We are spending today in Ushuaia, Argentina. It is located on the Beagle Channel on the southern shore of the very large island of Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia is the world's most southern city, hence it is said to be at the "bottom of the world". There are some electronics industries and tourism here. 90% of the trips to Antarctica leave from here. During the winter months, April through October, people come for cross country and downhill skiing. It is an incredibly beautiful part of the world, and we as discovered today, a photographer's dream.
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. After returning to Ushuaia the bus stopped in town and we got off to check out the shops before walking back to the ship.
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.
We will sail at 8pm tonight and will be at sea tomorrow before arriving in our next port on Tuesday, which is Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands. Tonight we are dining again in Prime 7, the steakhouse. The Super Bowl will be shown in the theatre starting at 8:30 our time. Our cruise director is planning a big party with beer, burgers, hotdogs, cheerleaders, and who knows what else! Down here, sunrise was at 6:09 and sunsets at 9:26 today. Long days during summer.
