Day 2 of our adjusted “Trip to Antarctica, but we didn’t make it to Antarctica” schedule.

Hurtigruten (the expedition cruise line) has done an outstanding job of arranging for activities last minute to ensure that travelers have daily activities.  How they have done this for over 300 people in a town of 100,000 during tourism season is beyond us!

To organize the Antarctica landing parties, the ship had been divided into boat groups – overall groups of whales, albatrosses, and seals – and then subdivided into the actual boat groups (for example Leopard Seals, Crab-Eater Seals, and Weddel Seals).  We were assigned to the Leopard Seal group, and daily activities in Ushuaia were based on these same boat groups.  Today was the day for Seals to visit Tierra del Fuego National Park, the end of the PanAmerican highway, and to ride the ‘End of the World’ train.

Tierra del Fuego is a subantarctic forest scattered with peat bogs and thousands of trees, mainly beech trees.  The road through the park is a dirt road, sometimes not wide enough for two vehicles to squeeze by each other!  The park is free to residents and, being that it’s about 20 minutes from Ushuaia, is a popular place for residents to hang out, picnic, camp, and hike.  Today was a weather anomaly as we had sunshine all day, few clouds, and no rain.  The beautiful weather contributed to the high number of residents enjoying their national park.

After a short drive into the park, we stopped for a scenic view of Laga Roco (Lake Roco).  Amazing views of the lake and surrounding mountains.  Some of our group saw a sea lion swimming in the lake.  Sounds weird, right?  A SEA lion in a LAKE?  While it isn’t a normal event, our guide explained that at high waters the lake is connected with the Beagle Channel via Rio Lapataia (River Lapataia), and when salmon and trout are spawning, sea lions occasionally end up hanging out in the lake for a bit as they have followed the fish in there.  They eventually make their way back to the sea.

From this scenic view, we walked about ½ a km along the lake front, followed by about 1 km along trails by the river to the park visitor center.

We saw a few species of birds, lots of trees, more nice photo ops for views of the lake and mountains and walked over some areas that were like a soft bog.
After our ‘technical stop’ at the visitor center, we headed to a trail that ended at the end of the PanAmerican highway.  We were given the option of staying on the bus and driving to the endpoint or “walking” on the trail.  We opted to walk, which ended up much more of a hike with quite a bit of elevation change.  The terrain was a bit rough, lots of steps, lots of uphill/downhill, but was definitely worth the views and the overall experience.
At the zenith of the hike was a large boardwalk platform (a dead-end boardwalk) that had an excellent view of the park and lake.  While we had to back-track to get to the trail and the path down to the lake, the side excursion and climb was well worth the views that it afforded.

We were quite excited to get to the end of the PanAmerican highway as two documentaries we watched either started or ended their journey at that exact spot.  As we walked the last of the trail up to the roadway, we noted several wild horses, that evidently roam the park at will.  These horses while not particularly close to people, also didn’t seem particularly concerned with people walking nearby.

Up on the roadway, we didn’t see the abundantly clear sign we thought existed (we thought we’d seen on the shows), so maybe we imagined seeing a sign that blatantly said, “hey, you are officially at the end of the PanAmerican highway”!

There were however two different signs that indicated we were at the end of Route #3, along with an Alaska reference, so we are confident that although the sign we expected wasn’t there, we were indeed at the end of the PanAmerican Highway.

Our last stop before boarding the “End of the World Train” was at Ensenada Bay.  Again, another stop with amazing views of the mountains and the lake.  The area is extremely windy which is evidenced by the trees on the shore that don’t grow straight up.  They are growing at an angle that is presumably caused by the constant winds.

All aboard!  The final leg of today’s excursion was the train ride.  Ushuaia was formerly a penal colony, with a high number of prisoners working in Tierra Del Fuego, so the train ride was slightly prison themed.  We were met at the platform by a couple of ‘criminals’, dressed in the stereotypical striped outfits, and a conductor. 

The commentary during our ride explained that working in Tierra Del Fuego was physically challenging but was the job that the prisoners preferred.  One of the punishments handed down was taking away the ‘privilege’ of cutting down trees in the park. 

We made a stop halfway, where we were met by more ‘criminals’ for a photo op.  Just off the platform was a waterfall that flowed into the river.  Not realizing what she was getting herself into, Jay decided to go up the stairs to see the waterfall from above.  Up one set of steps – no problem, nice view.  But….. that was only the midway point of the waterfall!  Running up the more challenging set of steps was worth the view of the top of the waterfall.

The remainder of the ride through the park was again filled with beautiful views of the park and the mountains, as well as many wild horses carousing about without a care in the world. 

As we neared the station, we started see a lot of hikers, campers, and picnickers who, as mentioned earlier, took the opportunity to enjoy the same beautiful day at the park as we did.

The other entertainment Hurtigruten arranged for was icing on the cake today.  One of the excursion experts on the ship contacted a local musician and a few dancers, inviting them to perform for the ship.  The guitar player was amazing, playing traditional Argentinian tango-type music. 

One of the two couple was dressed in traditional digs and performed traditional dances.  Most of the dances were very modest, with the couple baring touching/holding hands, but there was a lot of stomping and fancy footwork!  The guide who arranged this performance later explained that there are many traditional dances and garb in Argentina, and they are very regional, so we experienced one of the local flavors. 

The second couple danced the tango, and they were EN FUEGO!!  We forgot how sexy, and spicy, and intimate, and precise an Argentinian tango is!!!!  Wowza!  Overall, the performances truly were an unexpected, but much enjoyed, treat.

Pretty sure tomorrow won’t be as muy caliente as today was.  (sorry….just had to bring out our cliché, seldom used, Spanish!)