Historical/Background Info:
Ushuaia is located on the Beagle Channel and on the southern shore of the VERY large Argentine island of Tierra del Fuego (3625 sq miles). All the land between the Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel is the island. Ushuaia has long been described as the southernmost city in the world, hence it is said to be at the “bottom of the world”. It has a population of nearly 60,000. Their main economic activities are fishing, natural gas and oil, sheep farming, and tourism. There is also a large electronics factory located here. 90% of the expeditions to Antartica leave for Ushuaia. During the winter months (April-October) people come here for cross country and downhill skiing. Ushuaia has a sub polar oceanic climate but the winters are really not really that cold. Average winter temperature is 35F/2C and summer average temperature is 50F/10C. Snow is common in both winter and even summer. Summers tend to be cloudy and windy.
The Beagle Channel is 150 miles long and 3 miles wide at narrowest point. It is the other inland passage to avoid going around the treacherous open ocean Cape Horn tip of South America. The Magellan Strait is the other inland passage, of course. The Beagle Channel was named after the HMS Beagle while doing the first surveys of the southern coast of South America between 1826 and 1830. Charles Darwin was on the second voyage of the Beagle a couple years later. After departing Ushuaia we will be taking the Beagle Channel out to the Atlantic Ocean.
What We Did Today:
Ok, here is what I will be doing on the blog today. Rebecca still has cold and cough but getting better. I decided not to do our tour also. It is same tour that we did back in 2012 so I have added narrative and photos from that day here in 2012. I think you will really enjoy those photos as there are several rainbows in them.
We arrived here at 10:30 this morning. Although it was a mostly a beautiful mostly sunny day, it was also very windy. Winds were 35+ knots as we were approaching the harbor. The Captain had told me the night we had dinner with him that his crosswind limit for docking was 20 knots. I was concerned we may have to skip this port also. But the closer we got to the pier the winds died down quite a bit. I think this was due to the mountains. Anyway, he did a great job and got us tied up to the pier. The temperature was 45F this morning. It is now 3:00 pm and wind is 18 knots with a temp of 44F. Now there are occasional little rain shower but the sun is out so I am sure there are more rainbows.
Neither of us worked out this morning. After lunch I bundled up and walked into town. The town is just right off the pier so it is very convenient. The cough drops I got yesterday in Punta Arenas were not cough drops but for sore throat. We had Gabby who works at the tour desk on board read the box I got. (She is from Argentina) So she wrote out in Spanish what I was to get today at the pharmacy. That is where I went. I got the drops and a Z-pac (antibiotics) for $15. It really was not cold when I got in town so I enjoyed walking around some. I saw a lady we knew from the ship in a chocolates store drinking some hot chocolate so I decided to have some too. It was $3 and VERY delicious. I saw several of our crew members walking around in town also. Below is the link to today's photos.
https://goo.gl/photos/rEBs3jg7WrMBZBgc6
Before I put the 2012 tour info on today's post, let me talk some about this evening's plans. We have been invited to join Joe & Judy Carlson for dinner in Prime 7 at 7:00 pm. We will be sailing at 8:00 pm for our next port which is Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. It is a 467 nautical mile leg so will not be arriving there until 7:00 am on Monday. We will be leaving the safety of the Beagle Channel for the Atlantic Ocean about an hour after leaving here. I will definitely have my Transderm Scop patch on for seasickness as I know it is going to be a very rough trip. The show tonight is the second performance by Peter Wardell, the magician. Did not see his first show so may try to catch this one.
Ok, below is the description of and photos taken during our tour here in 2012.
We departed the ship for our 5 hour "Lago Escondido and Los Cotorros" tour. Our bus headed toward the north part of the island on National Route 3. It is the only way to get from Ushuaia to the northern side and all the goods from mainland Argentina are trucked in on this highway. We went through valleys winding our way to cross the Andes through Garibald Pass at the 1500 foot level. In many of the valley floors were peat bogs formed over 1000's of years. We saw in one valley where they were "harvesting" or drying the peat to use as fuel or bagged for garden use. We finally reached Lake Escondido which is the second largest lake on Tierra del Fuego. The largest lake was on the other side of it and was nearly 100 miles long. After a photo stop we turned around and stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant named "Los Cotorros". We had stopped there earlier for a restroom break and saw where they were cooking the lamb we would be served later for lunch. The way they were cooking it was a typical Argentine way. You will see how in my photos. Lunch consisted of a salad bar, bread, lamb, potatoes, wine, and ice cream. Then we were treated by watching the owner, who they called Monkey, make his "Monkey coffee". I can not tell you what all was in it but there were several different liquors. He even put an ember from the fire in it as he said that made the coffee grounds go to the bottom of the huge coffee pot. It did not taste like coffee but was quite tasty. They also had many huskies (sled dogs) and during the winter you could take huskie sled rides.
Once again today the weather would change every few minutes. It was mostly sunny with an occasional 2 minute very light shower. This produced several rainbows during the day for us to enjoy. Our tour guide said they have rainbows all the time. We had a great time today as the Andes, valleys, and lakes were absolutely awesome. This is where the Andes mountain range ends so they are only 3,000 to 4,000 feet high down here.
I would love to see Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego during the winter with all the snow. The French & Italian ski teams train here during winter so that means they can train about year round.
https://goo.gl/photos/qqg9WaHLoUhRzLE96
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