Beanie Goes to the Birds..... - February 28, 2008

Buenas dias - from the beautiful port city of Ushuaia, Argentina.

Yes, the whole family (including Wayne) made it across the border from Chile. We will be travelling on this side of Patagonia for the couple of weeks, and don´t anticipate Wayne being thrown into handcuffs the next time we cross over!

Ushuaia is officially the furthest south city in the world. Very much a working port community with cruise ships, tankers, sail boats and a very active Argentinean Navy presence. It lies in the middle of the Beagle channel (Beanie is simply overwhelmed by all these dog references), with Argentina being on the eastern half of the Tierra del Fuego Island and Chile taking up the rest of the land on both sides of the channel. Our 14 hour bus ride from Puerto Natales to here was long, but went seamlessly - a reminder of how poor our public transport in Canada is..... Upon leaving the land around Puerto Natales and heading south, the landscape turns into a barren, desolate world. Populated only by sheep (hundreds of thousands of them), the odd estancia (ranch), some oil and gas wells and a whole lot of nothing..... kinda like SE Saskatchewan.

After crossing the Strait of Magellan via ferry one has left the final solid land of the Americas and is now on Tierra del Fuego - an expansive island that is shared between Chile and Argentina. Travelling through the city of Rio Grande brought memories of the infamous Falklands' War of the 1980´s. The city served as the main military outpost for the Argentinean´s in their 'scrimmage' with Great Britain and is strewn with old relics. Not too sure what the government was thinking.... but the one thing that Argentina most certainly has is a colourful political history!

It is not until the final 150km heading south that one starts to see things like trees and hills again. Cows take over from sheep and the ranches are huge and much more modern looking than their Chilean counterparts. Suddenly the southern Andes besiege you. In many ways it seems that you are in the Alps with the towering mountains and valley lakes.

We camped for a couple of days in the National Park for Tierra del Fuego. Pristine and free campsites were shared the first day by a large part of the Ushuaia population. The Sunday afternoon saw hundreds of families having BBQ´s (they sure love their beef) and the unusually warm weather had us even sun tanning the afternoon away at our campsite. All shared with the rabbits of the park..... thousands and thousands of rabbits. Man - in our infinite wisdom imported rabbits and beavers to this land in the 1900s. Needless to say, neither have any natural predators, so now there are rabbits and beavers ALL OVER the place.

Beanie had to go pose by the channel for Mae´s benefit and for photos to be sent to Beagle Paws Rescue group back in Newfoundland. We learned yesterday that the 'HMS Beagle' in which Fitz Roy journeyed through these parts with Charles Darwin in the 1830´s, was truly named for the Beagle dog. Goes to show why Beagle´s can´t stay at home!

Day hikes, outstanding weather and a stunning trek up to a mountain top along the channel allowed for views of the land to the south. Even down to Cape Horn - very cool!

****HUGE TRIP HIGHLIGHT****
Best of all - little critters dressed in formal black and white outfits. Beanie was beside himself yesterday when we went to the 20,000 acre Harberton Ranch, got into an inflatable boat and went to Marillo Island to spend some time hanging out with - you guessed it - PENGUINS!!!!! Ok - so I may have taken a couple of photos..... maybe even a couple of memory cards worth - but oh my - they are SO CUTE! Wayne was not quite as taken with them as Beanie & I (it seemed to be a female thing cause most of the lady human chicks and Beanie were all pretty excited). I won´t ramble about them (did I mention how cute they are?!?) but to be part of a group of only 14 people and to get on the shore and walk around with these little creatures was pretty special! Due to the island being owned by the ranch, only their tours (limited to 14 people at one time, twice per day) can land and go ashore - certainly worth the price of admission.

So there is what our journey to the end of the earth (tourist lingo) in Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego has been like. We grab an airplane later today and head north, to El Calafate, back into the mountains and to the home of two granite wonders called Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre - two of the most challlenging climbs on the planet. I just hope this weather holds and we get to see them!

Safe journeys to you in your part of the planet,

Cheryl, Wayne & the Beanie