Tierra del Fuego
We left Córdoba on Friday morning. Our original flight booking was for a direct flight from there to Ushuaia, but unfortunately that was cancelled a few weeks ago and we were re-routed via Buenos Aires. That meant an early start and a long day travelling, but we arrived at our hotel around 5pm and it’s been well worth making the journey to the Fin del Mundo. We’ve had a brilliant two days here.
Our hotel is lovely - right on the shores of the Beagle Channel. The first photo is the view from our bedroom. We had a short walk along the beach before dinner - the second photo is looking back up towards the hotel from the beach.
Our our first full day, we had arranged to join a small group - just four of us plus a guide - kayaking and hiking in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We had amazing luck with the weather - sunshine, blue skies and 20 degrees. We were collected at the hotel and driven into the national park to set off on our kayaking expedition. The first photo was taken just before setting off from Lago Roca. We paddled 4km down the Lapateia River and finished our expedition at the end point of the Pan-American Highway, which runs down the Pacific all the way from Alaska. The second photo is our group at the finish line and the third the sign marking the end of the highway.
We were then served a delicious lunch before setting off to hike the Sendero Costera, a 7km coastal path in the national park. Mainly through forest, there were beautiful views at various points along the route.
Our minibus picked us up at the end of the trail and took us back to our hotel, where we were able to enjoy the swimming pool/spa including the best view we’ve ever had from a jacuzzi!
On our second day, we joined another tour - this time to walk with penguins! We set off from the port of Ushuaia out into the Beagle Channel. Our first ‘stop’ was to pause by a colony of Imperial Cormorants, then on to the island of Les Elcaireurs, where there is a very photogenic lighthouse plus elephant seals, seals, sea lions and birdlife.
Another 90 minutes cruising took us to Isla Martillo, where there are colonies of Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. We left half our group there to explore the island on foot - only one tour operator is allowed to take people ashore and they are only allowed to take two groups of 20 people each day. We transferred to another boat to take our half of the group to the Estancia Harberton, a historic mission/farm which for about the last 50 years has been used as a centre for research into marine mammals through analysis of skeletons found on the beaches of the Beagle Channel. One of the scientists took us around and was very informative. The third photo is ‘The Bone House’ where they clean the skeletons - not for the faint-hearted inside, so just the outside for the purposes of this blog.
Then we swapped places with the other half of our group and it was our turn to see the penguins. On landing on the island, the first thing we saw was that there was one king penguin on the beach.
The Magellanic penguins nest further from the beach, and burrow into the grass for their nests. It’s a big colony but they are quite spread out over the grass land of the island.
The Gentoo penguins are huddled much closer together in a sizeable group, but with each breeding pair making a nest of stone, sticks and anything else they can find. One penguin was particularly busy gathering nesting material and they were great fun to watch.
After spending an hour with the penguins it was back to the Estancia Harberton for a cup of tea, and then a bus back to Ushuaia. Two great days.