11/13: Ushuaia's Sail on Beagle Channel & Hike to Martial Glacier!

I know many of you have been waiting for a long time to see photos of penguins and other adorable animals from our Antarctica cruise but I am way behind writing blog posts because of having no internet for basically three weeks. I will get to the 'fun posts' as soon as possible but will continue writing them in order. I may also intersperse posts from our final two weeks in Ireland and Great Britain. Thank you for your patience!

Because of the short-lived pilots' strike in Buenos Aires the preceding day on Argentina's national airline, we had to be up at 2:30 for the ungodly early flight to Ushuaia, what's regarded as the southernmost town on the South American continent. The reason - our long anticipated trip to visit our last continent, Antarctica!

Ushuaia was stretched out way below!

After checking into our B&B, we were very luckily able to get the last two seats on a tour by sailboat of some of the islands in the Beagle Channel that surrounded Ushuaia including Isla H.  

A few shots of the port area before our boat left:

This was our first glimpse of our ship the Ushuaia that we would be taking the next day on our ten-day trip to Antarctica - as a former scientific research vessel, it would not exactly be termed a 'cruise ship' but we were really excited, nonetheless!

Ushuaia - the End of the World!

I love seeing these distance signs around the world!

I asked Federico, the crew member in charge, about what effects from climate change he might have seen in the six years he had spent in the southern part of Argentina. He commented he'd seen the glaciers recede and that there had been less snow in the winters recently.

There was zero wind when we left the port so the crew had to use the motor. It was an unusually warm day because it was so sunny, we were told. It would stay light until about 9:45. We soon realized that would be the norm throughout the next three weeks in Antarctica and also Patagonia.

On the other side of the Beagle Channel that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were the mountains that belonged to Chile as the two countries were so close here at the bottom of the world. Half the channel belonged to Chile.

The boat motored on to Caco Island in the channel so we could view the king cormorants. The birds use kelp, guano and grass to build their nests at this time of the year which was their breeding season. They lay twelve eggs a year.

The birds dive down normally 15 meters to catch their food but are capable of diving 50 meters, an astonishing 150 feet! They can also stay underwater for up to 50 minutes at a time.

I bet if you used your imagination, you could also smell the stench from so many cormorants in one fairly small island!

When they flapped their wings loudly on top of the water, that was their way of cleaning themselves, not to attract the opposite sex as I thought!

Well before we approached Alicia Island, we could hear the roar of  its only inhabitants, the sea lions  - they were certainly noisy so and so's! 

Federico said this was their 'love season' with one male and many females - i.e. a harem! We couldn't tell but the males were bigger and had fur around their necks. 

The beak in the middle of the picture was all I could see, unfortunately, of a turkey vulture that had also taken up residency on the small island.

I wish I could have recorded the sounds they made for you as they belched and snorted and wheezed like they were suffering from asthma! Though the stench of their poop was really strong, none of us on board wanted to leave after twenty minutes of staring at the magnificent animals.

Just below the surface of the water were large amounts of kelp growing.

Of the many tour operators at the port, Tres Marias was the only outfitter with permission to land in the Isla Bridges natural reserve on Isla H. 

Didn't Steven look all equipped for a trip to Antarctica with his colorful parka?! Our friend Janina kindly lent it to him as she and her husband, Pat, had matching jackets provided by their far more upscale National Geographic cruise of Antarctica a couple of years ago.

I don't recall seeing this shade of rust-colored lichen before.

Dried kelp on the rocks:

Just visible was the mast of our sailboat.

Kelp forests near the shore:

As we walked around the island, Federico talked about the now extinct Yamana indigenous people who had once spent time on the island. They were mostly a nomadic people who traveled by canoe made from the bark from evergreen trees. They lived together in small family groups apart from other groups. Their tents were made from wood and kelp. 

Different varieties of dried kelp on the shore:

Federico pointed out bones from sea lions the Yamanas had hunted with harpoons. As it was an important cultural legacy, it had been left undisturbed.

The whale bone had been left by the Yamana people. When early explorers 'discovered' this part of the world, they called it Tierra del Fuego or Land of Fire because they saw smoke from so many fires on this and other islands from the Yamana and other tribes who lived in the area.

The Yamana people used sea lion fat on their skin because they wore no clothes, even in the winter. They made sure to stay in places protected from the very strong southeast winds. Sadly, the nearly 6,000 year-old Yamana culture disappeared, according to Federico, at the beginning of the 20th century from diseases they contracted from Anglican missionaries. 

Bet most of you have never heard of the Flightless Steamer Duck! Apparently, it has long feathers and can swim like it has a turbo engine but it can't fly.

The water was remarkably clear as you can see here.

We were on an isthmus that at high tide would be covered by water.

Onward and upward to the top of the hill!

The moss on the rock looked remarkably soft but, when Steven asked me to touch it, it felt harder than a rock!

I had no idea when I took this photo that we would be seeing these small plants all over Patagonia in a few weeks. 

I hope you won't get sick and tired of seeing many more photos of the amazing landscape at the end of the world because it continued to leave us spellbound.

From the top of the island's small hill:

Back to the boat:

As the small, picturesque sailboat only had room for eight passengers, we were happy to snag the last two seats, especially at the last moment.

The winds had picked up so the crew was able to sail back to Ushuaia which was so much more fun than being on a sailboat operated by an engine!

At the recommendation of our wonderful B&B host, we then took a taxi across town to the bottom of Martial Glacier so we could go for a hike.

In ski season, there's a chairlift up to this point, an hour-long slog up a steep hill for us.

We continued 'hiking' or walking in the snow a good piece but not as far as the glacier itself.

People walking down the hill had kindly given us their walking sticks when they saw us huffing and puffing up the steep stone hill earlier - how thoughtful was that! More on that in a few minutes!

The quickly running water had carved a hole in the snow.

Even though we didn't make it all the way, we still had gorgeous views of the glacier.

At the bottom of the hill were lots of walking sticks, there for the borrowing while climbing the hill. Now why didn't we see them when we started out?! We returned the ones we'd been given by the thoughtful people.

I was so glad our B&B host had suggested we stop at the House of Tea located at the bottom of the glacier as we deserved a 'spot of tea' after getting up so early that morning in Buenos Aires and had been so busy since!

The only other time we had ever noticed a tree wrapped in crocheted yarn was in a park outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a couple of years ago. Perhaps someone had too much time on their hands during the dark winter days when the sun shines for just two hours a day!

For my 'bathroom sign collection'! 

We took a taxi back downtown to the port area, paying in American dollars which we were told locals preferred to Argentine pesos. This boat was the St. Christopher.

Have you ever seen or heard of a hand knitted- or crocheted-covered handrail? I can safely tell you that was our first experience, too! 

We'd noticed the huge Ushuaia sign on our way into town that morning from the airport and walking along the shore back to it was our goal.

This was one of the more unusual homes we saw our first day in Ushuaia. We realized the next day that there was certainly no such thing as a housing code in any of the areas we saw. The area where our B&B was reminded us of the Wild West!

We walked back through the town's main street, stopping at lots of souvenir shops along the way, Zachary, as I was on the lookout for a couple of your favorite things!

The reason for Steven's big smile was a delicious dinner at La Estanica, Ushuaia's most popular restaurant, that we just happened upon! We realized we certainly should have ordered a single meal for both of us as the amount of meat was mammoth.

The restaurant was una parilla which translates to a BBQ place but really means grilled meat. Like the parillas in Buenos Aires, the grill was at the front of the restaurant so it was visible from the street and for all the patrons.

Next post: Discovering more of Ushuaia before finally boarding the Ushuaia for our long awaited cruise to the southernmost continent!

Posted at long last on December 5th, 2019, from Santiago, Chile, before beginning our third and last part of this six-week adventure in Paraguay.