Sunday, March 17, 2019 – Happy St. Pat’s!
I took yesterday off, from writing, and essentially everything else. I disembarked from the ship about 8am and took a taxi to my hotel. Fortunately, they had a room available and let me check in! I got into my room and unpacked a couple of things, then went back downtown to make arrangements for things to do today and tomorrow. Ran into some people from Seattle I met on the ship and wandered around town for about an hour with them. Said our goodbyes, as they had to get to the airport, and grabbed some lunch. Went back to the hotel and stayed in all afternoon. There’s a restaurant adjacent to the hotel, so had dinner there and was back in my room and in bed by about 9:30.
The luck of the Irish didn’t come through for the weather today. It was rainy and cold. Even I find it ironic that I think its cold since I just finished with Antarctica, but it was a wet cold. This is the first time I’ve really had wet and dry cold weather so close together, so I really get it now! I got rained on first thing this morning, and just never really got warm the rest of the day. (Note to David: I turned the heat on when I got back to my hotel room–that’s how cold I was!)
Other than the rain, the day was good and pretty interesting. I took a 4×4 tour of the lakes northeast of Ushuaia. There were two vehicles with 6 passengers each, and I was the only American and native English speaker. Others were from Brazil, Germany, Spain and Italy, and of course the guides are Argentinian. Only two people really didn’t know at least a little English, most know a little Spanish, so we switched between English and Spanish. I often wish I were fluent in at least one other language. I can get by (barely) in Spanish, but its exhausting and I know I miss half the words just due to processing time. Reading is easier than speaking, and listening is ok except I’m continually asking Spanish speakers to slow down.
We drove a few miles out of town to Garibaldi Pass in the Andes, Just on the other side of the pass is Escondido (Hidden) Lake. Well, it’s hidden because its foggy there most of the time, and today was no exception! Since the season is changing from Summer to Autumn here, the colors on the other side pass were quite beautiful. Most of the trees are called Lenga (beech family), which are native and prolific in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Some were turning brilliant, beautiful shades of orange to red, but most are still green. The countryside must be ablaze with color later in the Fall. The grasses in the valleys are also turning rich, vibrant colors ranging from pale yellow to a deep maroon. Unfortuntately, it wasn’t a great day for photography, as we didn’t stop much, and there was water on the outside of the windows, so made a few attempts to get pics out the window early, but later in the day it was impossible.
We travelled through a small town that was a thriving sawmill community in the early 1960s. The wigwam burners were made of brick!!
Just after passing through the town we turned off on a dirt road, then about 2 miles in we turned onto the 4-wheel drive road. It was several miles of typical wet and muddy 4-wheeling until we reached Lake Fagnano (pronounced fon-yah-no).
When we reached Lake Fagnano, we stopped along the shore and had some coffee and pastries, and they showed us the Calafate bush. Its a scrubby bush about 5 feet high with huge thorns and fruit like a blueberry, but smaller, and the inside has a reddish-purple color. I picked about 10 and ate them. Sorta tart, kinda sweet. As you might imagine (and I forgot to mention) many products in the town of El Calafate are made from the berries… jams and jellies, shampoos, lotions, muffins… you get the picture.
At about 100km long and 60km wide, Fagnano is the largest lake in Tierra del Fuego. About 90% of it is in Argentina, with the westernmost 10% in Chile. At one time it was a glacier, so the shoreline is stones of all colors, types, and sizes. Due to the fog there was low visibility, so it was very monochromatic scene.
There are a lot of dead trees and small streams backed up into ponds, so guess why? Beavers!! Lots of beavers. 24 pair of beavers brought from Canada to Tierra del Fuego in the 1940s have grown to nearly 200,000 because there are no natural predators.
The guides told us nobody wants to trap them, as its hard, wet work and there’s not a market for their fur or meat. So, Chilean and Argentinian governments are looking into eradication options.
After the viewing of the beaver ponds and the 4×4 climb back out of Lake Fagnano, we went back to the sawmill town where we were supposed to go canoeing, but nobody was interested due to the rain and cold. So instead, they gave us another 4×4 ride from the shores of Escondido to the top of Garibaldi Pass. That was more than enough for me. We stopped at the lookout over Escondido Lake which we still couldn’t see very well, then headed back towards Ushuaia.
We pulled off the road and hiked about 1/2 mile in the rain to a small cabin, where the guides served us sausage, ham, cheese, olives, red wine, coffee, salad and argentinian steak with chimichurri sauce. The steak was cooked over a barrel-turned-bbq and was fabulous! Not really sure of the purpose of the cabin, but its surrounded by forest and apparently someone lives close by as there is a sled dog kennel on the property adjacent to the cabin/shelter, which we were invited to visit.
After lunch we made our way back to Ushuaia, where I was dropped off downtown so I could exchange US$ to Argentine$ (pesos). I took a taxi back to the hotel and have been here writing since! Yes, I’m finally warm and toasty, and about ready to go for a glass of wine but probably no dinner tonight, as lunch was late and filling.
Tomorrow I plan to take a tour of the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Its still pouring now, so I’m hopeful it at least slows down overnight. The forecast is cloudy, but not rainy. We shall see… I fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow evening to begin the last leg of this journey.
Travels with Nance 