Lands End

Well coming back from Antarctica to South America through Drakes Passage lived up to the wildest expectations with hurricane force winds and twenty-five to thirty foot waves. The ship had to reduce speed for safety reasons so the crossing took about forty-three hours. Talking to the room stewards, many people spent most of the time in their cabins suffering from sea sickness, as Loreen did!

New Years Eve 2011

 Both Ushuaia, Argentina and Punta Arenas, Chile claim the title of lands end, or the southern most place in the world. Ushuaia is the most southern, but it is on an island, while Punta Arenas is the most southern city that is on a continental mainland.

The PanAmerican Highway that starts in Alaska ends in Ushuaia, so I guess it must be lands end! We went for a hike in the Andes while in Ushuaia. The Andes curl around the southern tip of South America and run east and west.

Ushuaia, Argentina

 During the 1940s, to spur economic growth by developing a fur industry in the area, twenty-five pairs of beaver were imported from Canada and turned into the wild. With no natural predators, abundant beech trees and a slightly warmer climate, these little buck toothed rodents have done extremely well. With the warmer climate the prized long fur doesn't grow, so no fur trade. Now numbering well over two hundred thousand the beaver are a major nuisance and are expanding into both the Argentinean and Chilean main lands.

Beaver Destruction

The Southern Andes

As such, a bit of our hike was through beaver flooded lowlands and then up into the mountains. The scenery was magnificent and it was so nice to get off the ship and hike through the forest for a day. Ushuaia is a typical tourist town, full of souvenir shops, coffee shops and restaurants for the sixty some cruise ships it gets per year. Also a fishing industry and a few Antarctic expedition boats sail out of here.

Punta Arenas, much bigger than Ushuaia, is the southern most city in Chile. This area of Chile is only accessible by air, ship or a four hour road trip through Argentina. They refer to themselves as the Republic of the Magellan and have designed a regional flag, which they flew while the president of Chile was visiting. How to win friends and influence people!

The port was a ten minute taxi ride from the downtown area and while the taxis were more than willing to give us a ride downtown they were also honest enough to tell us nothing was open, it being Sunday and New Years Day. So we had a morning stroll in the wind, apparently just a breeze to the residents as 100mph winds are common, and then an afternoon tour.

We took a ninety minute drive through the countryside to visit a colony of Magellan Penguins. The area we drove through is at the southern end of the Patagonian Pampas with flat, grass and shrub brush land as far as the you could see. Similar to other desolate areas in the world, where plant growth is slow, the farms are very large as the animals need vast acreage to graze. We did see some forage in swaths off in the distance but no cultivated lands along the highway.

Patagonian Pampas

On the way out we passed a pair of geese, that like the Canada Goose, mate for life. These however appear to die if they lose their mate. Last year one lost it's mate and within a week had passed on also. The guides said it refused to drink, now faithfulness is one thing but that is a little severe!

Till death do us part

We also found a little group of Rhea, a wingless bird, related to the Kiwi, Ostrich and other wingless birds of the southern hemisphere.

Rhea

Then the penguins, this is the fifth species I have ventured out to see on this trip and I even talked Loreen into accompanying me on my quest. Every species have different markings of some kind and different reproduction habits. The Magellans mate for life, return to the same burrow every year and the fathers do most of the domestic work. As soon as I heard that, I turned Loreen around so she didn't hear that bit of trivia! However, if one of the pair does not return to the burrow they find a new partner strictly for reproduction, they mate, raise the young and say bye-bye, nice to know you, good luck next year.

Those little puffed up chests are full of fish for baby!

The parents take turns feeding the babies and rotate about every three days, while one goes to sea and fishes the other stays at home and watches the chicks. After sixty days the chicks are abandoned and they head out to the ocean to make their own way in life. However, it seems there are the odd ones that still would like a little parenting - we watched one juvenile follow groups of returning parents back to the nesting grounds, only to be chased back to the beach.

Heading Home Sweet Home

Chasing the juvenile back!