Mar 4, 2013 - Ushuaia, Argentina

March 4, 2013 Ushuaia, Argentina We arrived at about 3 am, too early for us to watch as they docked. We schedule a bus tour of the Tierra del Fuego National Park and the southern end of the Pan-American Highway. The landscape is similar to Alaska in that the town boarders the sea and at the base of snowcapped mountains. Cherie schedule breakfast delivered to our cabin at 9 am thinking that our tour, scheduled for 10:45, would give us time for a leisure breakfast before the tour. The tour is over at 3pm and we have to be onboard at 3:30 with...

Feb 25, 2013 - Heading home

We are now in the Beagle Channel, on our way back to Ushuaia. We crossed the Drake Passage the last two nights and I got my patch early and didn't have any trouble. Although there were no storms, it was really flat and calm most of the way. Thanks for all your emails. We will see ya soon. Nin & Pete xxx

Feb 23, 2013 - At The End of the World

Clear, sunny with a slight wind. Temp: 5C/ 41F Up at 7:15am for the 7:30am breakfast. It was just us and one man in the charming bkft room. At 7:50, a small bus pulled up outside the hotel--of course, it was for us. We told the driver that our info said 9am and we weren't ready. He said he could pick up others and come back in about 15 min. It turned out that the other man staying at the hotel (Neal) had also booked the tour but had been told to make his own way to the office downtown. When the driver came back, we were all ready to go...

Feb 22, 2013 - Hola #2

Hello from the Antarctic Peninsula! Radio silence has been because of the Drake Passage...48 hours of rolling ship left, right, up, down and I was horizontal and moaning. The drugs didn't work coz I couldn't keep them down, but the trip doctor came to my rescue with a patch - yayness! Felt like death warmed up and I wasn't alone, about half the ship including some crew were also like me. Once we got closer to the peninsula, the seas calmed down and more people appeared from their cabins. Then it was full on, the ship anchored off Greenwich...

Feb 19, 2013 - Ushuaia and the end of the World (Fin del Mundo)

Another early morning as we are passing by ‘hanging’ glaciers starting at 6:15 am ..ouch !! Fortunately for us they are on the port side, same as our room so we can go out on the balcony in our robes and get the view and the pictures. The second big glacier the Italian glacier, is the most spectacular but the pictures are hard to get as it is still pretty dark out. We are off at 12:30 to the catamaran wildlife cruise through the Beagle Channel. We have landed in the town of Ushuaia (oos y ya), definitely not an obvious pronunciation....

Feb 16, 2013 - Hola!

Hola! Well we arrived into Ushuaia yesterday (15th). It was amazing flying in over snow capped mountains and landing on an airstip on a little uluva of land over blue water. We hopped out to a brisk 10 degrees. Whilst waiting for our luggage, there was a kitty cat in a crate going round until someone grabbed the crate and put it on the side so the poor kitty didn´t go round and round and back outside. He was hiding in the back of the crate until his mum came and grabbed him, poor kitty. I have been snapping away in Ushuaia, the little town...

Feb 13, 2013 - Ushuaia

2/13/2013 Today we drove through Tierra del Fuego National Park, to the very end of RN 3. This is the end of the road. You can drive no further in South America. As you can see by the sign we are 3,079 Kilometers from Buenos Aires and 17,848 Kilometers from Alaska.

Feb 11, 2013 - Ushuaia

2/11/2013 We have arrived in Ushuaia, or maybe its Valdez Alaska. Great views, nice town and much to do. Tomorrow we will do a four hour boat tour. Holidays right now and we have found long fuel lines. Hopefully after Wednesday things will get back to normal. We will stay here until Wednesday or Thursday then back to Chile for our boat through the water passage on the coast of Chile.

Feb 8, 2013 - Patagonia

Buenas dias from sunny Patagonia. Our bus ride to Punta Arenas was uneventful. The border crossing was interesting as we were able to disembark while the bus drivers (2) spent 1-2 hour in Argentina xing and approx. 1 hour in the Chilean side. Cases were scanned. All produce thrown out. It took 12 hours but we were warned. Punta Arenas is a nice little town with lots of neat old buildings and statues. Of course we kissed the toe of the Yamana on Magellan´s statue so we will return some day. Getting our van proved to be a trial. The former...

Feb 2, 2013 - The end of the world...really...

The morning was taken up by a slow cruise along the Beagle Channel and “Glacier Alley.” The scenery is reminiscent of Alaska, but I think that Alaska is greener and appears warmer – even though the temperatures are about the same in both places. It is very foggy and every now and then something breaks through: a mountain range; a placid lake; even blue sky. It rains intermittently and makes one think it is gloomy, but when you realize where you are, it is a rush! We are less than a day’s cruise from Antarctica and tomorrow we begin our...

Jan 28, 2013 - Antarctica

On the 18th Jan. we boarded the MS Ushuaia for the most awesome trip so far. This was surely the highlight. Words cannot describe the beauty, the serenity, the silence or the complete isolation of this place. We saw many colonies of penguins--chinstraps, Gentoo, Adele and finally a lone macaroni in the midst of a chinstrap colonies. We saw Weddell, leopard and elephant seals. We floated through icebergs--many bigger than our ship. We made 2 to 3 landings a day. We hiked up mountain slopes, played in snow, built snowmen, slid down snowy...

Jan 23, 2013 - Ushuaia to Mendoza

Wednesday, January 23, 2013 After disembarking our lovely Stella Australis, we claimed our luggage from the dock and then re-checked it with Australis to take to their office while we walked around Ushuaia before time for our flight. We first found an Internet cafe ( there are very many little cafes with wi-fi) . It was raining and quite chilly when we arrived in Ushuaia, so we were happy to find a cute little "pseudo-Starbucks". However, very quaint. We all ordered some cafe, Conejita y Margarita ordered cafes especiales con Baileys. Just...