December 28, Wednesday – Ushuaia, Argentina

This morning is cruising and hanging out.  We attended a lecture on Photo Gallery edit features and while we have used the software a lot we did learn a few new tricks. 

The weather today is pretty overcast but the sun does occasionally break through and at least it isn’t raining.   And it is very windy.

The approach to Ushuaia is via the Beagle Channel, named for the ship that Charles Darwin traveled on his famous trip to the Galapagos Islands.  This is another one of those waterways that we all learned about in school.  Ushuaia is generally considered the southern most city in the world.

Ushuaia

After docking in Ushuaia we headed out in a 4X4 for a drive on a lumber road.  It had been raining and the road had very deep ruts and very deep holes and was muddy and VERY rough.

We stopped at a large beaver dam and lodge.  Beavers were brought from Canada as part of a fur breeding venture.  The venture failed and the remaining 25 beavers were released to the wild.  There are now over 250,000 beavers in the wild and they are damaging the ecosystem.  The government has now retained hunters and trappers to try to control the population.

Before heading out across a valley for a walk in the woods we stopped at a closed restaurant that had a sled dog kennels nearby...

and a pond where we saw some Upland geese.

We took a short walk into the forest for dinner at a lumberjack cabin.  There was bread, cheese and salami, Argentinian beef stew and, for us, acorn squash with veggies.

We had a quick stop at an overlook to get a good view of the valley.  This area is really pretty with the overcast skies giving it a wonderful, moody look.

We didn’t get back to the ship until after 7:00pm.  Since we had already eaten we headed to the Lido to find Mike and Janet.  We visited until quite late and then headed to bed.