Wednesday, February 10, 2016 – We were all excited to see the passage up the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, the Southernmost City (of 80,000 people) on the American Continent. Technically there is a small town with a population of 2,000 – Puerto (Port) Williams, Chile on the other side of the channel and thus south of Ushuaia. However, the Panamerican Highway which starts in Alaska and goes all the way through the Americas, ends at a spot we visited – Bahia La Pataia in the Tierra del Fuego National Park, 17,848 Km (11,090 Miles) from it’s start.
There had been snow on the Andean mountains last night, so the initial view of Ushuaia at 6 AM was that of a town surrounded by snow capped mountains (technically the Martial mountain range) on its Northern side and the 130 nautical mile (3 mile wide at its narrowest) Beagle Channel to its South. A stunningly beautiful sight. It may be appropriate to describe a little history and geography here as I was certainly unaware of some of these details before today.
When one sails between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (the southern ocean) at the bottom of South America, two countries – Argentina and Chile – come together into a final “point” – actually a series of islands and inlets / passages. One of the largest islands (515 miles in length, 28,473 Sq Miles or about the size of Ireland) is La Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego (The large island of the land of fire), so called because the local Yámana (aka Yagones) formed beach fires which Ferdinand Magellan saw in 1520, and thus called it land of fires. The Island is partly (2/3) owned by Chile and 1/3 by Argentina and to get by land from Ushuaia to the Argentine Capital of Buenos Aires one must travel through Chile and a total of 2,000 miles. This remote outpost in 1869 was home to the nomadic Yámana when an Anglican missionary – The Rev. Stirling and his assistant Thomas Bridges set about converting the local population. Fearing British interest and dominion over the region, Argentina established a naval base at Ushuaia and on October 12, 1884 incorporated the area into Argentine territory with a population for 300. In late 19th century, Argentine prisoners were sent to a Penal colony set up to house them. It had first to be built by the convicts and major deforestation took place. The notoriously cruel prison was closed in 1947. It is the jumping off point for Antarctic expeditions needing to acquire equipment and supplies for the journey and today is popular with cruise ships. Two other ships were in port today. The name Ushuaia in the local Yámana language translates to “Bay Penetrating Westward”.
Now to the geography of the area. The bottom of the continent area shaped like the end of a cornucopia is called Cape Horn with the island of Hornos the southernmost. To the north of Tierra del Fuego Island and between it and the mainland, is the Magellan Straight starting at the level just south of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas here) and curves its way past Punta Arenas (our next stop) to the Pacific. This is the usual passage for most ships and usually has less severe weather. The middle channel is the Beagel Channel passing past Ushuaia. The third and southernmost way of crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific is past Cape Horn and through the Drake Passage which is notorious for its bad weather. Due to the size of Queen Mary 2, both the Straights of Magellan and Beagle Channel are not big enough, so we came up the Beagle to Usuaia for the day to visit the place, then will go back South, go around Cape Horn and through the Drake Passage, eventually getting back into the Pacific side of the Magellan Straights for our next port – Punta Arenas, Chile. The Magellan Straight got its name from Ferdinand Magellan, The Beagle Channel from the HMS Beagle with it’s captain Robert Fitzroy and fellow passenger the Naturalist – Charles Darwin who in 1830 were leading an explanation to Patagonia. The Drake passage is named after Sir Francis Drake. A nearby mountain range 50 miles from Ushuaia is called the Darwin Mountains, so all these explorers had something named after them.
There was a delay of over an hour for the groups going ashore due partly to the Argentine Authorities Inspection as well as the severe weather conditions. The weather changes momentarily and can be extremely severe when moments earlier a calm sunshine was enjoyed. The captain later told us that due to the conditions, we very nearly had to skip the port completely. Nevertheless, we took the tenders (lifeboats) ashore and to the coaches for the tour. This initially was of the town and then to the 155,000 acre (opened in 1960) National Park of Tierra el Fuego. The stunning natural views of lakes and mountains capped with fresh snow and glorious sunshine made it a truly spectacular visit. The initial stop was at the Ensenada Zaratiegui Bay opposite the two Chilean islands – Isla Redonda (Round) and Isla Estorbo (“Hinderance” or “Bother”)!!! Pictures hardly do justice to the raw beauty of nature. From there we took Highway 3 (The Pan-American Highway) to the lodge overlooking Lago Roca (rock lake) or Lake Acigami (in the local Shagano language). We were on the Argentinian side but overlooked gorgeous Chilean mountan peaks and the lake partly in Chile and partly in Argentina. Beavers, introduced in the 1950’s for fur, now have no natural predator and cause major destruction in the park. To the extent that it is legal to hunt Beaver all year and is the only flora or fauna to be permitted for humans to take from the park. Crossing some narrow bridges which seemed only wide enough for the coach, over the Lapataia river we reached the end of the Pan-American Highway at Puerto Arias in the Lapataia Bay. A path of boards about half a mile long had been constructed over the marshes to get the stunning views of the bay. Again we were lucky that it was a gorgeous clear sunny summer day and the mountains all had fresh snow. It could not be more perfect 12C (53F) weather. This part of the world has 17 hours of daylight in Summer (now) and only 7 hours in winter and during that time the average temperature is -20C or -4F and can go to -35C (-30F). We all had to stop at the sign for pictures “End of the World” / End of Pan-American Highway!! I keep mentioning the fresh snow as later in the day and as we departed, the majority of the snow had melted and the many glaciers (Martial Glacier just above Ushuaia being the most prominent) were clearly visible.
Returning to Ushuaia, we had the afternoon free to wander around the town and have lunch. The specialty of the area is King Crab (Centolla), Beef and excellent wines, so we found a restaurant (Tamenina above HSBC Bank) overlooking the bay and enjoyed the wine and delicious crab which was prepared in a tomato sauce and served very hot both in temperature as well as spice (habanero sauce paled in comparison). However, despite the burning, the flavour was superb and we polished it all off. We also had to try the ice-cream made from Calafate fruit (a berry similar to blueberry) – delicious – in a word! We then had a few minutes to wander the shops and in one, (we were speaking in Spanish) where there were no other customers, got chatting with the two lady owners. After a while, they told us that “British People don’t buy anything from our shop”. Asking why, they just referred to “Political reasons” and didn’t want to discuss it any further!! We are very close to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas, locally) !!! Standing in the Queue to get onto the ship we saw a large “official looking” sign at the port entrance saying – “Prohibido el Amarre de Los Buques Piratas Ingleses” – “Mooring of British Pirate Ships is Prohibited”. This seemed to refer to all British ships as none of the tenders / lifeboats we used were allowed to moor flying British flags of any type (all had the red ensign flying at the time, as does QM2). Word came over the walkie talkies to the crew – Take down all flags from the bow and stern and keep them out of sight all day. All very interesting given that the Falkland war was some 34 years ago and I never sensed any anti British feelings in my many trips to Buenos Aires during the years after the war. Due to the geographical proximity of the Falklands, it seems that the feelings here are still very raw. Perhaps the sinking of the aircraft carrier General Belgrano as it left these waters, has something to do with it also. The four of us had no problem as we all spoke Spanish and when asked – “we were born in Mexico”, was uttered which not only was accurate but made us all OK in the mind of the locals !!
We decided that after the exciting day, we would get something light in the cafeteria and call it a night, particularly as we needed to be up early tomorrow to see the rounding of Cape Horn and the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Drake passage. However, one final point – as we left Ushuaia to it’s now almost “snow-less” mountains, we proceeded South along the Beagle Channel and some 40 minutes after departure, took a sharp turn to starboard, taking down the Argentine flag and putting up Chilean Flag and stopping just off the coast of Port Williams to clear with Chilean Authorities, who boarded as we were now in Chilean waters and the next port of call is Punta Arenas in Chile. As we were stationary, a yellow flag was also raised and the people on the Chilean vessel that left off the immigration authorities were very excited to see us, hooting and hollering, taking pictures and selfies from their (relative) tiny vessel.
Roger & Anne Travels 