Back to the end of the world

We've been in Buenos Aires for two weeks now -- an eternity in travel time -- but what with all the irregular Spanish verbs and whatnot, we're a little behind on the blog. (As you might have noticed.)

But now from the heat and cacaphony of the city, it's the perfect time to wax nostalgic about our last adventure at the cool grey fin del mundo.


Obligatory shot of the Andean condor, the world's largest flying bird
(this one looks small, but its wingspan is about 11 feet across!)

We spent our final few days in Tierra del Fuego camping at the national park. Under dramatic skies we tromped around through woods and along lakes and then relaxed at our campsite (when an Argentine dance party wasn't going on from across the campground).

On the first day of our trip, we walked to Chile.


Looking out over Lago Roca to Chile

It didn't take long, just a couple of hours on a quiet forested path to reach the most understated international border either of us has ever seen. And we've seen quite a few borders lately.


That's it, just a sign, some graffiti, and a lot of spectacular scenery on both sides


Not even worn out from the trip


Did we walk a few steps past the sign in flagrant transgression of international borders? No comment

We got to see a lot of Magellanic woodpeckers, which are, according to the Patagonian museum in Bariloche, the largest woodpecker in the Americas.

I'm finding varying information about its "biggest" status online, but it's a very big woodpecker one way or another. Also, quite loud. And it's related to the famous ivory-billed woodpecker that is thought to be extinct but some people claimed to see -- and fuzzily videotape -- a few years ago.

The video below may be a little fuzzy but I think it's incontrovertibly a male Magellanic woodpecker.




Orchids!

We hiked up to a lookout on our second day -- not quite to the very top, as the trail got so muddy we turned around rather than sink in up to our hips. We got to see an impressive range of mountains before the clouds closed in, though.



The weather was never warm but we were quite comfortable.


Happy hour with white wine, tent style

Our campsite was visited by various animals, including a very soft black dog with pale blue crossed eyes (it was quite friendly at first but after we fed it bread and cheese I think it dumped us for carnivorous campers).

We saw more of the slightly vulture-like chimangos and also saw bigger, related birds called caracaras. Wikipedia describes these as bold, opportunistic raptors, and that sounds about right.

We'd seen a lot of these along the roads throughout Patagonia, often on the ground, which seemed a little odd for a raptor. The dark cap they sport makes their heads look very square, and I thought perhaps they were eagles, but no, they're more scavengers than hunters.


A female (I think) obligingly posing for us -- the males are a bit more striking

The birds aren't the only bold wildlife in Tierra del Fuego. Back in 1946, the powers-that-were decided to try starting up a fur industry in Ushuaia, and imported 50 beavers from Canada.

As any Hawaiian, or Australian, could tell you, it's important to think these species introductions through carefully. Or not do them at all. They're hard to undo.

Surprising perhaps only their introducers, the beavers escaped and spread and adapted very nicely to Tierra del Fuego, industriously damming up rivers by taking down acres and acres of trees. Their logging and the flooding their dams create are bad news for the forests. The beavers' current population is over 100,000, about the same as the human population of Tierra del Fuego's two biggest cities combined.


How beavers wreak their havoc: they create little closed-in areas and use dams to raise the water level so that these areas can only be reached by swimming through a tunnel -- very ingenious

Maybe because all the beavers were lounging in their high-security dens, we didn't get to see any, but we were able to see the dam they'd created and were taken aback by the scale of it. Below, each branch-like object is actually the trunk of a tree, say 10 feet long or more.



Dam-age

On our walk to try to see the castores and their dams, we also reached our very furthest point south ever -- 3,078 kilometers (1,912 miles) away from Buenos Aires on Route 3, the highway that runs all the way down the east side of the country.

The sign pictured at the top of this post is the very end of Route 3, 1 km later, and it points out that Alaska is 17,800 or so kilometers (11,090 miles) away. America is very long.


Down south

And then it was time to pack up and do the Amazing Strong Man trick with the tent and catch the bus back to Ushuaia.


Step right up, folks, and see a man lift his whole house!

Once back in Ushuaia, we went straight to beer. I mean lunch. OK, both. Showering could wait. We walked over to Ramos Generales, a local institution that started as a general store in 1906 and doesn't seem to have changed its decor since, although its prices have gone up a bit.


The cozy interior


The local brew looks like cider but they call it a pale ale -- either way it was quite nice

Ramos Generales is also somewhat famous for having a French pastry chef. I don't know if he's responsible for the penguins.



We settled on something a little more Gallic. It did not disappoint.




Mmm, the great indoors