November 19, 2023 - The guide did stop periodically to point out specific trees, plants and birds but mostly we just strolled through the woods where we periodically popped out onto pebble beaches with magnificent views of the snow covered Andes - mostly mountains across the bay in Chile. We finished up at Ensenada Zaratiegue, a cove with an old pier that houses the Post Office at the end of the world. We took a last selfie of the three of us on our Patagonian adventure before boarding the bus back to the hotel. We lounged and rested in the room for a bit as well as starting to pack for our long flight back. Around 8pm Jonna and I went out for dinner while Jamie, who had been feeling second hand all day, skipped food and headed to bed early. (As we passed this cold around we have each had one night where we crashed out early.) Jonna found a nice local pub for dinner and we joined a mostly Argentinian crowd for a meal and to wait while election results rolled in. Just as we finished the word came down that Argentina was taking their own ride on the far right wing crazy train with the election of Milei. We’ll see how it works out for them... We walked back to the hotel in the cold night air and were surprised the city was relatively quiet. After watching some TV to hear how the election was being covered by the media we called it a night. The next day we started the unfathomable trip of flying from the southern-most point of South America all the way north to San Francisco.
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