Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

The town name is pronounced “oo Sh Y ya” and comes from the name used by the Indians here.

Tierra del Fuego is an island. Originally, Tierra del Fuego was used as a prison like Devil's Island. Escape was considered impossible because of the cold and remoteness and the wind. The winds are fierce from the west, so most of the trees are bent to the east. They are called “flag trees.”

The water was like glass this morning, no wind at all and nicely cool. We took a tour by bus through the Lapatia National Park and then got on a catamaran for a ride down the Beagle Channel to see islands covered with sea lions and cormorants. The scenery is spectacular – alpine forest and sharp mountains with treeline about halfway up at 1800 feet elevation. There is no snow, but you can see lots of small glaciers.

They imported some Canadian beavers about 50 years ago. They were going to raise them for fur, but the weather here is not cold enough for the beavers to develop good fur pelts, so they turned them loose. They have no natural enemies here. Now there are 200,000 of them that are doing major damage to the forest. Some of Libby's best pictures were of the beaver ponds.

Sea lions stink. I mean really stink. Every time the catamaran got downwind of a sea lion island, the stench would knock you over. The early inhabitants here, dated to 4,600 years ago, went naked except for a greasy coating of sea lion fat and a cape made of sea lion leather. It made them waterproof for collecting mussels growing in the shallows and it blocked the wind chill effect. However, it made them stink, too. The very last of the Indians, a 100 year old woman, lives in a small town near here.

Our real Cape Horn experience continues. The winds came up in the afternoon. They have delayed our departure by 6 hours so far because of high winds.

Our latitude here is 52° 48' South. It is 9 pm and it is still light enough to read outside.

OOPS. The cruise director just came on the PA system to announce that the winds are too high, over 40 knots, for the ship to go safely through the narrows in the Beagle Channel west of here and the forecast for tomorrow in the Straits of Magellan is worse. We are stuck here until the winds drop.

The port stop for tomorrow at Punta Arenas is canceled. The plan is to tour the glaciers in the Splendor.

I bought a black t-shirt that says “Ushuaia, Fin del Mundo.” It seems appropriate somehow.