Leaving Punto Arenas we headed farther south through the fiords. In the early AM we reached the first of the glaciers - Spain and Garibaldi, but I didn't start broadcasting to the ship until we reached Glacier Romancha at 7 AM. These glacier flow from a series of glaciers and ice caps that stretch fo 150 km along this part of the coast - most don't make it to tidewater and in fact the main ice is not easily visible from the water. We saw a large whale, but couldn't ID it and lots of shearwaters were on the water as well as giant petrels and black-browed albatross.
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| Glacier Alamana (German) flowing out the Cordillera Darwin. |
We ended up in Ushuaia beside the Celebrity Infinity - it was like being beside an apartment building. Ushuaia was unusually clear, but very windy. Maria and I walked through the town, then headed back to the ship - me to work on presentations and she to paint.
Around 9 PM we were off for out the Beagle Channel and the Drake! Captain Fitzroy named the waterway the "Beagle Channel" after the ship's row boats were nearly lost when on January 29, 1833, a glacier caved creating a large wave. Darwin's quick action to pull the boats up the beach saved them. The small boats were used to check the depth and navigability of the waterways, before the Beagle sailed through them.
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| The National Geographic Ship Orion, docked shortly after we did. |
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| Rare view of the mountains that surround Ushuaia. |
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| Our "neighbour" the infinity! |
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| Lupines in bloom around Ushuaia. |
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| A walk around the lagoon, gave great views of the town and mountains - it cleared up later in the afternoon. |
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| We are not sure what this building is as it was closed and didn't seem to have any signs, but it is very photogenic. |
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