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Kevin and Joannie on tour
Today we had booked a trip to see the wildlife on the Beagle Channel. Joan has always wanted to visit Ushuaia since watching the Voyage of the Beagle on the TV in the 1970s. She has always been interested in Captain Robert Fitzroy who funded Darwin's trip on the Beagle. Peter Nicholls' book Evolution's captain is a very readable account of this complex man.
The trip was in the afternoon so we took an early lunch before walking down to the departure pier.
On the way we passed the Malvinas/Falklands memorial. Though perhaps to both of us, the Falklands Conflict is something that happened a long time ago and somewhere very far away, it is clear that here it is very much a wound that hasn't healed and is still in the very forefront of people's consciousness. Clarkson and Co perhaps underestimated this on their jaunts for this year's Christmas Top Gear.
By the memorial there was an exhibition of photos from the conflict. What struck us both was that the Argentinian troops were just boys - as one of the captions said "Barely teenagers." Sleeping in small tents in Port Stanley must have been tough for them. Interestingly there were photos of British POWs. We couldn't remember this being on the news at the time.
At the pier we boarded a catamaran for our 6 hour voyage down the Beagle Channel. The pictures speak for themselves. We saw cormorants and sea lions on the way to penguin island. Across the water we could see Puerto Williams which beats Ushuaia as the southernmost town in the world - a point sorely contested by the Argentinian commentator who described it as a military garrison.
Suddenly we slowed. The Captain had seen a whale. We turned round and were lucky enough to catch a whale rising out of the water. Kevin even got a photo of its fin.
Passing Gable Island with its unusual erosion patterns that makes the rocks look like house gables, we finally reached the penguins. The boat drew close to the shore. The penguins were nearly as curious about us as we were about them. They came to the back of the boat to look at us all filming and taking photos. There were two main types of penguin, Magellenic and another. Kevin was surprised how small they were. Amongst them, nearly double their size, was a very fine King penguin, who randomly turned up here a few years ago, despite their being none of his/her fellow species anywhere in the vicinity.
Ominously perched on a stump above the penguins was a penguin eating brown bird.
The way back to Ushuaia was much choppier with water crashing over the bows. A petrel flew alongside the catamaran for a while.
The guide gave us some interesting facts about Ushuaia. In the 1970s the Argentinian Government encouraged more people to come and live here (maybe to stop a claim from Chile?). They offered fiscal incentives for companies to relocate here. With jobs came people and the population increased by 5 fold in just ten years! She said the subsequent building of houses was pretty disorganised. This explained the area of town that we are staying in. The houses are 1970 custom built homes (pre-fabs) with concrete walls, held together with RSJs and corrugated roves. Over the years they have been extended and added to but you can still see the original house structures. Our apartment is in a rather ramshackle extension to one of these houses. Once inside it is small but fit for purpose but the downstairs floor is, let us say, work in progress!
Kevin was curious about the chimneys which are an unusual H shape. We are guessing that this is to stop the frequent rain and snow falling directly down the flue.
We ate a tortilla of sweetcorn and mushrooms for dinner, and ate a small piece of very sweet cake
The trip was in the afternoon so we took an early lunch before walking down to the departure pier.
On the way we passed the Malvinas/Falklands memorial. Though perhaps to both of us, the Falklands Conflict is something that happened a long time ago and somewhere very far away, it is clear that here it is very much a wound that hasn't healed and is still in the very forefront of people's consciousness. Clarkson and Co perhaps underestimated this on their jaunts for this year's Christmas Top Gear.
By the memorial there was an exhibition of photos from the conflict. What struck us both was that the Argentinian troops were just boys - as one of the captions said "Barely teenagers." Sleeping in small tents in Port Stanley must have been tough for them. Interestingly there were photos of British POWs. We couldn't remember this being on the news at the time.
At the pier we boarded a catamaran for our 6 hour voyage down the Beagle Channel. The pictures speak for themselves. We saw cormorants and sea lions on the way to penguin island. Across the water we could see Puerto Williams which beats Ushuaia as the southernmost town in the world - a point sorely contested by the Argentinian commentator who described it as a military garrison.
Suddenly we slowed. The Captain had seen a whale. We turned round and were lucky enough to catch a whale rising out of the water. Kevin even got a photo of its fin.
Passing Gable Island with its unusual erosion patterns that makes the rocks look like house gables, we finally reached the penguins. The boat drew close to the shore. The penguins were nearly as curious about us as we were about them. They came to the back of the boat to look at us all filming and taking photos. There were two main types of penguin, Magellenic and another. Kevin was surprised how small they were. Amongst them, nearly double their size, was a very fine King penguin, who randomly turned up here a few years ago, despite their being none of his/her fellow species anywhere in the vicinity.
Ominously perched on a stump above the penguins was a penguin eating brown bird.
The way back to Ushuaia was much choppier with water crashing over the bows. A petrel flew alongside the catamaran for a while.
The guide gave us some interesting facts about Ushuaia. In the 1970s the Argentinian Government encouraged more people to come and live here (maybe to stop a claim from Chile?). They offered fiscal incentives for companies to relocate here. With jobs came people and the population increased by 5 fold in just ten years! She said the subsequent building of houses was pretty disorganised. This explained the area of town that we are staying in. The houses are 1970 custom built homes (pre-fabs) with concrete walls, held together with RSJs and corrugated roves. Over the years they have been extended and added to but you can still see the original house structures. Our apartment is in a rather ramshackle extension to one of these houses. Once inside it is small but fit for purpose but the downstairs floor is, let us say, work in progress!
Kevin was curious about the chimneys which are an unusual H shape. We are guessing that this is to stop the frequent rain and snow falling directly down the flue.
We ate a tortilla of sweetcorn and mushrooms for dinner, and ate a small piece of very sweet cake
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