Ushuaia, Sea Lions, and Cormorants

My take on Ushuaia is that it is NOT as interesting as Punta Arenas. It's more about making money than art. It is Argentina's fastest growing city, because of the abundance of regional work and because it is a duty-free port. Also, the Argentinians do not have as nice an opinion of their Chilean neighbors as the Chileans do of them. (This is based on meeting just a few people in each place.) The south is a staging point for Antarctic expeditions and both Chile and Argentina claim large sections of the southernmost continent.

As Jean-Michel Cousteau says, however, whales don't need passports and neither do we. We are all guardians of Antarctica, indeed all places in the world. We are all connected. He grew up in the great ocean, and has seen the garbage piling up in the last 25 years. His mission in life is to further his father's legacy and educate all people about keeping our planet clean and healthy for ALL creatures.

We had the privilege to go through the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We made the mistake of riding a little single gauge railway through it, rather than walking. The park, tucked up against the Chilean border, has peat bogs and canelo, lenga, and wild cherry forests. There are also foxes, hares, armadillos, and guanacos, and PUMA, although we saw only a hare - albeit one the size of a small kangaroo!

(Photo captions)  1. Even in Ushuaia the Argentinians are mad for soccer. 3. The train at the end of the world. 4. Cormorants 5. Sea Lions

Then we spent time on the water going to rocky outcrops in the Bay of Ushuaia where the sea lions and the cormorants hang out. There is an abundance of avian, marine, and land wildlife here. While we have not seen a condor, we have seen the upland goose (looks like a small rhea) and plenty of falcons and cormorants. John spotted a whale early on in the trip, and we've seen lots of playful seals.

Next: There is no native terrestrial wildlife in Anarctica, only insects.