The first day of my Patagonia trip was actually a day touring Buenos Aires. A bit of a redo for me but we did have two interesting meetings with local people. Before lunch, we met with Manuel who discussed the desaparacidos. The military junta that ruled from 1976 to 1983 brutally kidnapped and murdered over 30,000 Argentinos, many of them young college students. The government did not acknowledge arresting these people but said they seemed to have disappeared. Maybe they went into the jungle to smoke pot? So they are called the desaparacidos - the disappeared ones. Manuel’s mother was disappeared when he was fifteen days old. He shared his experience of being raised by his grandparents and later his father who had gone into hiding at first to avoid being disappeared himself. In the evening we had dinner at the homes of local families.
Then on Friday, we flew to Ushuaia, the end of the world. The tip of South America is over a thousand miles farther south than Australia or Africa, so this is the southernmost city in the world. It is absolutely beautiful with the Andes mountains rising practically straight up from the sea. Again we had dinner with a local family. The town is built going up the mountain, so the view was incredible from their house. Our guide, Barbara, and our host, Gabby, are friends and each has two daughters. The four girls are avid ice skaters, rising before 4 in the winter to train at the outdoor rink here. I would say that there is not a lot to do in Ushuaia in the winter.
Little known geographical fact: the Andes run north-south through South America, but at the tip, they take a sharp left turn and run east-west through Patagonia. Then they continue under the Atlantic, and the tips of the taller mountains are the South Atlantic Islands. And apparently, Antarctica, as well, is a continuation of the Andes. Second little known geographical fact: the southern tip of the mainland of South America is Cape Froward. Below that, the Strait of Magellan connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and separates the mainland from the hundreds of islands to the south. This region is called Tierra del Fuego, and it stretches to the south and east with many channels between the islands.
I visited two museums in Ushuaia - the local history museum and the End of the World Museum. The history museum is located in a building that used to be a prison. In the late nineteenth century, Argentina had the brilliant idea for populating southern Patagonia: copy Australia. So they sent ten skilled prisoners to Ushuaia to build the prison and then more prisoners to inhabit it.
We had one more personal “testimony” before lunch from Osvaldo. By 1982 the military junta was increasingly unpopular, so they decided to send an expedition to the Malvinas Islands to reclaim them from the British who had taken them over in the 19th Century. The British call the Malvinas the Falkland Islands but that name is the F-word here. Somehow, the junta never expected that the British to fight back, so they sent untrained drafted 18 year olds with barely any weapons to reclaim (invade?) the islands. Surprise, surprise. Margaret Thatcher was also unpopular, so rallying the troops to fight a war was a great idea to her.
Osvaldo was one of those 18 year olds. They sent these boys to the Malvinas with one change of clothes and no winter uniforms although the war took place in the late fall. Also, Argentina was unable to resupply them so the boys ended up with no food to eat. Things did not work out well for Argentina in the war, but the defeat did bring down the brutal military government. Argentina is proudly celebrating 40 years of democracy this year.
And finally, in the evening, we boarded our ship and set sail for Cape Horn. We were warned before we started that we could only land on Cape Horn weather permitting so not to get our hopes up as the weather is frequently uncooperative. It turns out that Cape Horn is on the southernmost island in Tierra del Fuego, but you have to cross rough ocean water to get to it. So we gathered in the lounge at 6:45 AM, awaiting word from the crew as to whether the conditions were favorable for landing. I can honestly say that I did not get my hopes up and was not the least bit crushed when the captain determined that landing was not possible that day. Oh darn. I didn’t have to go out into the cold and wind on a zodiac to reach an island and climb a hill, just to say that I was there. It is hardly a scenic place. The weather continued to worsen as we sailed back across the channel to the more protected parts of Tierra del Fuego. The captain cancelled the scheduled bridge tour and sent us all to our rooms with no lunch. Eventually, we reached calmer waters and lunch was served.
In the afternoon we successfully landed at Wulaia Bay nearly one hundred years after Charles Darwin and the Beagle sailed here. A lot in Tierra del Fuego is named after Darwin and our guide happily (and mistakenly) informed us that Darwin had invented scientific method and the cataloguing of animals. He also informed us that Darwin (Columbus?) did not call the local people natives but indigenous because he thought they were in India. Our guide was very entertaining, but I took everything he said with a large grain of salt. We had a very pleasant hike up the mountain for a few of the surrounding area.
The next day we hiked along the beach to the base of Aguila Glacier. We are in the middle of the Darwin Glacier field. Between the mountains and the glaciers, the scenery is incredible. And we are so remote that there is not a single person or settlement on land. In fact, not many animals either, just some birds, as few animals can live here. Some more incredible pictures of the landscape we have seen:
And finally, on the last morning of the cruise, we stopped at Magdalena Island to see the Magellan penguins. Then we departed the ship for the second week of our Patagonia tour.
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