Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ushuaia - WE MADE IT!

The ride from San Sebastian to Ushuaia was a nicely paved road.  
Stretch of pavement from San Sebastian to Ushuaia
The only difficulty we experienced was the temperature began to drop and we traveled through bands of rain.  The terrain and environment changes several times during the trip.  Here is the bike overlooking lago Fagnano as the road turns to head over the pass.
Lago Fagnano, the pass to Ushuaia is actually in this picture on the left.
The reserve gas light came on about 40 miles from Ushuaia, which seemed a little early because we had only traveled about 150 miles.  No problem though, the reserve is worth about 50 miles.
WE MADE IT!!!
I took this picture of Chuck as we arrived in Ushuaia.  We found the hostel were we staying and in the process of driving the bike up into park area, it ran out of gas.  Only 40 miles, we are getting terrible mileage.  Chuck had a little left in his side cans so we put some in my bike to get it into the parking area.

There was a gas line at the filling station so we decided today wasn’t the day to fill up.  We left that for a couple days later.  Come to find out Ushuaia only has two gas stations and when they run out of gas they are out.  When a new shipment arrives, there is a run on the station. 

The next day we took a tour of the Beagle Channel.  This is a picture looking at Ushuaia across a small bay in the Beagle Channel.  Ushuaia got its name from the joining of the indigenous words “Ushu” meaning at the back and “Wuaia” which means bay, cove or port.
Looking back at Ushuaia
While the tour was not as up close as the one in the Galapagos, it was none the less enjoyable.  We saw some islands which had a pleathora of sea lions and cormorants and a couple penguins in the water. 

Also, at the entrance to the bay where Ushuaia sits there is a light house that marks the way that ships use to navigate the Straight of Magellan. 
Light house guarding Ushuaia and the Strait of Magellan
 Here is the boat we toured in, Chuck and I called it the SS Minnow.  We were scheduled for four hours but because some of the passengers were late it was more of a “three hour tour!”  (some of you older guys may get that!)
SS Minnow :-)

Our Tour Guide explaining where we are and what we are seeing

Some of the group looking at a several hundred year old fungus ... no not Chuck :-)
At the end of the tour they had a drawing for an Argentinian flag that the winner is supposed to take home and send a photo back to the tour company.  Guess who won???
I never win anything!
Tonight we hope to meet Roberto and Doriano, the Italians in the city for a couple beers.

Tomorrow the “world ends!”  If it does, that means no more blogs from me.  Since we are three hours ahead of Houston, we will be gone before most of you, I will try to send a warning.  If the world doesn’t end, we plan to ride to the park in Lapataia, to take a picture of the bikes at the end of the road.

1 comment:

Hi, I welcome your comments, but please remember that my family is following this blog so keep your comments civil. Thank you. Joe