December 23, 2017
This morning’s temperature was 6 C, a bit
windy and cloudy, but occasionally the sun broke through brightening the
snowcaps. We were out on deck before 7am to watch as we passed the six
glaciers, named either after the country of the explorer or the explorer who
named the glacier in 19th century – España, Romanche, Alenamia,
Francia, Italia and the largest one, Holanda. As we entered the promenade on Deck
3, Bonnie was narrating from the navigation deck and explaining that the ship
was passing Mount Darwin, which the Beagle’s captain Fitzroy named after his
onboard naturalist, Charles Darwin. The range of these Tierra del Fuego
mountains is known as the Darwin range.
The distinct tree line is noticeable along
the steep sides going up the mountains to the snowcaps. There is a moraine at
the water level of Romanche Glacier which has been pushed in front of it for
thousands of years. The glacial water that flows into the channel is a pale
green colour. The glacial water flow floats on top of the salt water before
mixing in.
We saw two dolphins jumping near the ship,
but could not focus in time to photograph them.
Later, when we were walking around Deck 3, we happened to pass the group
of birder photographers, just as a group of four penguins floated past in the
opposite direction. They were barely
visible in the water, and were gone before we could take out our camera.
The Glacier Alley cruising took about two
hours, then we went for breakfast. Steps
6,148
During the deck walk after breakfast, for
about 30 minutes, there were waiters on the bow, the starboard deck and port
deck passing out bowls of warm green pea soup. About 30 minutes before we arrived
at Ushuaia, the Dutch flag was raised on the bow flagpole. The ship is
registered in the Netherlands. The flag
is only hoisted when we are approaching a port and remaining flying during the
port stay.
There was a late morning lecture about Ushuaia,
Argentina. The proper pronunciation is
Oo-sue-eye-ah,
there is no “sh” sound. It is further south than Punta Arenas, Chile and was
first established as just a Penal colony then a military base. There was a
small Anglican Church mission in the 1850s and 1860s, but the Argentine government
had it moved a bit north, to have Argentine authority and not to have a problem
with a British territory claim. The Maldavia Islands are claimed by Argentina
and Britain and have been under British control for over a century. They are known as the Falklands and in June
1982 the two countries fought a brief war, with Britain remaining sovereign. The native people of Tierra del Fuego, the
Yahgan-Yamana, are extinct due to foreign diseases. The Scotia plate moves west
to east and caused the Andes Mountains to run west to east rather than north to
south like the rest of South America. This area has two tectonic plates. The
penal colony was established at the end of the 19th century, the
prison was built by the prisoners, like the first prisoners in Australia. The
prison closed in 1948 due in part to overcrowding. Argentina established
independence from Spain in 1816, while Chile won independence from Spain in
1818. The two countries almost went to war in 1971 regarding the border around
the east end of the Beagle Channel as to who would get three tiny islands. The
Pope was asked to referee in 1984, so there was no war.
We arrived just before noon and there were
other ships in port including a sleek black tall masted yacht and the Albatross
Expeditions ship Ocean Atlantic.
Our excursion started with a bus ride
through Ushuaia, past the most southerly golf course in the world, to the
Tierra del Fuego Southern Railway station where we boarded a vintage steam train
to travel on a narrow-gauge railway. The rural roads were gravel and we passed
ranches with grazing cattle and horses. The
first stop on the train was at a small waterfall, Cascade de la Macarena. There
was a 20-minute stop where you could climb to the widest part of the cascades. The train’s steam whistle blew to signal
people to return to the train for its final leg. During the 50-minute ride
there was a narration about the history of the railway. Prisoners, both
criminal and political, arrived in 1896. They were put to work to build their
own prison on the island, then they built by the railway to take them to the
forest where they cut trees for firewood for the prison and the town. The
prisoners had a hard life. The trips to cut wood were on open flat-bed cars,
but the return was on top of the cut wood that had been loaded onto the flat
cars during the day. The tree stumps varied in height because the trees were
cut off at “ground” level, which was higher on the trunk when the snow was deep
than in the summer when there was no snow. Today there were horses grazing near
the peat bog in the deforested area. The forest in this area is mostly primary
forest (never been cut), only the part previously cut will be classified as a
secondary grown forest. It is a Sub Antarctic Forest with southern Beech trees.
We travelled the last part within the Tierra del Fuego National Park ending at
the train station where our bus awaited to take us back to Ushuaia but stopped
to visit Ensenada Bay on the way back. Looking across the water, the island was
an Argentina Armada post, Redonda Island, and beyond that were the Andes
Mountains in Chile, across the Beagle Channel. The ship had passed this area in
the morning. The ride back to Ushuaia was about 15 minutes. Most of the passengers got off just before
the port to walk in the main shopping street and the Artisan Market. We took
photos of the Government House and the Museum at the End of the World, located
just outside of the port, some commercial area buildings and gardens. Steps 13,929
We found some Wi-Fi in Ushuaia at the Hard Rock Café where we enjoined a
Quilmes Argentine Stout and a Sangria. We posted text for December 19 and 20
but then as more people arrived the Wi-Fi slowed to the point where we could
not post anything. We tried a few other
spots including a store where they had hardwired their computers to use, but
not Wi-Fi for portable computers. We
browsed in some of the souvenir stores before returning to the port which was
only a five-minute walk from the main street. The Tourist Information office
did not have Wi-Fi, but among the little stores along the pier, was a building
with seating and security check equipment, that had Wi-Fi. It was slow, but we could get the text posted
for December 21, 22 and part of today.
The Wi-Fi was much too slow for loading any of the over 160 photographs we
had ready to the blog.
We had spoken to Doug and Jan, as they were checking emails, just after
5 pm and they were going back into Ushuaia, since the all aboard was not until
7:30 this evening. They were not going
to be back in time for dinner and earlier they had spoken to Jerry and Violet
who were not available for the next two nights and Shin and Joyce who were not
sure if they would be at dinner either. We did not finish our Wi-Fi until well
after 6 pm, so we went to the open seating dining on Deck 4 and sat with a
couple from London, Ontario and a couple formerly from New York, now in Las
Vegas. We selected a glass of wine each to accompany dinner – a Pinot Grigio
and a Merlot. Starters were Tossed Seasonal Greens Salad and Seafood Civiche,
then Sautéed Veal Tenderloin or Chicken, Papaya & Avocado Salad. Dessert was chocolate Blackout cake and Tres
Leches Crème Caramel.
There was no entertainment this evening although the Mondriaan Lounge
showed the movie “The Lost City of Z”, only at 7 pm, even though the ship’s all
aboard was not until 7:30.
The captain’s 8 pm message announced a change of plan for tomorrow.
There are two storms coming from the west that will be giving winds up to 70
miles per hour, swells as high as 8.5 meters and rain. There could be a 24 to 36 hour delay in
viewing Cape Horn then crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. The ship will
be sheltering in a passage north of the islands near Cape Horn. There will be
some wind and rain but not the giant swells. We watched the sail away from
Ushuaia. The Albatross Expeditions ship, Ocean
Atlantic, left about half an hour before our Zaandam left port. We watched from the bow as the Zaandam moved
from the dock churning the water. The
sea gulls were in a frenzy on the water and above it, probably because there
were fish thrown to near the surface.
The gulls flew around the ship as she maneuvered to turn 180 degrees to
go to the Beagle Channel for the day of shelter tomorrow.
We have not decided to get Zaandam Internet
since we have heard comments about just signing in taking five minutes – to
accomplish anything on the blog would be impossible. The 100 minute Internet
package costs $55 American with deals for more minutes at less cost per minute
or 75 cents per minute for small numbers of minutes.
Today’s
steps 18,479
Feliz
Navidad!
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