Ushuaia (Fin del Monde!)

Monday, February 18, 2013
Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina
On the eve before Ushuaia, the Captain's address thanked everyone for their cooperation with regards to the code 'red’ situation and the step up in hygiene. The reported numbers of Gastric flu have remained the same so he is hopeful that things should return to normal within 36 hours.

Some of the crew were taking this a little too seriously . Roisin and I carry a small thermos mug, which we fill up with either tea or coffee from time to time. On one occasion I put my mug down for the assistant to fill with tea. He used a ship’s mug to fill with hot water before transferring the contents to my thermos. He did this without coming in to contact with my drinking vessel. So far so good. However, when he added the milk, the thermos was overfull so I asked him to tip a bit out. I don’t know what the Indonesian for ‘You’re a bloody nuisance’ is, but with the narrowing of his eyes, his expression said it all.

‘I’m not allowed to touch it sir,’ he said as he scraped around for a piece of paper, eventually settling on a discarded tea bag wrapper that he that he used as a make shift holder to wrap around the handle of the thermos to aid his picking up!! All this when he was wearing protective gloves!!

The Captain then went on to say that the Star Princess will be making a deviation and to do this the ship will alter course by 135° . This will result in her listing to starboard. This is quite natural and nothing to be alarmed by. (I seem to recall the Captain of the Costa Concordia making a similar announcement – albeit by radio 400m off the port bow in a life raft!!!)

His final words were, ‘Have a great day at the end of the word and please endeavour not to fall off!!’ The guy is a comedian as well as a very able seafarer!

Speaking of which, Captain McBain could start a new career as a scriptwriter for our resident comedian Tom Briscoe. Billy London, the cruise director stated that if you can laugh more than 15 minutes each day, you would start burning calories. All I can say is that after watching Tom Briscoe, my shirt feels tighter and my belt is cutting in to me!!. His jokes have the affect of eating a tub of lard!!!

As an example here are a few of his punch lines:

‘…I don’t know but they’re driving me nuts!!’
..and the barman said so why the long face!!!’
‘...Michelle!!’

And yet people still laughed! If comedians are original but not funny, I can sympathise, but plagiarism in comedy is the biggest sin. Especially if those jokes are well known, easier to be found out. Tom Briscoe, you have been found out. Get new material or else go work for Fred Olsen!! I understand the comedians on their cruise ships are still getting laughs from ‘knock, knock’ jokes!!

Rant over, we now started to look forward to the end of the world and Ushuaia (pronounced Oo-su-AYE-a) the ‘h’ is silent!

Situated on the Beagle Strait, Ushuaia is the largest city in Argentine Tierra del Fuego, and arguably the southernmost city in the world. Due to its unique landscape, Ushuaia offers a number of sports and outdoor pursuits but it may not exist as we know it today without the introduction of a penal colony in 1847 . The convicts are responsible for construction of the streets, buildings and bridges. The prison was closed in 1947 by order of the National Government.

Tierra del Fuego is an island divided. The Eastern part belongs to Argentina while the Western side of the island remains under the jurisdiction of Chile.

The Yamana were early aboriginal inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego (remember, the indigenous peoples who wore hardly any clothes and liked starting fires!!). Four aboriginals were taken from Tierra del Fuego in 1830 by Robert Fitzroy, and were sailed to Britain to meet the King. The three survivors later returned to Tierra del Fuego on the Beagle, with Charles Darwin, who believed the native Fuegans to be "the missing link".

Our first impression of the area was the rugged landscape of snow-topped mountains towering about this remote enclave. These mountains are still officially a part of the Andes yet are not joined to the mainland . The other discerning feature is that the main range of the Andes runs from North to South (or South to North if you prefer!!) whiles the Andes on Tierra del Fuego run from East to West! You could be forgiven for thinking that you have arrived at somewhere in the Austrian Tyrol.

The most characteristic of the peaks visible from the bay is Olivia, with her very pointy peak and behind looking over her shoulder are her 5 brothers!!

It was another very windy pier with strong gusts trying their hardest to knock you off balance. One of the first signs we came to while walking toward the terminal hut (the word ‘building’ would be too strong a word!!) was a notice declaring the Falklands (Las Malvinas), the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia all come under the jurisdiction of Malvinas municipality. Not the last time I looked, they weren’t!!!

We turned right outside the port gate and headed past the string of tour sheds offering everything from the usual penguin colony expeditions to a weeks visit to Antarctica . A short walk along Av. Maipu and then left for a few blocks up Yaganes we arrived at the Museo Maritimo. Built in 1902 this was originally a prison for over 300 inmates. The museum explained the stories of Magellan and later Charles Darwin who on his ship The Beagle sailed these waters in the later half of the 1800s. There is a notable painting hanging on display depicting a ship being tossed like a crispy salad by 50ft waves off the coast of Cape Horn!! Roisin is adamant that this is what it will be like when we eventually sail around the Horn!! The museum also has some of the original cells of the jail and relates how prison life used to be.

Heading back toward the ship we passed through a large souvenir shop. They seem to be pushing this ‘Fin del Monde’ (end of the world) on everything they sell!! One day the news will hit them that the world is actually round!!! That’ll bugger up their tourist industry!!!

While in this shop I noticed a large laminated map of the Southern part of South America and Antarctica . The map clearly shows Las Malvinas (Arg), South Georgia (Arg), South Sandwich Islands (Arg). These were all British last time I looked. Has something happened while we’ve been away?? In fact, I’m shocked that the Argentines still refer to South Georgia by that name. I thought they might have renamed it to something like South Evita!!! Furthermore, they have claimed a large chunk of Antarctica. Starting from the South Pole, Argentinian Antarctica is a wedge that takes in the whole of the Antarctic Peninsula. The funny thing is, while we were in Chile we were shown exactly the same wedge only we were assured this was Chilean territory. The Argentines seem to have a schoolboy mentality of going around pointing at things saying, ‘That is mine…and that is mine…and that is mine!!!’

For the first time since leaving the UK, the weather had started to close in and it started to rain. I have to admit, neither of us had ever seen horizontal rain!!

Back on board we managed to grab a late lunch and sneak in a game of trivia . Jolanda, who is one of our teammates, was 89 years old yesterday. She is quite remarkable for her age and still has more brain cells than most 21 year olds!!! We have relied on her knowledge for quite a lot of the answers. She now lives in Buenos Aries and so has been a good resource in things to see and do when we arrive there.

Having won again, we headed down to catch our 2nd and final organised tour of this voyage: The train to the end of the world.

We were taken by motor coach to the local train station, 15 minutes drive. From there we boarded a miniature (50cm) gauge railway. This used to be the prison train that would transport the prisoners to the national Park to fell timber for the buildings and other construction projects. We were in panelled carriages with velvet upholstery. The prisoners had it less comfortable. They were all shackled together on a wooden bench. There would be not windows (so was quite draughty!!) and no flooring so their legs would dangle over the edge!

Choo-chooing through the park we were advised that seasoned travellers would recognise a resemblance of these mountains to the Alaskan Panhandle . Tierra del Fuego and the Panhandle lie on the same latitude (55 degrees North and South) and in many respects are mirror images of one another!

This journey lasted just over an hour weaving its way through the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We stopped for a brief 10 minutes at Cascada de Macarena, a waterfall. Not too sure where the Macarena fits in. I thought that was a kind of dance?!!

The legacy of the penal colony remained through the large area known as the tree cemetery where 100 years ago, the prisoners were set to labour and toil.

Our journey ended at Ensenada Bay, which offered breathtaking views across the Beagle Channel. I bet if you took a boat you would end up in Antarctica and then if you kept on going you’d start heading North again so, technically, not the end of the world!!

What does begin and start here though, contrary to the duff information I gave you in Puerto Montt is that the Pan American highway starts in Tierra del Fuego . It runs the whole length of South, Central and North America ending in Alaska.

Back on board the Star Princess came the news we didn’t want to hear. The Darwin passage, the stretch of water between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula, is notorious for bad weather and one of the bad weather fronts is moving in with 50ft swells. Safety of passengers is paramount so we were advised that we’ll head through the Beagle Change stopping at Port Williams for Chilean Customs clearance then head out toward the Falkland Islands (UK).

I thought Cape Horn was actually the point or tip of South America. Similar to the Horn of Africa (minus the pirates!!) The Horn is nothing to do with the shape of the landmass. To give it its original name, Hoorn is actually a place in the Netherlands and was named by a Dutch explorer.

Cape Horn is a small island and on previous trips the ship has sailed around the island before moving on in the direction of Stanley . We, in effect cut the corner thus missing the extreme weather. It seems that Roisin’s vision of Cape Horn may well have come true should we have kept to our original course!!

Good news is that there is clear weather ahead. If we had a choice between transiting Cape Horn and landing at Stanley in the Falklands, this is a no brainer!

The sun set at 21:07 tonight as we sailed in to the South Atlantic toward our next destination, Stanley. This ship has made 5 trips and has failed to land at the Falklands on 3 occasions. The last two times have been failures so fingers crossed 3rd time lucky!!

Comments

Ragnhild
2013-02-20

It´s nice to hear about your captain. His name reminds me of captain Baines in the Onedine lines - remember the Tv series back in the 70s? He was also a competent and reliable person. It will also be interesting to hear if you manage to get to the Falklands. Do the Argentinians allow you to go to Port Stanley?

chris-roisin
2013-02-20

Ragnhild, Yes we made it to Stanley. I will post the entry in a day or two!

Dave
2013-02-20

I found the stories about the comedians really funny. I was reading it on my Blackberry on the way to work and with the screen being small, kept scrolling across aimlessly for the punch lines which never came.

chris-roisin
2013-03-03

Dave, They WERE the punchlines!! You had to guess the rest of the joke!!!

2025-02-17

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