Argentina - Beagle Channel

Monday, 17 February 2020

This was a day of transition between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, where we boarded our ship.

The flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia was fairly turbulent, and clouds made it impossible to see the earth until we were almost in Ushuaia. Once we got below the clouds, the Patagonian landscape was spectacular.

Patagonia is desert. The mountains were dry and forbidding.

Ushuaia is strung out along the Beagle Channel for several miles. It's a much larger city than I had expected.

Bahia Lapataia, a small bay off the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego National Park. Here we boarded a large catamaran for a cruise along the Beagle Channel before boarding our ship in Ushuaia. (The basic idea was to keep us busy all afternoon while the ship was readied for our embarkation.)

Upland geese are common.

Just a bit east of Ushuaia is a picturesque lighthouse ("faro").

As a prelude to the wildlife we will see (and smell!) on the rest of our voyage, the rocks near the lighthouse are home to many cormorants (imperial or blue-eyed shags), South American sea lions (brown), and South American fur seals (dark gray), as well as the occasional goose and gull.

Looking east down the Beagle Channel towards the Atlantic/Southern Ocean.