This morning Larry was up and showered by 6:30! He was rip raring to go to Tierra del Fuego...a place he has been reading and talking about for years. We went up to the Horizon Dining room to have breakfast and had an amazing seat next to the window that faced the town of Ushuaia...OH MY GOSH!! WHAT A VIEW!
A little town nestled into tall snow capped mountains. We were told later during the day that the snow had just come the night before so we were so lucky to get to see the mountains freshly snow capped. This was the end of their summer. The highest temperature ever recorded here was 72 degrees F. It was 49 today.
We walked into the neatly kept town from the dock passing the Lord Nelson tall sailing ship from England...Nelson was the admiral we learned about back in Antigua...his name is still getting about!
We passed several shops and then found a driver who spoke some English. We hired him to take us to the National Park...Tierra del Fuego which means Land of Fire...an archipelago located at the southern most tip of South America with part belonging to Argentina and the other to Chile. The explorer Magellan gave this name to the land back in the 16th century because the natives had numerous fires set about the area to keep themselves warm. The natives wore very little clothing...How did they stand the cold temps? They spread animal fat all over their bodies and huddled close together near the fires. Still sounds awful chilly to me.
Our driver, Edwardo, took us on a little tour of the city showing us the airport, the casino, the main shopping street, the southern most golf course and up to the famous little railway station that took tours up through the park.
We had numerous Kodak moments as we went from a paved road to a dirt road traveling the Pan American Highway to the end of the world through the national park. Gorgeous vistas of Beagle Channel....standing in Argentina and seeing the snow covered mountains in Chile and Redonda Island. STUNNING!
We enjoyed seeing the towering Andes Mountains that had been carved out by glaciers! We watched two Fuegan Red Foxes on different occasions. They were large with enormous thick tails.
We spotted a hawk sitting high up on a dead branch of tree......... and wild horses.
We hiked the Hito Trail taking pictures of the Roca Lake and then went to Arias Port to see views of the Lapataia Bay, the last stop of the 12,000 miles across two continents on the Pan American Highway. For about three hours Edwardo took us to numerous photo spots with fabulous scenery before taking us back to the city. He charged us $50.00 each for the private tour...a bargain. The ship excursion would have cost $129.00 each on a bus with 50 other people. Were we fortunate to find Edwardo? Yes indeed! He even gave us some free Spanish lessons.
We walked around Ushuaia visiting a few shops and seeing the local park that saluted heroes from the past. We also walked through a display of large outdoor photos that told the story of the Falkland Islands War of 1982.
The morning was foggy and misty rain from time to time, but the sun came out about 1:00 and we enjoyed the warmth of it shining on our faces. We boarded the ship at 3:30....a long line indicated that everyone did not want to leave so soon.
Larry and I went on the back of the ship to enjoy the ship disembarking in all this fabulous scenery surrounding us. It was SPECTACULAR ...But breezy!
Around 5:00PM we decided to go up to the Skywalker Lounge on the 18th floor on the back of the ship to warm up and continue watching the stupendous views of the mountains as the ship passed. We were very fortunate to stake out two seats facing the starboard side where we had dinner and watched for icebergs. OH MY! Frozen masses of ice. Some were really deep blue. We spotted several small icebergs floating in the Beagle Channel.
We watched for them until it was almost dark. The days are longer here because it did not get dark until 9:00pm. WHAT A TREMENDOUS DAY! We both had big smiles on our faces and lots of good memories about being in the southern most part of South America!
The sun is sinking on yet another fantastic day!
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