Ushuaia

Patagonia is not all mountains and glaciers. We spent much time on the bus looking across the plains to the mountains in the far distance.
We had lots of travel ahead, but not as much as could be. We were heading back to El Calafate where we would fly out to Ushuaia. From Ushuaia, we would get supplies together and then head back out on the trail. We did not make the tactical error that we had last time wandering the streets of El Calafate without a place to stay. We decided that after a week of backpacking, it would be a good idea to treat ourselves to something a little nicer.
We booked a room at the Hosteria Austral, which was a rather fancy hotel by Patagonia standards. We had showers in our room and television. We spent the day mostly taking it easy, even getting to watch some NFL playoff games. We had enough of that after one day, though and were ready to get back out on the trail.
The next morning we were up bright and early. We had a provided traditional Patagonian breakfast that consisted mainly of bread, coffee, and some orange colored sugar water. It was not quite the breakfast to fill one up as most people seemed to just drink lots of coffee. Not being a coffee drinker, I was never thrilled by it. On our way back to the room, we were joined by a scorpion.
We were so excited to exit El Calafate that we got to the airport before it even opened. I guess the two hour early rule only applied in the United States. Even after it opened, they only opened up the gates for our flights about 35 minutes prior. So, we played a lot of cribbage and read our books until our short plane ride that would take off two full days of bus rides.
Once again, when we got to the airport someone was supposed to be waiting for us but there was no one to be found. This time, the hotel did send out someone to pick us up. We were staying in another rather nice hotel. We spent the day getting supplies together. Our plan was to take a boat ride out into the bay which was one of the most massive in Patagonia. After the boat ride, we would have our backpacks completely packed, take a taxi out of town and begin a new backpack of a couple of days over the Paso de la Oveja.
Well everything seemed to be going as planned. We got an early boat ride. We first found seats inside the boat, but eventually decided that it was too crowded and there was much more room outside. It was definitely chillier, but after Dad hung out there for long enough, I decided that it was a much better idea. He met some English friends and was chatting with them for much of the boat ride. Strategically our spot became much more important as the ride became more interesting.

At first, it was just a view back to the city of Ushuaia, which was beautiful. So far, this had been my favorite city on the whole trip with mountains rising above the city. We would be going to the other side of those mountains after our boat ride as our trip would go over a pass behind the mountains. But soon the bay would be more interesting. The first rock outcropping that we would come to was stained completely white with lots of white birds circling above it. We could tell that the island was dyed white specifically because of bird droppings.
There were literally thousands of birds just dotting this entire island. As we passed by, the views of the bay with the large snow covered mountains in the distance rising up made for one of the prettiest views in all of Patagonia. The next island brought out the swarms of humans because there were two new animals. One was a bird that looked remarkably similar to a penguin called a puffin. They looked like miniature penguins. We had a choice of taking a much longer boat ride to see bigger penguins, but chose to not be on the boat all day.
Sharing this island with the puffins, though, were the sea lions which really brought the crowds out. We had the best view right by the rail, but eventually we were getting pushed aside mainly by Asian tourists, I think because tight spaces just do not bother them like they do us. They were really impressive and fun to watch. For one thing, they were noisy, grunting all the time. For another thing, they were really mean animals. There were quite a few of them that were either covered in their own blood or covered in the blood of another sea lion.

We understood why they were referred to as lions when we saw the males fight. This was not an animal where one could not tell which was a female and which was a male. It was obvious as the males were 2-3 times the size of the females. And they fought aggressively and once again were very noisy. It was fun to watch when I wasn't getting too much snuggle time with a 60 year old Japanese man. We saw many more cruise ship tourists at this spot then others as not everyone came to Tierra del Fuego for the mountains. This was the jumping off point for any trip down to Antarctica. We thought briefly of going down there ourselves, but then it did not fit into our plans.

The boat ride was a three hour tour, but no Gilligan and the skipper were not there. The highlight of the trip for many was the lighthouse at the end. But for me, of course, it was the mountains and the animals, so I will not include a picture of it. I'm sure you can find one if you google it. I just don't want to waste a space that could show pictures of the water with the mountains. There is just something that seems so incredible when you can see glaciers from the ocean. Maybe it is growing up in Washington State. We talked with the British people the rest of the ride back where Dad won his argument on when the wars were fought in the Falkland Islands that we were having before we met them. It was nice to have a conversation with someone in English so I could follow along. My Spanish is just bad and it is said to say that as the trip went along it did not get much better. We left the boat ride, got a bite to eat, then walked up to our hotel where we picked up our packs and caught a taxi that would take us to the trailhead for Paso de la Oveja.