Patagonia

The flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia took almost four hours with drastic change in weather and scenery. Buenos Aries is on the flat pampas with high temperatures and humidity. We landed amid glacier capped mountains in Ushuaia. Everybody scrambled in their packs for jackets as we de-planed and walked across the Tarmac. We took a short ride through Tierra del Fuego national park. We followed a narrow dirt track through the wilds of Patagonia. The trail ended at a small dock on the Beagle Channel. As it turned out, we were at the southern terminus of the Pan American Highway.


The Pan American Highway extends from Alaska to the tip of Tierra del Fuego.

The area is as beautiful as it is remote.



We boarded a catamaran for lunch and a tour of the Channel and bays. The weather altered rapidly between sunshine, misting rain and back to sunshine. As you can imagine, the area is teaming with wildlife.










We are currently being bounced across Drake's Passage. We are learning how to stumble across the rolling deck without knocking anyone down. In the ship's wake are three species of albatross and white chinned petrels. The largest of the albatross, the wandering albatross has a wing span approaching twelve feet. Magnificent animals. They nest on South Georgia Island more than 1,000 miles to the east.

Current estimates have us anchoring off the Antarctic Peninsula late tomorrow afternoon. The temperature continues to drop at a noticeable rate.

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Location:Drake's Passage enroute to Antarctic Pennisula