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Published: December 3rd 2007
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Excuse me
I´m obviously in the way! As we were so close to Ushuaia, (only 12 hours away) - the world´s most southern city, we thought it would be rude not to take a look. Although you wouldn´t describe the city as pretty, it´s the location and the surroundings that make it a special place. It is an extremely remote and rugged part of the country, despite the number people that come here - surrounded by mountains on one side and the Beagle Channel on the other.
This part of Patagonia is called Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) and is actually separated from the mainland of South America, it is also shared by both Chile and Argentina - you actually have go through Chile to get back to mainland Argentina, very weird! We saw all seasons in our few days here, but mainly it was snowy, windy and very cold. We went out to the National Park with Daniel and Media, an Argentinian couple that were staying at the same place, it was a luxury to be in a car after so long on buses. We did a coastal walk in the National Park, passing by pebble beaches covered in mussel shells and looking out to
Just the two of us
At the end of the world the South Atlantic Sea - it was an extremely muddy walk, sliding about and having to grab onto trees to try and avoid falling flat on our faces. Our friends came with us, although they weren´t quite as well prepared in the clothing department - it´s pretty safe to say that the new looking furry boots that Media was wearing were completely ruined and I think they were pretty much regretting coming with us about 5 minutes into it!
A day or so later and we arrived in Puerto Madryn, about half way up the Eastern Side of Argentina on the coast. The attraction here is the abundance of marine life that lives out on the Peninsula Valdes and in the sea surrounding it. It was a relief to finally be back in some warmer weather and it felt as though we were on holiday once again. The largest colony of Megellanic penguins in South America is based at Punta Tombo, a couple of hours drive away so we hired a car with people from the hostel and went out to see them. The colony was not at all how we expected - I imagined a million penguins huddled
Coastal views
of Tierra del Fuego together on the beach, instead the colony is on the land back from the beach in amongst the shrubby bushes. At first there didn´t seem to be many penguins around but then you noticed eyes peering up at you from under the bushes where the females were nesting in little burrows. Some of the babies were already born and it seemed as if the mothers would lift themselves up off the baby so that you could get a better look. The rest of the penguins were just wandering around or coming back from the sea and would walk right past you, obviously used to people taking pictures of them. They are not quiet either and make a lot of "honking" sounds, I suppose calling to their partners. The girl who ran the hostel said that you could get close to them but not to feed them or pick them up - I wouldn´t even know how to go about trying to pick one up, apart from their sharp beaks getting in the way, they also look very slippery!
Also between June to December the Southern Right Whales come to the area to mate and give birth. Even though we
already saw these whales in South Africa we didn´t think that we´d be getting another chance any time again soon so we went out on a boat to see them. As it´s towards the end of the season it took us a while to find some but we saw 5 in total including a mother and calf. The boat was packed though and people are a bit ruthless when it comes to wanting to get a good photo of a whale so I was continuously elbowed out of the way, nevertheless I got a couple of ok photos and it was great just to hear and see the huge mammals.
Out on the Peninsula we had a fantastic beautiful day to see sea lions and elephant seals as well. It would have been great to see some male elephant seals, with their funny noses but they had already left for the season so only the females were around. They were all scattered on the beaches as if there had been some sort of disaster and they had been swept ashore near death. It was only the farting noises and the occasional flipping sand onto themselves that told you all
Sea lions
Out on the peninsula was ok!
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