Penguin art in Maritime Musehm
We took a taxi this morning to the Museo Maritimo y Antiquo Presidio. This is actually the old penitentiary which was here in Ushuaia, but it is now a museum both of maritime, especially Antarctic maritime exploration, and of the penal institution. Part of the display showed mannequins of prisoners in their cells with descriptions of their crimes. They ranged from political prisoners, to obviously mentally deranged mass murderers.
Cells in the prison museum
We walked back to our tour company’s office (Antartur) and spoke to them about tomorrow’s activities.. We got clarified what we will be doing on the hike and rafting, and what cothing we need to wear. We also found the name of a good restaurant for lunch.
While waiting for the restaurant to open we walked by a jewellery store. They had some interesting pink jewellery, “Inca Rose”. We found a really nice pendant for a necklace, so Enid has a nice souvenir of our trip to Argentina.
After a nice lunch at the “Andino” restaurant, we walked to the pier, and got the tickets for our trip to the penquin colony. It is about 85 km east of Ushuaia on an old estancia, which has been turned into a natural history preserve. To get there they took us in very large 4 wheel drive buses. About half the road was gravel, but not all that rough, so the vehicle was probably overkill, but it looked impressive.
Aong the drive we passed through a valley in the Andes. The mountains, akes and streams were nice. At the pier of the estancia we boarded a large Zodiac boat, which was covered, and took a short 15 minute ride to the penquin island. One of the passengers was terrified. She was in tears the whole way across, holding tightly to her boyfriend with both arms. Enid and I thought it was a rather pleasant boat ride. The two 200 HP outboard motors certainly pushed us along quickly.
Magellanic penquin
At the island were hundreds and hundreds of penquins. They were mostly Magellanic penquins, but there were also maybe one hundred Gentoo’s, and three King penquins. The kings are much larger and more colorful, but they are brand new occupants of the colony, having only been there for about two months. They are not sure if they are just transients, or if they are looking for a new place to colonize, as they have not been found in this area before, normally being in colder regions.it
Magellanic penguins
At the end of the tour of the colony we went to a small cetacean museum with displays of many whale and dophin skeletons. Though this area once was one of the world’s main whale harvesting areas, now the museum is doing conservation work.
We did not arrive back into Ushuaia until almost 8:30, so it was a long and full day,