After Patagonia we had very quick trip down to Ushuaia at the bottom of South America. It is a port town from which all the Antarctica boats depart. Our main visits were to the Tierra del Fuego National Park (including a historic train) and a cruise on the Beagle Channel. We are now in Buenos Aires for about a week. Here are some pics of Tierra del Fuego...
The flight from El Calafate (Patagonia) to Ushuaia was over extensive mountain ranges with not much sign of settlement. Apparently a third of Argentinas population (47 million) live in the Buenos Aires province...
Our hotel at Ushuaia was set high above the town toward a glacier and winter skiing locale. The views were great over the town and the Beagle Channel...
We were transferred out of town to a train station which is a heritage rail track, originally used from the late 1800's to about 1950 to transport prisoners. Tierra del Fuego was only settled then, as a penal colony, copying other countries models (to kick start settlement)...
The prisoners mostly chopped down trees, to build the town and keep everyone warm! The tree stumps are all over the valley, but higher in winter (accounting for snow) and lower in summer (no snow)...
Horses run wild in many parts of Argentina...
The train ends in the National Park. We then visited various lakes and it was very cold and windy...
The tree line high on the left is the border between Argentina and Chile, so no hiking is permitted there...
The port - happily this wasn't out boat...
We really enjoyed the Beagle Channel, the weather was initially good then it rained a bit, but we landed at an island and saw various bird colonies and sea lions. The town of Ushuaia has a very dramatic setting surrounded by mountains...
This is a view back toward Ushuaia from the channel - our hotel was the biggest building visible up the slope...
This is a colony of Southern Giant Petrels in the channel - they have a wingspan of up to 2 metres...
There were a couple of Cormorant colonies - shared with sea lions...
Note the bizarre blue eyes...
On the way back into port. This is the pier where all the boats to Antarctica depart...
