Ushuaia is King, Crab That Is

 

Our tour today started a little later so we had plenty of time to meet our group on the pier and then walk out to the entrance to meet the small bus.  I like smaller groups but I'll admit the larger buses are more comfortable to ride in.

This beautiful bird, a Black-Crowned Night Heron was doing a little fishing in the shallows near the pier.  I just happened to glance over and see it with its reflection. 

Tierra del Fuego was known to British and French pirates during the early 1800s when they used it as a hiding place, or a way to escape the Spanish fleet after a ship raid.  The first European settlement was begun by English missionary, Wasti Stirling, in 1870.  An Argentine navel base was established in 1884, and Ushuaia was finally made an official village in 1893 when the archipelago was partitioned between Argentina and Chile.  1902 saw the opening of a penal colony here where some of the country’s worst criminals were sent.  After they arrived they had to build their own prison and a railway to get the lumber for it into town.  It’s been called the “Siberia of Argentina”. The prison was closed in 1947 after reports of inhumane living conditions and abuse, however the murderers and thugs were replaced clandestinely in the late 1950s by political adversaries of then President Arturo Frondizi, whose military coup had overthrown Juan Peron.  The inmates remained here until another coup overthrew Frondizi in 1961. 

Fifty years ago there was hardly even a town here but in the 1970s the Argentine government decided to expand the port and create manufacturing industries to entice people to come here for jobs, they were motivated to get people moved to the area to keep Chile from making a land grab.  Today there is still a large industrial area in town where they assemble tvs and cell phones among other things., as well as a plastics industry.

Today, as the capital of the province, its government administration creates most of the jobs in Ushuaia.   Construction, tourism and fishing are the other employment opportunities here as the city of 80,000 continues to grow. 

We stopped for a view of the beautiful Carbajal Valley after a drive of about 20 minutes from port. 

 

The province had invested a bit of cash to create the concrete and galvanized ramp that zigzagged up the hillside to give us the unobstructed scene.  

The floor of the valley is made of peat, which can be hard or boggy to walk on.  There are spots in this area where it is harvested for use as fertilizer.  

Karl got these colorful photos of my beloved lupine at our next stop, a wannabe cross country ski resort.  The establishment's only draws were a room of antiques, a motorcycle collection, and flush toilets that struggled to flush.  They did have pretty flowers during the summer though.  

During the long winters, when there are few hours of daylight, most of the Fuegians spend their time indoors.  There are plenty of options for outdoor activities with downhill skiing in addition to cross country, as well as snowshoeing on local trails.

Canadian beavers like the one above that was displayed at our stop, were imported by Chile to create a fur industry on Tierra del Fuego.  It turned into a bust because the weather extremes found in Canada are not found in this part of the world.  The Chileans started with 45 beaver couples and now there are over a hundred thousand of the animals creating havoc with the streams and rivers of Tierra del Fuego as they build dams, changing the landscape.  The population exploded because there are no natural predators for the beavers on the island as the only indigenous land animals are the red fox and the guanaco.  Plans currently call for their extermination and they are actively hunted. 

Our first view of Lago Escondido was from a scenic overlook above it.  The dirt road in the foreground is the old road down to the lake which switchbacked to the shores.  You needed something with four-wheel drive to get down it from here.

You can see that we were some of the lucky ones who actually got to see the lake from above without the fog or clouds.  It wasn't sunny but it was a lovely view.

Lago Escondido is in a beautiful setting, with a second lake, Lago Fangno, there in the distance.  The latter is named for an Italian priest, and lies mostly in Argentina with about a third of the lake in Chile.

Our final stop at the lake was down on the far end from where we first viewed it.  There is an old sawmill at this location, hence all the logs that create a dam.

I found it interesting to get a view of the lake from below the level of the lake, don't know that I've ever done that before.

The stillness of the water made great reflections.  Karl asked if there were fish in Lago Escondido and our guide, Regina, told him it contains both trout and salmon.  Here you can actually fish and keep your catch.

Just some pretty little yellow flowers.

Regina told us they had a surprise for us at this stop.  It turned out to be some chocolate and a local liquor.  The chocolate was from Laguna Negra so we knew it would be good, the booze, well it smelled of lemons, a nice scent, and those who tasted it said it was good.

I found myself drawn to this little blue house beside the lake, Casa 31 was the address, probably because of how it contrasted with so much of the gray around us that day. 

It definitely needed some tlc, paint peeling, windows cracked and broken, a fuzzy worn fence, but such a peaceful setting that it would have been a nice place to spend a few days.

Once we were back in Ushuaia after our tour Karl really wanted to go find a place that had some of the famed king crab.   Time was limited but you know Karl when he's determined to do something!  We just told our friends we were off to kill a crab.

We headed for El Faro Restaurant where we had seen crab in a tank in the window the day before and sure enough they had an extra-large one that they quickly cooked for us. We only had about an hour for lunch before our all aboard call at 1:30.

We pretty much demolished that bad boy in about 20 minutes. It was the first time I remember that all I've used to eat a meal were kitchen shears, a fork and my fingers.  The sweet older waitress, who didn't speak much English, came and cut up the last of it to make sure we could get every bite.

And yes, here's the last bit on my plate.  It was sweet, delicious, with a hint the flavor of the sea that it came from, definitely the best crab meat I've ever eaten.  Plus we finished in time to get back to the ship with 14 minutes to spare.

It was time for farewell to Ushuaia but we'd go back again in a heartbeat to this lovely city

 

at the fin del mundo where the Pan American Highway ends at Lapataia Bay.

Don't think that the adventures or views of the day were over, after all, it was only 2:00 p.m. when we left port and headed into the Chilean fjords to make our way to Punta Arenas, our next destination.

It was time to get out on the top deck again to view some incredible glaciers in this part of the world.

These photos above and below should give you an idea of what the winds do along this fjord, the snow and ice get scoured from the tops of the mountains.

It wasn't only on the peaks above us where the winds were crazy, there were gale force winds coming down the fjord as well, slamming the front of the ship and all of us on deck shooting pictures.

Even with my camera on a lanyard I was afraid it was going to get whipped out of my hands, I could barely hold it steady trying to take pictures.  When Karl joined me on deck first thing I told him was to put his lanyard on if he didn't want to risk losing his phone over the edge of Serenade.  We stayed up there until the Captain had the crew clear the decks after an 80 mile an hour gust!

The rest of the day we enjoyed "scenic cruising" from our balcony where is was still cold and breezy but we weren't getting blown away, except by the beauty of the fjord.

Just a closeup here of all the waterfalls that were streaming down from the glacier that's in the photo above.

We even got treated to a bit of a rainbow as we cruised by this point in the fjord.

Multiple waterfalls were everywhere, not as powerful as we'd seen at Iguaçu but majestic in their own way.

Glaciers galore as well, it seemed like one at every turn, the photos cannot do them justice.

The scenery was reminiscent of Alaska, although the trees here were of a different type than those in the Pacific northwest.

All in all it was a fabulous way to end our visit to the end of the world!