And so our wonderful expedition cruise to Antarctica and some southern islands came to an end at Ushuaia.
Before retiring last night, we had to leave our luggage out for crew members to collect and arrange to be taken to the airport for us. It would be taken through security and loaded on to the plane and the next time we would see it would be in Buenos Aires airport. Such excellent service from Viking Cruise Lines. In the morning, we had to vacate our room by 08:00 and be waiting to board the bus but, breakfast would be served from 06:00 so we had plenty of time for a good start to the day.
As our flight left at 13:00, arrangements had been made for us to visit the Tierra del Fuego National Park for the morning. This is the southernmost, but not the oldest, national park in Argentina. It stretches for 60kms north of Ushuaia along the border of Chile which meant that we once again took Route 3, the Trans-American Highway before turning west towards the park. At the entrance to the park our guide had to go into the Information Office to collect our individual tickets. As she handed them to us I noticed that the date on the front was a month earlier. When we asked her why that was, she said that the early date was when the company had purchased them. On the back the ticket was stamped with the correct date.
It has two lakes, Lake Fagnano and Lake Raco. We went to Lake Fagnano first, as it was furthest north, and had the opportunity to see it from the other side from which we had seen it yesterday. On this side there was a small beach and there were some boats on the water. Once again, the Viking guide, Loreen, ensured that I didn’t slip while going down to the beach and back up to the bus. We saw some fascinating trees near the lake, many were extremely bent to one side and others had what looked like air plants hanging from them. (Unfortunately, some of our photos for this excursion were inadvertently deleted so I have had to use some stock photos)
We stopped for a while longer at Lake Roca and in Chile it is contained within the Yendegaia National Park. In fact, once we were there, we realised that we had visited it in 2020 with our South American cruise. Roca which is divided by the border between Chile and Argentina. Lake Roca is named for President Julio Argentino Roca. We had come up on the End of the World Train which leaves from Ushuaia and its final stop is at Lake Roca station. From the station to the lake is about a 500m walk but very worthwhile.
As we travelled through the park our guide told us about the animals and trees there. The animals include Red Fox, Chungungo Otter, Guanaco which are wildlife relatives of the Llama and the Canadian Beaver. In 1936, rabbits were introduced for economic development through exploitation of their meat and skins. As in many countries where rabbits were introduced by European settlers, they became a plague in various areas of Chile threatening agriculture, livestock and ecosystems In 1951, twenty-four foxes were released in Tierra del Fuego, three years before the myxoma virus decimated the rabbit populations. As the economic development expected with rabbits did not occur, the Argentine government introduced 20 Canadian Beavers to establish a fur industry. This plan spiralled into a large-scale ecological problem. The beavers used the trees to build nests and dams decimating the trees which grow extremely slowly, a few centimetres annually, due to the cold climate. We saw many dead trees along the way.
The most characteristic species are the Lenga, the Ñirre, the Magellanic Coihue and the Canelo. The first three are all types of Beech Tree and the Canelo is a tall tree with lovely white flowers. It is sacred to the Mapuche people and they call it foye or foyke. All of these are native to the southern areas of Argentina and Chile. The National Park is covered in trees and it looks beautiful.
On the way back to Ushuaia we stopped at a museum and café where we each had a cup of tea or coffee and a piece of cake. Sadly, we were running rather late and it had started snowing so we didn’t get a chance to look around the museum. We drove straight to the airport where we didn’t have to stand around to check-in but went straight through to security. So well organised by Viking Cruise Lines.
We flew to Buenos Aires, arriving at 16:30. We had arranged for a taxi to take us to the hotel where we had arranged to spend the night before flying back to South Africa the following day, but had an extremely annoying experience. The taxi driver sent a message to say that he would be an hour late! He actually arrived an hour and a quarter late and then parked outside on a yellow line so could not leave his vehicle. He phoned to find out where we were and I had to get a local gentleman to speak to him and direct us to the car. He did get us to the hotel but much later than planned and after dinner was available. We had to go out again to get something to eat and then to our room for an early night.
