The above title does not denote any tragic or horrific scenario. It simply means that I've been to what is known as "The End of the World" - the city of Ushuaia on the island of Tierra del Fuego. It's been a long week but with many highlights (if we ignore mild food poisoning which has somewhat cramped my style - to say nothing of other parts of my anatomy - over the past four days). Last time you heard from me it was from the beautiful, cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires and that's where I am now - in the airport waiting for my flights to London and then on to Edinburgh.
The next chapter of the adventure started with a flight to El Calafate which is the gateway to Los Glaciaros National Park - and you don't need much Spanish to work out that that means The Glaciers National Park! I had a couple of nights in El Calafate with a drive to one of the glaciers (seeing lots of birds en route including the rare and endangered Magellanic Plover). I was very fortuante to have Santiago as my guide - he's the leading birder in the area and modest with him. His partner, Martina, came along as well and she's also an outstanding naturalist. Part of her current workload is an environmental impact assessment for the El Chaten area now that a new road is being built to access this remote and unspoilt little town. We drove there with the pretty awful weather of the previous day clearing. By the time we arrived we had a good view of the incredibly dramatic mountains, the main one of which (Mount Fitzroy) dominates the town.
After a picnic in superb spring weather, we took a "hike" (nothing too dramatic - more what you and I would call a pleasant stroll) in the woods and were rewarded with close up views of male and female Magellanic Woodpeckers which we watched and photographed for half an hour. Superb! Can't get images from this computer so I'll post a copy of my own once I get back to the office.
We'll now fast forward to Ushuaia, a town to which I have sent many folk over the years as it's the stepping stone for the Antarctica cruises. I was incredibly lucky with the weather (I'm told they only get about 25 days like that in a year!) and even the air hostesses were taking photos from the windows as we came in to land amongst the dramatic mountain and coastal scenery.
The next two days were fabulous as well as we explored the mountains and lakes and the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Bob, my neighbour with the 7 1/4 inch guage steam railway which comes past the back of my house, would have been thrilled with the End of the World railway with its two steam locomotives - even I got all excited about it! We saw plenty of birds and evidence of several beavers and the day finished up with a fantastic view of a wee Pygmy Owl calling its little heart out.
Anyway, that's just some of what I've been up to and the good news is that I've got my three new tours all ready in outline to be beefed up once I've got back to the office with access to airline schedules and other such dull but necessary details. The first one will be to Southern Patagonia and the Falkland Islands - a combination which would have been unthinkable but a few years ago. Now, however, Lan Chile operates a once-a-month flight from Argentina to Falklands of which we'll take advantage. We've put together a super itinerary for November 2007 - a good way to mark the reconciliation which has taken place in many ways since the conflict 25 years ago.
All in all this has been an exhausting, fascinating and productive trip. I think I could now sleep for a week, but Karon goes on holiday two hours after I get home so that's the end of that little dream! Mind you - she'll be ready for it, having held the fort so galleantly (if that's how you spell it!) for the past 3 weeks.
Better go - flight now due for boarding. 15 hours to London (via Sao Paolo in Brazil - probably a very sad place at the moment after yesterday's accident) and then a connection to Edinburgh and home for big hugs with Toby!
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