Sailing the Beagle Canal

Being in Ushuaia, even during summer, was fairly cold. So much more for us without proper cold weather gear.

Packing for a backpacking trip all over South America is a tricky task, because of variety. You'll want something for Patagonian wind, something for Amazonian jungle, something for hiking, something for going out without looking like a hobo (which you kind of will be, don't fool yourself), enough clothes to be able to not do laundry for a week if you can't... and everything inside one backpack that doesn't break your spine.

On top of all that add a tent, two sleeping bags+foam roll thingies, toiletries, books and electronics... and voilá! You have the reason why we have no cold weather gear.

Given that, we had to drop some very tempting ideas in Ushuaia: mountains were out of the question, and so was camping in the national park... still we had a wide range of options for things to do, but the most appealing was sailing the Beagle Canal on a very cute catamaran belonging to the company Tres Marias.

Tres Marias is a family business, and out of the people who do the Beagle Canal tour thing, they're the only one that has custody of Isla H, a gorgeous island that looks like an out of the planet landscape. They're also lovely and very dedicated.

Not a morning person, with not a morning dog,
waiting for our catamaran.

We woke up early in the morning and headed to the port, where we were promptly taken to our boat.

The views of the city are stunning from the beginning of the sailing, and you can be either inside or outside the boat.

Our very dedicated guy, and tourists properly dressed for the cold.

Panorama of Ushuaia.

Nerd on a boat.

Chey looking all chilled.

We took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the two first islands that we sailed around: Bird Island and Sea Lion Island. (Isla de los Pájaros & Isla de los Lobos Marinos).

Isla de los pájaros. Can you guess why they call it like that?

Isla de los lobos marinos.

The birds are mostly Cormorán, but there's also a wide variety of other birds living on it and flying around it.

Cormoranes!

The sea lions are so many. They honor their South American tradition by being a super macho society, where the biggest male gets more girls.

The males are funny, with big heads and small, sleepy eyes. They use noisy grunts to fight other males, and then just lay down again next to their harem girls.

The females are delicate like mermaids, and the babies are the cutest thing ever, and spend their day frolicking in the icy water, climbing the rocks and biting one another.

One romantic shot.

Sea lion showing off his massive "mane" of fat.

Sea lioness in wet and dry version.

Baby sea lions, playfully biting each other.

After seeing the cute animals, we sailed as far as the boats go, all the way to the beautiful Faro del Fin del Mundo (the lighthouse of the end of the world). There, Chey proved once more that he should be a photographer and we should be paid to travel the world.

Beautiful lighthouse.

On the way back we made a stop in Isla H, where we got off the boat with our guide, a funny native Ushuaian (?) who knows everything about the local nature... he introduced us to the different kinds of fruits, flowers, plants, lichen, algae, and small animals of the island (not too many animals though, in that hostile windy weather).

Landing on Isla H.

...

A very fluffy baby skua.

It was very windy.

Isla H

Nesting place of the cormoranes.

Baby cormorán.

We're actually holding on to each other not to be blown away by the wind.

The guide also talked about the native indigenous people of the south, the Yamanas. A wonderful tribe of strong, beautiful people who lived naked in the cold of Tierra del Fuego, spent pretty much all the time on ther canoes and were called by the Spanish invaders "the mightiest sailors in the world", because they were capable of mastering the wild waters of the southern ocean with those flimsy canoes.

He told us that the language of the Yamanas is practically dead, and there's only one woman left that speaks it, who's over 90 years old. Her children and grandchildren never learnt it, so when she dies the tongue of her people will die with her. That thought filled me with sadness.

After exploring Isla H, and feeling close to hypothermia, we went back to our boat, where coffee, dulce de leche liquor and alfajores were waiting for us. With happy and warm bellies, we went back to the mainland.

Before getting on our boat.

Arriving in Ushuaia again.

Emperor Meow was not that impressed.