Feb 26 Ushuaia Argentina

Another new port, new country, and the end of the world all in one stop.  The sail in to Ushuaia is beautiful, and not representative of the weather during the rest of our stay here.  It's also a large city, more modern than I had anticipated.  Current population is about 90K.

 Our selected tour is a Whitman's Sampler of activities, including two bus trips, a train ride and ending with a catamaran journey through Beagle Channel.  Victoria will be our guide on the bus portions of the trip.

 Our trip from the pier to the train station goes through middle class neighborhoods.  Very nice.

 At the station we board the train to the end of the world.

 This narrow gauge (60 cm) railroad was originally built by convicts to move material, primarily lumber for building and firewood, from the forests into the city.  The area started as a maximum security penitentiary for Argentina and the city grew to support the prison. Only the last 7km of the rails remain, but it's now packaged as a trip for tourists.

 The train car had its own guide.  This is Victor.  Yes, we had Victor/Victoria.

 Traveling alongside the river, the train goes through areas that were deforested by the prisoners to build and heat the city.

 There is a stop at Estacion Macarena to view the waterfall.  No dancing occurred.

 The train engines are cute little things that generate lots of smoke and steam, but not much power.  Top speed was about 10mph, with the average considerably slower.  The 7km trip took 90 minutes (with 25 minutes for a Macarena stop).

 The end of the line for the end of the world train, Lago Acigami. 

 From here you can take your boat and travel to Lapataia Bay which is on Beagle Channel  These people are taking the more direct approach, while we took the bus to get there.

 This is an Argentine National Park, and camping is allowed.  The weather during our stay was cloudy, cold, and with intermittent rain.  There was no wind to speak of, until later in the afternoon when high winds arose and prevented us from undocking and leaving at our scheduled time.  We ended up spending the night docked, not departing from Ushuaia until 7am.

 This is the end of the world because this is the end of the Pan American Highway (the leg that comes from Buenos Aires).  Puerto Montt also claimed to be the end of the PA highway, but that was the western leg.  It's a long way to Alaska from here -- and Victoria made the trip in VW Bus.  She "knew every mechanic along the way" since the VW would break down every 200km.

 Lapataia Bay, where we board a catamaran.

 After standing in the cold rain waiting for the previous group to disembark, sustenance was required.

 It's out onto the Beagle Channel for sightseeing and nature.

 These are Imperial Cormorants and they live in large colonies on the small rock islets dotting the Channel around Ushuaia.

 Another type of bird

 Impressive flying right at the surface of the water

 The local inhabitants were happy to see us.

 Territorial dispute

 Another cross cultural conversation

 There was even a pair of humpback whales in the Channel.

 After debarking the catamaran, as we walked back to Insignia we passed one of the Antarctica cruise ships with a stern full of Zodiacs so people can go ashore amongst the penguins on the seventh continent.  I would require way too much dramamine to take such a trip.  I'll stay with our small, but much larger, cruise ship for exploring the world and remain happy with just six continents.