Terrazas del Beagle Ushuaia

... as we approached Ushuaia, jagged mountain peaks and lakes all around. Got there at about 9pm so it was dark but managed to find a double room in our price range within about half an hour. The room seemed to be a plywood shed tacked onto the side of a house but it did us and was surprisingly warm which was nice as it was naturally quite chilly now, though not as cold as we had imagined it would be. I was half expecting it to be about minus 20 with arctic ...

... and in a quite bad state, this road serves mostly the Argentinians getting from the mainland to their part of Tierra del Fuego (there is no direct road access except via the Chilean part), so for obvious reasons, the Chileans do not improve this road, sadly. On Saturday, the weather was finally sunny and we went for some short walks in Tierra del Fuego national park - a great place ...

... and Argentina. The north end is flat and dry, it reminded me very much of southern Alberta, but with guanaco. The south end is more like the Rockies -- mountains and forests and crystal lakes. And here, at the end of the world, we ran into somebody we know from Prince George. Which, of course, left me humming "small world after all" for the next three days. Our first big task for Ushuaia (aside from finally ...

... and had no idea what to do - I had no money or phone and didn't know where I was. There were no cars going by and the ones that did didn't stop when I tried to flag them down. I just kept walking and a local guy with his son were walking towards me so I attempted to ask them for Pesos so I could get in another evil taxi and get home. They didn't understand but they figured out what had happened as I mimicked getting mugged and I was getting all teary.. so they kindly ...

... was even without the extra 11 crew members that would have to join us in case of real emergency. Paul suggested it was better than the alternative, but I'm not so sure.



We cast off shortly after the drill. The four of us - and many others - returned to the flying bridge to watch our progress down the Channel. It was gorgeous: still, though growing chilly as a light breeze stirred. We stayed until it was dinner time.



Dinner was fine ...

... We had a brief stop in Rio Gallegos, rather bizarre bus station that was next to a supermarket which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. The bus station was playing old dance music from the 90´s over the loud speakers (inside and out) - bringing back a few memories! So we sat in the sun waiting for our bus with sandwiches we had made, sipping cold beer from the supermarket and storking the few friendly dogs that were hanging around.

... gemacht haben. Als sie bem**kt haben das wir keine Karte d** Gegend haben schienen sie besorgt zu sein und gaben uns ihre. Wie sich in den folgenden Tagen h**ausgestellt hat, wären wir ohne diese wirklich völlig v**loren in d** Wildniss gewesen. Das waren auch die letzten Menschen die wir für die nächsten drei Tage angetroffen haben. Valentin und ich machten uns also nun mit Karte auf den Weg. Wir durchqu**ten ein Tal um üb** einen Pass in das nächste Tal zu kommen. Dort folgten wir ...

ANTARCTICA - The beginning! Dark boat cabin and humming engine noise in the background. It's early morning at the bottom of the world. "We have arrived in the Antarctic Peninsula, the coldest, the driest and the windiest place on Earth!" announced the voice on cabin speaker. As thrilling as this announcement sounded, I did not move from the bunk or open my eyes, fearing and wondering what this morning will bring. As the ship was rolling and rocking I started to ...

... the sun came out was quite warm. When the sun went down and the wind started, it got quite chilly. We go to the end of the trail, and had a great view of mountains all around us and the town well below us and then the beagle channel. But there certainly wasn't anything glacial about it. There was some snow, and maybe if we had big winter boots and hiked though the snow we could ...

... fu** den Tag. Es wird zur Estancia Hamb**ton und nach Tolhuin gehen. Gegen 13.00 Uhr geht es los. Heute wird es wied** einen Intensivkurs en Spanisch fu** mich geben, da Gabriel, Marianne und auch uns** Fahr** Freddy kein Englisch sprechen. Uns** Fahrt geht durch Waeld** und vorbei an Seen, die vom Wind gepeitscht sind. Wir sind begeist**t von d** Landschaft.! Es ist nur v**dammt kalt und windig! Die Estancia (Estancia nennt man ein Landgut in Südam**ika, auf dem ...