March 12 – Ushuaia Argentina

What a spectacular day we had today.  We were in the port of Ushuaia which has long been described as the southernmost city in the world. Locate on the southern coast of a major Argentinean island; it is a bustling terminal for supply ships to the Antarctic. The Andes mountains descend sharply into the ocean here and the city is similar to smaller towns on the Pacific coast of Alaska.  It has a population of approximately eighty thousand people.

Ushuaia promotes itself as the “End of the World”.  It is about 500 Km from Antarctica.  At one time it housed an Argentinean prison.  The prisoners were put to work by clearing the forests on this island.

During their winter, May through September, Ushuaia hosts training for the European and North American alpine ski teams.  In the mountains, they can have up to twenty five meters of snow some years

We took a drive to Tierra del Fuego National Park along with Matt and Pat, who share our dining room table with us.  The park is a terminus for the Pan American Highway, which extends from Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America.  Here in the park you have magnificent views of mountains, glaciers and glacier lakes. The peaks are very jagged and we got lucky because there was very little cloud cover to hide the view.  We were able to stroll along a couple of the pathways through the park, but unfortunately we did not see any wild life.

The vegetation is very similar to what we have Ontario.  The deciduous trees are just beginning to turn colour and are a few weeks away from their fall peak.

Back in Ushuaia we went shopping. I found a couple of bottles of Melbec wine from Mendoza Argentina. I hope they are going to taste as good as the Melbecs that we have already sampled

Afterwards we went to a famous chocolate shop on the main street and had a delicious hot chocolate.

The show in the theatre was a Latin singer from Cuba. Her name was Noybel Gorgol and she appears quite often in a production in Las Vegas. I can’t say I would book a trip to Vegas to see here perform again.

For diner I had Coq au Vin, and Marg had a seafood melody.  Marg’s meal was too salty and she returned it and had fish instead.  My Coq au Vin was fine.