South America part 3

We disembarked the boat in Ushuaia. We had no idea how to pronounce this name so we googled it before the trip. We’ve seen it pronounced:
Oo swy uh, oo shwy ah, u sway uh, and oosh y uh. At least that’s better than ush u a i a.

We went on a fun and exiting 4 wheel drive off-road tour through the forest. It was thrilling and we learned about the surroundings.

Then we had a snack at the home of the owner of the 4 WD company. It was an interesting house that backed up to the woods. We met his wife and daughter and got to see how the locals live.

Look at the interesting table they had in their house. The artifacts in the table are under glass.

Our hotel was about 1/3 mile from the main part of town. As we walked down to St. Martin street, we passed by a skateboard park and a practice session for a marching band. Crab is a specialty in Ushuaia, so Bruce had a King Crab casserole for dinner at a local restaurant. These are the models in the store window:

The next day we flew back to Buenos Aires and had a good discussion about the economy of Argentina. We had a farewell dinner because half the group was going home while the rest of us were headed to Iguazu falls.

The word “Iguazu” means Big Water, and boy, was it ever big! We walked on cat walks above and next to the 275 water falls, to get views from different angles. Unexpectedly, it was only about 60 degrees and rainy. But that didn’t stop the butterflies. We saw hundreds of big, brightly colored friendly butterflies in the National Park. We also saw coatimundis, which are like raccoons.







Iguazu Falls is called Foz de Iguassu in Brazil and Cataratas del Iguazu in Argentina. They are on the border of these two countries and also Paraguay. The next day brought beautiful sunny weather with blue skies and gorgeous clouds. We walked on trails and cat walks and took a train in the park to see the upper and lower falls. We saw beautiful double rainbows.





The falls are twice as high as Niagara Falls and 65 feet wider. We approached the falls from a number of angles. At Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo), the water plunges 230 feet into a rolling cauldron. The spray flew up to 50 feet above our heads, The rainbows in it were breathtaking.

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The most exhilarating experience in the park was the combination truck-boat ride. We rode a truck through the jungle area, giving us a panoramic view of the area, and learning about the vegetation. Then we went on a 30 passenger motorized boat on the Panara river, at the canyon of the falls, through river rapids and the rushing waterfalls. We got soaking wet. This St. Martin waterfall is the largest waterfall that any motor boat can approach safely. Then we walked up stone steps right in the middle of the spectacular falls back to the top. Unforgettable!

That night we had to go through immigration into Brazil for a Latin America show and Brazilian Churrasscaria BBQ.



Then we went through immigration to get back to Argentina. Our experienced traveling partners complained that they were getting too many stamps on their passports and would have to apply for more pages to insert into their existing passport.

We woke up late and wandered through the little town of Puerto Iguazu. We visited the market and saw a strike going on for the garbage men. We enjoyed sitting by the pool until it was time to leave and return to Buenos Aires. We also had the afternoon at leisure so we walked around the pedestrian mall and ate at a nice Italian restaurant recommended by our guide.

On our last day, the ten of us left for northern Buenos Aires, the suburbs, and the Panara Delta. This area is surrounded by lush subtropical vegetation. Houses are built on isaldns that are separated by a twisting maze of waterways.Our guide told us all about the average family in the suburbs, their homes, and what it takes to buy your own house. This Tigre area is a nice suburb which reminds me of the Santa Clarita Valley. Some people live on the Panara Delta and some people use it as a vacation home. We took a boat ride on the delta. There are no roads, no markets, no services. Food and supplies are brought in by boat. There is a minimal-service medical clinic and a primary school that feeds the children breakfast and lunch. It’s a different, peaceful way of life.

We enjoyed seeing the area on our bus ride back to town. We had some free time for ice cream and packing. The flight was delayed about 3 hours, but our friends were in the airport, too, so we had a chance to reminisce about our adventure before the long trip home.

Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn, part 2

Ah, our home for the next 4 days. What a luxurious cabin and boat! The Via Australis was built especially for cruising the waters of the Strait of Magellan around Tierra del Fuego and the Beagle Channel(named after Darwin’s ship) all the way to Cape Horn. The meals consisted of Argentinian and Chilean delicacies, with all the wines and drinks that we wanted. Naturalists lectured on various aspects of the area. Australis means Southern and Borealis means Northern.

At dawn on the first morning, we sailed into Ainsworth Bay, near the Marinelli Glacier. Magellan discovered this area in 1520. He was killed in the Philippines at the age of 41. A naturalist led us on a 2 hour walk along trails through a forest, full of local plants, shrubs, and trees.

We also saw a colony of elephant seals.


We saw devil’s strawberry plants, which they got sick from eating.

We also saw winter’s bark which they cooked and ate for the Vitamin C to prevent scurvy. The Patagonia area is all rock. However the glaciers carried the rock and then lichen grew on the rock. This turned into soil which then enabled plants and trees to grow. The rock became soil. There had been no edible food or plants in Patagonia.



Later in the afternoon, we once again boarded the zodiac boats for Tucker Island for an encounter with the penguins!


It was so much fun to watch them follow the leader, take a dip in the water, and even molt!



They are black on their backs to absorb the heat and white on their stomachs to camouflage themselves from predators in the water. The uropygial gland secrets a special oil to make themselves waterproof. It insulates them better than the gortex that we were wearing! Another gland between the eyes gets rid of the salt in the water so that they can drink it to stay hydrated. The naturalist taught us so many amazing details about the penguins. We also saw many other indigenous birds like the caracaras and cormorants.

Back on board our boat, we watched playful seals, dolphins, and penguins in the water. We sailed through Beagle Channel and luckily, were able to land at Pia Glacier. All our shore landings took place, weather permitting, due to the notoriously rough seas, which were calm for us! We saw and heard the thunderous calving of the glacier, with icebergs crashing into the water. This region is the fastest area of glacial retreat on Earth.


About 15 of us set out to hike up the glacier.


I got tired and knew that I couldn’t make it up the incline, so I stopped about half way up.


I was going to wait by myself on the trail and take in the silence and beauty of the glacier. But then I figured that when everyone else returned, I’d still be the slowest, so I thought I’d head on down myself and they’d catch up. Bad move. I went left, they went right. I ended up down by the water which is not where we started. I waited and waited. I walked around. I took a final picture of myself with my camera in case I was discovered at a later time.


I felt alone in the universe with no sound except the glaciers. I decided to walk over a hill of ice, which was very slippery. Aha! There they were! Everyone had finished their hike and were drinking scotch, wine, soda, or hot chocolate, waiting for the zodiac boats to take them back to the boat.


They all thought that I had returned to the boat with an earlier group so nobody was looking for me. When they saw my cabin key was still on the board at the disembarkation point, they still thought that I was on the ship, but had forgotten to pick up my key. It was a funny experience, in restrospect.

After lunch, we sailed through Murray Channel and Avenue of the Glaciers, also called Glacier Alley. We saw several amazing glaciers: Romanche, Germany, France, Italy, and Holland Glaciers. We were served sausages and beer as we passed the Germany glacier; cheese, crackers, grapes and champagne as we passed the France glacier; pizza and wine for the Italy glacier; and something weird on a toothpick for the Holland glacier. Because drinks were included in package on the ship, we had Bailey’s cappuccinos in the afternoons. It was fun to sit in the bar by the windows and watch as we passed by each glacier.

From 9:30-10:00 pm, the boat passed by Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. In fact, if you draw a line horizontally around the globe, the only city you will find is Ushuaia. All the rest is ocean. We could see the lights of Ushuaia and we had mobile phone coverage for ½ hour out of the entire 4 day cruise.

We woke up early to disembark before breakfast at 7:30 am for Cape Horn. Once again, the weather was better than expected and we were even a little warm! The sea was a little rocky so the zodiac ride to Cape Horn was considered a Disneyland “E” ticket ride.


We climbed the 160 steps to see the rocky promontory rising nearly 1400 feet above the water, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet.

This is Cape Horn.


We walked on planks to the Albatross monument, dedicated in 1992 to the memory of those lost at sea.


We also saw the unknown sailors monument. Eight hundred ships have sunk here and 10,000 men have lost their lives trying to cross this area. We also went to the lighthouse, overseeing the southern most part of the world. A sailor is stationed here for one year at a time. The Cape Horn experience was quite magical.

Because the weather was relatively calm, we sailed around the bottom of Cape Horn, too. In fact, this was the first time that our guide had ever been on a voyage that sailed south of Cape Horn.

After breakfast, we saw a film on Ernest Shackelton, an explorer who tried to cross Antarctica, in 1915. It was an amazing true story of a group of men who were stuck on Antarctica for 20 months, until they were all rescued, with no lives lost.

In the afternoon, we disembarked in Wulaia Bay, once the site of the region’s largest native settlements. We learned about the Yamana or Yaghan and Tehuelches people that used to live around the Beagle Channel. Magellan called them “Patagons” which means “giants.” They were about 5’11,” while the Spaniards at the time averaged about 5’1.” Another story is that Magellan named them “Pathagonis,” which means dogs with great paws. Wulaia was Charles Darwin’s landing point during his famous voyage of the Beagle. We trekked through a forest of scenic native vegetation. Darwin and his captain, Fitz-Roy took 4 Fuegan natives back to England to form them into 2 proper Englishmen and 1 Englishwoman. The one-room museum explained the whole story which was amazing.

Here's a before and after picture of one of the natives who was taken to England to be "civilized."

Dolphins swam, jumped, and played all around our zodiac boats as we sped back to the ship. There were so many of them. It was an exciting end to this part of our vacation. The next morning we disembarked for the final leg of the trip.