Ushuaia: Day Two – Many Dogs, A Bunch of Seals and Some Stinky Birds

(CAN-AL BEEG-LAY)

At the very end of South America, the sun rises doesn’t rise until after nine o clock which means early morning light, not early in the morning. For the early rising challenged like myself, it was wonderful to walk from our room in a cozy bed and breakfast up the hill and down into the city soaking in the morning. My sister and I would enjoy our breakfast of warm bread, coffee, marmalade and the most delightful jam I ever tasted made from Calafate berries and then make our way down for the day. For our first morning and full day, we planned to dogsled and take a boat tour through the Beagle Channel. Dogsledding which may be a bit of a tourist trap, was still very exciting for the short time it lasted and who can resist nearly a field of dogs looking for attention? Driving back through the mountains and down to the city center, the landscape is just incredible. Snow covered mountains, deep brown trees, rich gray rocks and the occasional pop of bright green from the native lengas trees. Winter is most surely my favorite season and color palette – which is partly why there are a handful more photographs than in my usual posts. Plus the boat tour was a spectacular sight. From the bow, the Beagle Channel was passing underneath, Argentina to the left and Chile to the right. I thought it was pretty incredible to be in same place as Charles Darwin and get to come close to two kinds of seals and sea lions along with seeing (and smelling) the native camarones bird. While nearly freezing along the last part of the tour through small islands covered with ancient moss and grass in the Channel, I was just delighted to be there and behold the beauty. If only we had known those clouds were bringing an unseasonal two feet of snow…