The zodiac trip to Magdalena Island to see the penguins was our last zodiac expedition and the roughest ride of all. The crew told us that the trip would be cut short by the captain if the wind speed or wave height increased from the 7 AM levels. I never heard an actual wind speed reading but it must have been approaching 30 MPH and the swells must have been four or five feet high. But the boat crews handled the process well and no one got wet. We, particularly Sharon, were anxious to see the penguins and we weren’t disappointed. We dawdled and made the last boat back to the ship.

You may have seen pictures of the zodiacs in prior postings. They seat 14 passengers, plus the boatman who stands at the rear, leaning back against the 60 HP Yamaha outboard motor with the motor control shaft between his legs. Quite a macho sight, shall we say? Two crew members give us explicit instructions about how to enter and exit the zodiac: “put your right foot hear, grasp my arm for support, put your left foot hear, grab the arm of the other crew member who will help hoist you up.” That kind of thing.

Magdalena Island is a protected breeding ground for up to 360,000 Magellan Penguins and I’d say most of them were there today. We did indeed see adult, juvenile (1 to 5 years old) and baby penguins. They dig a nest in the ground, roomy enough to hold three or more penguins, especially the babies. 

We arrived fairly early in the day before the penguins made the journey down the hill and into the water to gather food for themselves and babies back in the home burrow. They showed no fear of humans and would walk across our designated path with no apparent concern. 

The island is also a breeding ground for Chilean skuas and cormorants. These birds can be predators, taking penguin eggs and hatchlings. 

We had breakfast after our return, about 8:30 AM, had our bags out by 10 and then waited until after 1 PM for bags to be transferred and for us to clear Chilean customs. Ushuaia, our point of departure, is in Argentina and our arrival in Puerto Arenas is in Chile and the formalities include escorted bus transfer (100 meters, maybe), dog sniffers looking for forbidden agricultural imports and x-ray screening. Quite a production for two friendly neighboring countries, but then again they did fight a boarder war not that long ago.

Then on the bus and on our way to Puerto Natales, about 250 Km (150 miles) and about three-plus hours.

The trip traversed the Chilean steppe, a semi-arid desert region that covers a large portion of Patagonia. In Argentina it’s called the pampas although the exact definitions are a bit hazy in my mind. Here the terrain is fairly flat but not without gentle rises and valleys. In Argentina it’s much flatter, going on flat as far as the eye can see. The Chilean side has some green to it but much of the moisture is extracted from the air as it is forced up the western (Chilean) side of the Andes. The moisture falls as rain and snow and forms the Chilean ice fields we’ll be experiencing during the next few days. The air that reaches Argentina is quite dry and hence there is little rain on the eastern side of the Andes.

The steppe is not suitable for crops; it lacks nutrients and sufficient moisture. The British introduced sheep to the region and that, along with some cattle, is the major agricultural product. Tourism (naturally) and petroleum are other major sources of income for Puerto Areas and Puerto Natales.

Speaking of the British, the English language dominated Patagonia for most of the 19^thand into the 20^thcenturies. The Brits, along with immigrants from other parts of Europe settled in Patagonia while those of Spanish descent focused their efforts on developing the central and northern portions of Chile and Argentina.

Along the way we did see a number of birds, including the ostrich-like Rhea along with a flock of pink flamingoes.  We also saw a few guanacos, the poor cousin of the llama/alpaca family. The wool is inferior. So is the meat. But tourists love them. So do pumas.

We arrived in Puerto Natales , a town of 20,000 compared to Puerto Area’s 120,000, in time for a short walk down the water front. The waterfront is actually part of the Magellan Channel. The temperature was OK (50s I’d guess) but did the wind ever blow. Believe it when they tell you Patagonia is windy.

Dinner was in the hotel – a very nice piece of salmon baked in a butter sauce. Speaking of salmon, farm-raised salmon is a big business here. Norwegians established the original farms but they hit on hard times and sold out to Mitsubishi. So when you see farm raised salmon from Chile at your local fish monger, be assured that the Japanese have your back.

It occurred to me, and I shared this insight with Judy, Sharon and Luis while walking back from visiting Aquila glacier: “Every drop of water starts at the top of the mountain and faithfully obeys the laws of nature: gravity, thermodynamics, Newton’s, Einstine’s and all the other laws of nature. No one drop, no one molecule, no one atom can deviate from those laws. Yet every glacier starts with individual drops of water, which follow the same laws, yet end up talking on such different characteristic.” All three gave me a blank stare. Sharon said, rolling her eyes, “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Oh well, but do you get my drift? We’ve bagged two more glaciers today but we still haven’t seen two that are at all similar.

The Condor glacier isn’t really named that but there are sometimes condors to be seen (a large soaring bird somewhat like an albatross). But the glacier is big and was fun to visit via zodiac. In the afternoon we viewed the Aguila glacier from the ship; no landing at this one. The two were at one time connected but they have receded so that the connection was lost.

Both glaciers are located in the de Agostini sound, which is located in the Alberto de Agostini National Park. Father Agostini, worked with native peoples in Patagonia during the first half of the twentieth century. The government of Chile both the bay and national park in his honor.

Again, today was all about the scenery and so I’ve posted way too many pictures!

Tomorrow, penguin day on Magdalena Island, then we’re off the ship and on the bus bound for Puerto Natales and the Tierra del Paine National Park.

This morning found us nearing Pia Glacier. We stopped, we boarded the zodiacs, took a walk and shot some pictures. Like yesterday we heard informative lectures as we hiked, today telling us about the characteristics of the Pia glacier. The hike commenced across bare rock, much like what is found on the coast of Maine; Schoodic Point comes to mind. It was raining intermittently so the rocks were wet. But because glaciers had scraped the rocks like sandpaper they were well grooved and hence footing was not an issue for even the clumsiest hiker. Interestingly, this glacier is only 150 years old so it wasn’t here, for instance, when Darwin was here in the 1830s. It is not receding but it is becoming thinner so its days are probably numbered. Of course during the last ice age 12,000 years ago the glaciers are estimated to have been ten times the size of today’s.

After our extraction we went back on board for a bridge tour, briefing about the Garibaldi glacier and then lunch. By 3:30 PM we’d reached the Garibaldi glacier. The approach is through a fairly narrow fjord that twists several times. We sailed to within a couple of ship lengths of the face of Garibaldi where we could observe the glacier’s features and the surrounding mountains. The only shore excursion was a “challenge” hike up a nearby waterfall. None of us took the hike; we preferred the views from the comfort of the ship and a pisco sour or two. I spent quite a bit of time outside shooting pictures and shooting the breeze with Luis, our tour guide.

Judy and I have seen glaciers in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, the U.S. Rockies, New Zealand and Norway – maybe some I’ve forgotten. All are awe-inspiring; all are beautiful and all are different in their own ways. Luis, a native Chilean, has a deep-seated love for Patagonia and especially the national parks and their glaciers. He maintains, correctly, that all glaciers are not the same. He also believes deeply that the glaciers of Chile are, for him, the greatest of the entire world. I enjoyed very much looking at these glaciers through his eyes. I agree with him: these glaciers are indeed unique and special.

The crew of our ship has announced that we’ll be sticking our nose out into the Pacific Ocean this evening before gaining the protection of a fjord as we proceed to tomorrow’s glaciers. Today the seas have been lake-like calm, nary a ripple. But tonight we’ll return to the turbulence we experienced at Cape Horn. They said we should place valuable objects on the floor so they won’t fall and be damaged. We just returned from dinner (at 10 PM) and already the ship is rocking a bit. Either that or I had too much wine with dinner that caused me to stagger from side to side as I walked down the passageway to our berth. Time for a Dramamine and lights out. Good plan, except that it’s still twilight and the islands and mountains are still drifting by our stateroom window.

I’ll quit typing and let the pictures fill in the details.

As I type we’ve cast off from Ushuaia, pretty much on schedule, and now we’re sailing out the Beagle Channel on our way to Cape Horn. “On schedule” was in doubt when be boarded at 6 PM because the winds were pushing the ship against the dock, making departure impossible. But the winds calmed down enough by 8 PM so away we went. That means we should reach Cape Horn by 6 AM and they’ve told us to be prepared to disembark into the zodiacs a 7 AM. But that schedule depends on the prevailing conditions: wind speed (35 knots maximum), separation between the ship and the zodiacs (wave conditions; 5.5 feet maximum) and tide and swell conditions on the beach. Luis says in his experience landing is a 50-50 proposition. We’ll see.

We started the day visiting the Ushuaia prison and maritime museum. This structure, a two-story building with six wings, housed up to 600 prisoners from 1910 to 1947. It replaced a series of prisons in this area, each deemed too inhumane. Juan Peron closed this one. The prison housed convicted murderers who lived in cold, squalid quarters and were employed building the infrastructure of the prison and the town of Ushuaia. There were exhibits about maritime operations in the area and an art gallery. A surprisingly interesting museum for such a remote small town.

Next a home-hosted lunch put on by Gabrielle and her husband. They live in an incredibly stunning hilltop home that has wonderful views of Ushuaia, the channel and the hills of Chile on the far side. The highlight for me was talking with their daughters, Sol (11) and Lara (9). If there is one universal truth, it’s 11 year-old girls. Sol speaks excellent English (learned at school) and wants to go to London or New York to study someday. Maybe Los Angeles because that’s where her favorite actresses live. Her favorite is someone called Milli Bobby Brown. I had to text Reagan back in New Hampshire to find out who she is: a 16-year-old who plays an 11 year old on Netflix. I sent pictures of Sol, Lara and their cat and Reagan back and forth. “Nice cat,” said Reagan. “Beautiful eyes,” said Sol.

Gabrielle and her husband met when she came to Ushuaia from Buenos Aires to visit her uncle and wanted to take a guided tour. Being the off-season, no one else showed up for the tour so the guy in the office offered to give her a private tour. One thing led to another and they conceived Sol. Gabrielle had said she never wanted to marry but in her 8^thmonth of pregnancy she changed her mind. Lara once saw the wedding pictures and asked her mother why she didn’t wear a white wedding gown. Gabrielle explained, “I was pregnant out to HERE with Sol and couldn’t find a dress that would fit.” She told us this story with Sol sitting by her side. Talk about embarrassment and eye rolls! Like I say, eleven is universal.

Then a bus tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park, the third largest in Argentina. We stopped three times for short walks along the channel and through the woods with lots of nice scenery and bird shooting (pictorial). It was chilly (40s, I’d guess) with a pretty strong steady breeze but really a delightful walk. It was great to get out of the city and back to nature. We figured that this was a dry run to give us an idea of what the conditions would be like and for Luis to guide our physical ability to handle the trip, or lack thereof. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

I’ll have to stow this installment away on the hard drive and post it when we get back to civilization.

The trip south was uneventful. On time, smooth flying, great views of Tierra del Fuego on our way in. We arrived at our hotel and were checked in by 2:00 PM.

The schedule called for free time until 4:00 so Judy and Sharon went up the street to find something to eat. Ushuaia (pronounced Ush-way-ya, I think) is like a lot of tourist towns: a main street with lots of restaurants and shops along a ten-block stretch. The townspeople live off the main drag. In some respects Ushuaia reminds me of an Alaskan town such as Skagway or Juneau; nice, but a little bit rough around the edges. Houses and infrastructure emphasize survival and practicality more than esthetics. It’s the town furthest south of any in the world, it’s cold and windy in the summer and really cold and windy during the winter so it takes a special kind of person to live here. It’s not a small town: population is 80,000 and seems to be growing, judging by the new apartment building construction we’ve seen (it’s apparently government housing).

While the ladies chowed down I stuffed a couple of bars and a bottle of water in my pocket and hiked maybe a mile up the shoreline – actually the shore of the Beagle Channel. It’s named after the ship sailed by Captain Fitzroy with Charles Darwin as a passenger. Snow-covered mountains in virtually every direction ring the town but other than that the views weren’t awe-inspiring. The biggest feature was a tank farm for petroleum products of some sort (a main industry of Tierra del Fuego these days). I found a modern looking shopping mall and turned around, took some seagull pictures just to get practiced up for the wildlife that will hopefully be the subject during the rest of this trip and returned to the hotel.

Tierra del Fuego is an island; the eastern portion belongs to Argentina and the west to Chile. The Magellan Passage defines the north side of the island and the Beagle Channel the south side. I was surprised to find flying in that the island is quite mountainous.

At 4:00 PM a local guide gave us a city tour by bus. We stopped three times at points of interest. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60s but with strong constant winds blowing from the north (if I’m not too terribly turned around).

Today’s political subject turned out to be the Malvinas War with Britain in 1982. Argentina invaded, believing that it had historical claim to the Malvinas (aka the Falkland Islands in Britain but never here), but the Brits reinforced, sunk a WWII-era ship, brought in an aircraft carrier and that was that.

In one way the war was tragic with 255 British killed and 649 Argentinians. But in an odd sort of way there were positive outcomes on both sides. The leaders behind the Argentinian dictatorship initiated the war. They hoped that the war would unite the Argentine people behind the dictatorship, which was faltering economically and taking international condemnation for the 30,000 citizens who “disappeared”. Because the war was an abject failure the military leaders were forced to hold elections. The dictatorship was ended. Margaret Thatcher, on the other side, was becoming more and more unpopular in Britain. Her country did rally after the Malvinas victory; she was reelected. Even President Reagan benefited. He was able to stand beside his staunch ally Maggie and gain in popularity.

In addition to the lives lost in the war those fighting on the Argentinian side were 18 and 19-year-old conscripts, poorly trained and poorly equipped, suffered greatly. After the war they were deserted by the military, left with no support nor benefits to help them recover. Today many live in Ushuaia and some worked to create a memorial to those who fought and died in the war, which we visited. A veteran of the war spoke to us this afternoon. The details of the conflict went over our heads but he clearly demonstrated pride in the sacrifice he and his compatriots made and is steadfast in his belief that the Malvinas Islands belong to Argentina.

Our guide was a 40-something woman, half Argentinian, half Portuguese, married to an American who delivers sailing yachts around the world and who has an eleven-year-old daughter. She loves Tierra del Fuego, says she misses the constant wind when she’s elsewhere but will move in the coming year to the U.S. so they can establish U.S. citizenship for her daughter. 

Tonight was our “welcome” dinner featuring local king crab. Delicious! Tomorrow we tour the area by bus, have a home-hosted luncheon and then board the Ventus Australis. We sail in the evening out the Beagle Channel and will wake up in the vicinity of Cape Horn. Weather permitting we’ll go ashore in zodiac boats.

This will be my last posting for at least four days since there is no Internet aboard our ship. After that we’ll see. Internet service is not guaranteed. 

Hasta la vista, bebe!