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October, 2006
On the morning of October 4th, we sadly left the Mare Australis and began our next adventure. We already had an excursion booked, so we checked into our hotel, walked around town a bit and that afternoon began our tour. Ushuaia (pronounced [u'swa.ja]) is the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, and one of the world's southernmost cities. It is located at 54°48'S 68°18'W on the southern coast of the island of Tierra del Fuego, in a setting surrounded by mountains and overlooking the Beagle Channel. As of 2001, Ushuaia had 45,430 inhabitants. The city was originally named by early British colonists after the name that the native Yámana people had for the area. For most of the first half of the 20th century, the city was centered around a prison for serious criminals. The Argentine government set up this prison following the example of the British with Australia: being a remote island, escape from a prison on Tierra del Fuego would have been impossible. The prisoners thus became forced colonists and spent much of their time cutting wood in the lands around the prison and building the town. They built a railway from the forests to the settlement, now used as a tourist train as the Tren del Fin del Mundo (End of the Earth Train), the southernmost railway in the world. We didn't travel on the Tren del Fin del Mundo, however, we did cruise along the Ushuaia bay and the Beagle Channel. We saw the southernmost city of the world with its unique landscape in Argentina, a combination of mountains, sea and forests. We traveled past the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse at the end of the world (Faro del fin del mundo) where a small rocky cormorants colony is located. On our return trip, we approached the Sea Lion's Island where we enjoyed these attractive sea mammals and also passed Despard Island which is the natural habitat of the Imperial Cormorants. Here's a video of our excursion ... we hope you enjoy it. Please note: This video is approximately 5 Mb in size.
Our time in Ushuaia was short, we stayed another day, rested and had a nice casual dinner with friends because we were both trying recover from our colds before our Peru trip. We flew out of Ushuaia and back to Buenos Aires on Friday, October 6th, stayed a night in Buenos Aires before traveling to La Paz, Bolivia. We used La Paz as our main hub for our trip to Peru. Follow us to Bolivia or catch up on the latest travels by selecting What's Happening. Don't forget ... keep coming back.
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