Ushuaia

Made a cup of tea - & went back to bed for more sleep!

After breakfast we went to the port in town to take a wonderful tour of the Beagle Channel to the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse and back. 

We were so incredibly lucky with the weather: sunshine, calm seas. The weather only started to come in on the return journey. We have been so lucky: Lilia (the boat tour guide) told us that trips out over the past few days had been very rough with people sick. Despite the nice day, it was still cold & we dived into our backpacks to pull out our down quilted jackets to put on under our parkas!

Lilia was a very informative guide and provided some great history of the indigenous tribe, the Yámanas. The boat stopped up really close to the islands in the channel providing great opportunities to see bird and sea lion colonies up close; we saw Imperial cormorants, albatross, petrels, skuas.

There was also a walk on one of the islands, Isla Bridges, through a delightful mini-ecosystem with wonderful cushion plants; and views from a high point, Caminata.

We got in about mid-afternoon & walked to the Maritime Museum which is excellent. One could spend hours here. Ushuaia was once a penal settlement - modelled after the one in Tasmania! (although it was originally founded by British missionaries in 1833) - & the museum is housed in the old prison.

We were pretty stuffed after all of this so we stopped for a nice cuppa & some local hand-made chocolate before catching a taxi back for a short rest before dinner at the restaurant at our B&B.

Just got in as it started to rain.

Ushuaia is known for its King Crab - which is what My Friend had for dinner; I had lovely salmon with lemon sauce - accompanied by a lovely 2008 Syrah. For dessert (postre) I had a delicious berry icecream coated in hard chocolate with calafate berries & a sauce. Yum!