Ushuaia
I was awakened by bright sun in the window at 6:30, but when we opened the door to go for breakfast it was pouring rain. It rained heavily until it was time for us to catch our taxi to go to the port, so heavily that we wondered if the day would be worthwhile. But by the time we got into the cab and started downtown the rain was easing, and it had stopped when we got to the port.
Ushuaia harbor
We tried to pay our port tax, but we gathered from the man at the desk that we first needed to get a ticket. Eventually we asked another man, who pointed us outside, and we found the ticket office for our tour. However, the clerk at this office told us that our tour would not start until 10, unlike the 9 am start we expected.
It wasn’t raining any longer, but we decided to go into the tourist information office across the street anyway, where they have free wi-fi. WIth that I was able to complete our flight booking for tomorrow, and we got our passports stamped with the Ushuaia stamp.
By the time our guide arrived there were only 7 of us waiting for our tour. We overheard another tour company saying that they weren’t going today, because it was too rough, though one of the passengers from that group was arguing that it really was because there weren’t enough people. So we were glad when our tour started. Almost all of tours on this trip have involved small groups, so they have been very good.
Black cormorants
Sea lion
Sea lions
Cormorant flying with kelp
We stopped at several islands to photograph the cormorants, other birds, sea lions, and the lighthouse. Since we were travelling with the wind it was not too rough, and the captain of the boat took us very close in to shore. You could get very good views of the animals, and very good whiffs of the odor as well!
Lighthouse at the entrance to Ushuaia Bay
After rounding the lighthouse we were heading into the wind, and it became much rougher. We travelled to a large island where we disembarked for a short walk to see the archaeological site with a shell midden where the Yamana people used to live. We also climbed high up to the top of the hill where you could see in all directions around the Beagle Channel.
After this we headed back into Ushuaia. By now it was very rough with two metre swells on the water. We were not on a very large boat, so we bounced around a lot.
Fortunately it didn’t rain while we were on the water. However it did start to sprinkle when we got to town. We had lunch and then debated whether we’d go to a museum. We didn’t, but instead sat on the edge of the water for a bit looking at the boats in the harbor, before we got a taxi back to our hotel.