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We were up early before sunrise again this morning as the ship traversed the Beagle Channel towards the city of Ushuaia, passing past Glacier Alley with 4 glaciers seemingly side by side.

Some stunning views pre- and post-sunrise through this narrow channel past the glaciers. We sat up in the Crows Nest Lounge on the 10th deck at the bow to take in the views, and I would periodically run outside to take pictures.

And yes, some whale and dolphin sightings, although I captured one group on my camera.

We saw quite a few expedition-type ships heading to/from Antartica, both in the channel and docked in Ushuaia. Ushuaia is the southern most port city, and is the gateway to these expeditions. Interestingly, the Chilean town of Puerto Williams is on the southern shore of the Beagle Channel and this further south but is not a port.

The twin peaks seen behind the outbound ship are Mount Olivia and Five Brothers peak.

Now on to Tierra del Fuego National Park. We are actually on an island separated from the mainland by the Magellan Strait. The island of Tierra del Fuego, meaning Island of Fire, was declared Island of Smoke by Ferdinand Magellan from all the smoke he saw from the numerous native groups and their camp fires. When returning to Spain, the King of Spain claimed Island of Fire would be better, and there you have it. The island is now segregated into Chile and Argentina portions, with Argentines having to drive into Chile and take a ferry to get to Argentina’s portion of the island.

I had booked a private tour of the National Park with Nicolas for 4 people on a 6 hour Hiking Tour of Tierra del Fuego. I wanted to avoid the large bus groups that would swarm into the major attraction areas. Nicolas fit the bill perfectly. All the little tidbits in this post are from Nicolas, hopefully I got them accurate. Nicolas was born in Ushuaia, lived here his whole life. I had solicited another couple to fill out our group of four on the Cruise Critic forum for our cruise, with Deb and Robert responding back. After several email exchanges, we agreed. Unfortunately Deb had a spill the day before and injured her knee and Robert wasn’t able to do any extensive walking, so Nicolas adapted wonderfully. We went to 4 or 5 spots in the Park and he added a few spots in the city as the opportunities arose. For example, we spotted a beautiful rainbow retuning from the park, so Nicolas knew where to go to get the best view of the rainbow with the bay and city in view

We stopped at the famous End of the World Train just outside the Park. This is a replication of the original narrow gauge steam engine trains used to transport prisoners from the prison in Ushuaia to the forests to cut wood. Today the train runs for about an hour into the park. There’s a place to eat and souvenir shop. We didn’t ride the train, just walked around a bit.

Once in the Park, our next stop was to the obligatory Post Office at the End of the World. Quite a humorous story per Nicolas. A man named Carlos bought an island just outside the Park border and decided to open a post office for the visitors to get a unique post mark and buy souvenirs. He built a boat dock on the shore of the park and would bring people out to his island by boat. This proved to be too arduous to potential customers to be successful, so he researched and discovered that by law, all shores are considered open public land and not actually part of the National Park. So he moved his Post Office to a building on the dock. The Park wasn’t happy, but he won out in court, and now they support him with a parking lot.

Nicolas is an old family friend of Carlos and his family, so Laura got a little extra attention when purchasing a postcard and stamp to mail to the grandkids. First, he wouldn’t accept her money, mailing it gratis; and the he posed with Laura for a picture together. He is quite a character. Just so you know, Carlos runs a private business, simply using Argentine stamps, adding his own oostmarks. He’ll drop off our postcard at a government post office later.

Next stop Acigami Lake, with views across the lake into Chile and the Lapataia River. Here Nicolas adapted for the group dynamics and showed Laura and I short hiking trail along the lake and then turning to follow the river towards the Visitor Center. Then he left us to take Deb and Robert to the Visitors Center. After dropping them off, he met Laura and I on the other end of trail to guide us back to the Visitor Center. Very picturesque walk.

Next stop was the end of Route 3, the Pan American Highway. There was a lengthy boardwalk to views of Lapataia Bay.

Wild life on the island of Tierra del Fuego is limited, given its remoteness. The most common are birds. A falcon-type bird called Chimango Caracara and a goose by the name of Upland Goose. There are two species of fox, and single lizard species. Introduce by man are wild horses, river trout and beavers. The later were introduced by Argentina as a way to start a beaver fur trade. Problem here is the winters are not as severe as in Canada, the their fur never got long or thick enough to be commercially viable. And, with no native predators for the beavers, their population is out of control. But of course the greatest diversity is in the water with whales, dolphins, sea lions and seals traversing these channels. Here’s a few of the birds and marine life seen.

Our final stop in the Park was tea time at a roadside trail head. Nicolas provide coffee/tea and some delicious snacks. I chose the Yerba Mate (pronounced “Ma tee”), a tea made from Yerba Mate shrub leaves. it is the national drink of Argentina, and their drinking custom is to share a cup or gourd, passing it around to a group of friends or family. I didn’t share mine. The snacks were a plate of cheese biscuits and a sandwich cookie filled with a Nutella-type filling. Sorry Nicolas, I can’t remember what you called them, but they were delicious.

As we left the park and proceeded back to Ushuaia, Nicolas took a quick detour to the an airport high on a hill so we could see the rainbow. next he drove us through the commercial district where most of the retail stores are, ending up at craft “village” for us to go in and check out.

So a great thanks to Nicolas and a wonderful afternoon. If you ever in these parts, Nicolas can be booked through toursbylocal.com or through his own web site at almacalma.net/.

Next up is three days cruising through the Chilean Patagonia channels as we go west to towards the Pacific Ocean and then North.