Penguin-Palooza!

November 29, 2019:

Jim and I had another early wake up this morning to watch our sail through the part of the Beagle Channel that is called the Avenue of the Glaciers. There is something very cool about lying in bed and watching glaciers pass by!

These glaciers all come off of the Darwin Ice Sheet on Tierra del Fuego Island.  As we awoke, we passed the last tidewater glacier (one reaching down to touch the sea) that we will see on this journey, the Europa Glacier.  Jim and I had a prime viewing location from our room, although it is a pretty darn cold day. We passed other glaciers enroute to today’s destination of Ushuaia. They are part of the Martial mountain range which rings Ushuaia, Argentina, and its southern neighbor, Puerto Williams, on the Chilean side of the Beagle Channel.

The Europa Glacier

This is a so-called “hanging glacier” because it no longer reaches the sea.

Saying goodbye to the Avenue of the Glaciers

Coming into Ushuaia

Ironically, the last time we were in Ushuaia, Jim and I sailed to Antarctica on this ship (Le Soleal)

Today’s main event came this afternoon, as Jim and I boarded another large sightseeing boat, and headed out to some of the islands in the Channel to view the various types of animals, which reside on those islands. Although there is a small rookery of sea lions on one of the islands (called, appropriately, “Seal Island”), our prime objective is Harberton Island, which is home to nesting Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. As an extra treat, there have been reports that two visiting King penguins!

Comorants

A gulp of cormorants

Nesting cormorants

The Lighthouse at the End of the World

The ride from Ushuaia harbor takes about an hour and a half on the fast catamarans used by the tour companies. After visiting the cormorant colony (a group of cormorants is called a “gulp”), we visited the sea lion rookery, and visited another small island with a lighthouse. It is known as the Lighthouse at the end of the World.  I guess that’s fitting, as Ushuaia calls itself the southernmost city in the world. We were amuse4d to note that although the town of Puerto Williams on the Chilean side of the Channel is actually further south, since it has a population of less than 50,000 people, it can’t call itself a city. Jim and I are just amused by this latest sign of the never-ending competition between Argentina and Chile.

Sea Lions on Seal Island

Finally, we came in close to Harberton Island. Unfortunately, unlike yesterday, we were not allowed to disembark, so all these photos were taken from a greater distance on a rolling deck.  However, we did get to see all three types of penguins: the Magellanics, the Gentoos, and the two alien King penguins in the middle of the Gentoo colony.  I call that a “penguin-palooza”!

Magellanic penguins

An ashy-headed goose wandering through the penguin burrows.

A Gentoo penguin (see the orange bill and feet?)

More ashy-headed geese

Magellanic penguin taking a bath by spinning in circles

The Gentoo penguin rookery with two King penguins in the middle

A petrel hunting for eggs

The King penguins and Gentoos having a loud discussion

To top it off, right outside the rookery, there was a very fat leopard seal napping menacingly on the beach.  These seals just look creepy to me with their long serpent-like snouts, but maybe it’s because I know that their main diet consists of penguins.

Leopard Seal

We ended our outing by stopping at a historical settlement called Harberton Village, then we headed back to Ushuaia.  We walked into town for a bit to take some photos in town. The main purpose was for Jim to get a picture in his Joe Jost’s t-shirt in the southernmost city in the world. Then it was back to ship.  Tomorrow, we’ll have a day at sea, and then we’ll call on Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands (or Las Malvinas, as the Argentines still call them). Stay tuned.

Harberton Village

The Mariner alongside Le Soleal

Lest you forget that the Argentines still consider the Falklands theirs

Looking up into Ushuaia

Llao Llao Resort

Tuesday was a much needed free day. As I suggested I might, I staked out a lounge chair at the pool and spent the majority of the day just sitting there and reading my detective novel and enjoying the stunning alpine views. After sitting and updating our blog online, Stacy made a spa appointment and had a massage overlooking the lake. It was a fine day.

 

We also had a tango lesson by the incredibly talented Guillermina and Gustavo.  

We had a very nice dinner in the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant to finish off a lovely day. This resort was so nice it is on the short list of places we would like to visit again on our next trip to South America!

Wednesday, we were off again, but before we left Bariloche, we took a trip up the Campanario chair lift to one of the highest peaks in the area. Great photo ops were there for all and we had our picture taken by a photographer working the site. 

On the way to the airport we stopped in the actual town of Bariloche and I have to say we were a bit disappointed. It had much more of a city feel to it. We were expecting something much smaller and more charming, but you never know until you visit. 

Our flight to BA was delayed so we didn’t get out of Bariloche until after 5:30 and we had a late arrival back in Buenos Aires. This was our third time to the city on our trip. It was starting to feel like home, particularly when we introduced our travel companions to the wonderful “Caballeros de Cocktels” (the great bartenders at The Brick Hotel).  

Bariloche

Monday we headed over the Andes Mountains to Bariloche, often called the Switzerland of Argentina.

The bus took us through some beautiful alpine forest, and we saw the aftermath of one of the volcanic eruptions that occurred in 2011. This was quite a large event , yet no one in our group (us included) could recall hearing about it. The ash covered the forest and obscured the sun for so long that the trees couldn’t photosynthesize and many of them died. There was a layer of sandy ash over a foot thick left on the floor of the forest and they had a big controversy about whether to clean it up or leave it.

 

The controversial decision was made to use water jets to scour miles and miles of forest floor to was out the ash. The scientists are still debating whether this ended up causing more harm than good.

Since we were leaving Chile and heading into Argentina we had to cross the border again. The top of the Andes is basically the border between Chile and Argentina in this area.  It was a similar process as we had last time further south. There were two checkpoints, one leaving Chile and another several miles away to enter Argentina. Once again we had some issues with the Argentine reciprocity forms for some in the group (at least it wasn’t us this time) but we finally got it straightened out and were on our way again.

Our next stop was for lunch at  local restaurant followed by a boat trip across lake Nahuel Huapi to Parque Nacional Arreyanes for a hike through the forest. The trip across the lake took an hour and a half and  we viewed a forest of a special kind of myrtle tree that only grow in two places in the world; New Zealand and this part of Argentina.

Lake Nahuel Huapi

Parque Arreyanes

Myrtle Trees

Peter & Kitty feeding the gulls

Then we got back on the boat to Puerto Panuelo which is the dock right next to our hotel, the luxurious Llao Llao (pronounced schow schow) Resort. The weather was splendid and we sat out on the deck and soaked up the sun as we motored across the water.

The Llao Llao was built on the outskirts of the town of Bariloche as a resort for the very wealthy in the early part of the 20th century. During one of the military juntas it was closed down and it fell into disrepair. Once democracy was restored the hotel was renovated by the national park service and restored to its original glory. Recently it has been sold to private operators who seem to be taking excellent care of the property. It reminded Stacy and me of the Broadmore in Colorado Springs except it has a more woodsy look to it with exposed log walls and high arching wood beam ceilings. The resort has a full 18 hole golf course, spa and a beautiful infinity pool. Our next day is a free day to enjoy the resort and I have my eye on that pool!

Setting Off for the Bottom of the World

Stacy here: Our day today, Sunday, Feb. 1st, began with a 3:00 a.m. wake up call, so we could make our 6:20 flight.

We landed in Ushuaia before noon and then had a great lunch at at a parilla called “Patagonia Mia”.

After lunch, we had a brief bus tour of the Tierra del Fuego National Park, which was lovely. It was very forested, and had beautiful fields with streams running though them. You could see numerous beaver dams, as beavers are apparently ver plentiful. We even saw a Pygmy Owl.

Then we were set free in Ushuaia for some sight seeing before we boarded the ship. The town looks like Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for you “Deadliest Catch” fans, except that apparently, it is a lot better off,as it is a free trade zone. We got some good shots of our ship, Le Soléal, waiting to take us out the Beagle Channel, and into the Drake Passage.

The town of Ushuaia, looking over the Beagle Channel

The Drake Passage is reputedly the roughest body of water on earth, as it is where the Pacific, Atlantic and Southern Oceans all converge. For that reason, all 210 passengers were eager to get the captain’s first briefing about projected weather conditions in the Drake. Shortly after embarkation, we got our wish. There is a weather front moving through, so he postponed our departure about three hours to let the worst of the front pass before we sail into the the Drake. The announcement was met with hearty cheers from all of us! This should be interesting!

Ice, Ice Baby

Friday, our last full day in Southern Patagonia, we visited Los Glaciares National Park again, this time to see the legendary Perito Moreno glacier. This monster glacier is not far from where we visited yesterday. It is located in a very unique geographical location, however.

As we drove around Lago Argentino to get to the National Park, our terrific tour director, Marcos, made all of us camera-mad photographers happy by stopping at the estuary right outside of Calafate so we could photograph the flamingoes and swans.

Right before you get to the Park, there is a vantage point known as El Mirador de Suspiros (the viewpoint of sighs). Basically, everyone who first sees this view of Perito Moreno, sighs and say”OHHHHHHHHH!!”

 

 

Perito Moreno glacier basically splits and runs around two sides of a peninsula. The National Park has built a series of high-quality catwalks all over the faces of the peninsula (read: lots and lots of steps up and down for all you Fitbit pals), facing the glacier so you get a very up-close-and-personal view.

This glacier is also known as the “talking glacier” because of the noises it makes as pieces break off and fall into the lake below. This process, known as calving, creates very loud noises that sound like cannon shots as the ice breaks off. Although Perito Moreno is considered to be a glacier which is “in stasis” (meaning that it is neither growing or shrinking), it is also one of the glaciers that experiences the most calvings.

The catwalks are ideally located to view the whole show. Since once again we had a great warm day, there was a lot of calving activity.

We were lucky enough to see three fairly large calving, but these photos don’t do justice to the drama they cause when they go.

Then back to town and a fun evening spent with our tour crew. Tomorrow, Buenos Aires!

Lago Argentino- Boat Trip to the Upsala Glacier & Estancia Cristina

Today, Thursday, we had another early rise and got on the bus to head to Punta Bandera where we boarded a big catamaran for a two-hour cruise to the part of Glaciares National Park that has access to the Upsala Glacier. Our tour director kept telling us what perfect weather it was, and as we left Calafate, Lago Argentino was flat as a sheet of glass. However, once we got out on the lake, and got up to speed, the wind seemed incredible to us (spoiled as we were by days of nearly unheard-of calm weather) and the deck was rolling quite a bit.

    

 

However, as we entered the channel that feeds to Upsala Glacier, we slowed quite a bit, and the water calmed down, also. The boat took us close to one of the faces of the Upsala Glacier where we cruised around icebergs that had calved from the main glacier. We couldn’t get super-close to the glacier face from the water because there were so many icebergs in the bay. We got some great shots up close with the icebergs.

After the water view of the glacier we cruised around to the next bay and docked at an old sheep ranch called Estancia la Cristina, that had been turned over to the National Park. Glaciares NP is to Argentina what Torres del Paine was to Chile (and probably the way we think of Yellowstone or Yosemite in the States). We immediately boarded 4WD trucks and headed up a REALLY rough road for a 30 minute trek up to a spectacular overlook of Upsala Glacier. Again, we got some more fantastic pictures!

These glaciers are part of the South American Ice Sheet, which is the third largest land-based ice mass in the world (behind Antarctica and Greenland). The glaciers are hundreds of feet thick and miles wide. Some of these glaciers are receding but others are growing or stable. They are all magnificent.

Following our hike to the glaciers, we were amply rewarded with a fabulous meal at Estancia Cristina, and a demonstration of the custom of taking maté . Stacy was the brave one and volunteered to taste the maté (thanks to Faye for the photo!).

Tomorrow we will visit the Perito Moreno glacier which is supposed to be fantastic!