Argentina-Patagonia- Ushuaia
After our fun week in the mountains and exploring Glacier National Park we headed to the city at the "end of the world": Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. There we were able to meet up with Grandpa Justin and Grandma Carrie, who'd also been on a grand adventure exploring Patagonia on the Chilean side and had had an amazing bucket-list trip to Antarctica!
It was so fun to connect with family outside of the U.S., and the girls loved having time with their Grandma and Grandpa! After a month of travelling together as a nuclear family, it was also a nice reprieve for Eric and I to have Dad and Carrie with us to help watch the girls.
A lot of the tourism in this part of the world is geared around bigger kids or adults involving long boat or bus rides or steep hikes into the mountains. We did however find a "kid-friendly" outing we took a touristic train ride through part of Tierra del Fuego national park . While the ride on the train was beautiful and scenic, the history of this train route is a tragic, colonial one.
Ushuaia was originally established at the very end of the 19th century as penal colony- a place to exile prisoners while also laying claim to the territory of the remote island of Ushuaia by Argentina. The railroad was built as a way for the colony to use the free labor of incarcerated persons to extract raw materials of rock, sand, and lumber from the surrounding areas to use for the colony's development. It is clearly a sad a brutal history, which unfortunately the train ride capitalizes on through mockery and jest. The prison was closed in 1947. While we appreciate that operators do not try to hide the train's history, we wish it could have been done in a way that was more respectful of the humanity of the people who suffered there, many of whom were political prisoners. This history of the train was mostly communicated through some short, silly acting at the start of the ride (that our girls did not really understand or take in) and then a long audio guide that you could listen to during the ride, which was more sobering, but still made for shock value. TBH I didn't listen to most of it, because I was interacting with the girls who couldn't really get their little headphones to stay in, which was no big loss. Despite the subtext, the train ride itself was in fact a beautiful way to see some of the country-side as a family together with young kids in tow.
At the end of the train ride, we got on a microbus that took us all the way to the southern-most end of historic Route 3- part of the Pan American highway- a network of highways that connects all the way from Northern Alaska, though central and South America! There we were able to take a nice walk in the beautiful Lapataia River valley on a boardwalk over the wetlands that looked over into Chile. The path in this area had some placards that acknowledged the nomadic indigenous peoples who inhabited the areas as early as 8,000 BC until first colonial contact in 1520. It was a gorgeous place to end the excursion into Tierra del Fuego. Fun fact: we learned from our guide on the microbus portion of the tour that the area is called Tierra del Fuego due to the numerous fires built by the indigenous communities there seen from afar at sea by the colonial explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520. I incorrectly assumed it was named "land of fire" because of volcanic activity. There is one volcanic field on the Chilean side- with infrequent activity (last active possibly in early 1900s), but apparently is not the namesake of the region. The people who live in Tierra del Fuego are called "Fueguinos".
We only had a short overlap with Justin and Carrie before they headed to Buenos Aires, where we would meet up with them in a few days time. We spent a few more days in the area so Eric could enjoy a long run in the mountains and we could see penguins- definitely a highlight of our time in Ushuaia!
Our tour to visit the penguins involved a bus ride to an inflatable "zodiac" boat launch to the protected Isla Martillo. Once landed, our group of approximately 20 tourists was guided along a marked pathway to view the two types of local penguins: Magellanic Penguins (notable for the white stripe across their head and chest) and Gentoo Penguins (slightly larger, with orange on their beaks and feet). It was really amazing to get to see penguins outside of a zoo in their natural habitat. Both species of penguins nest on the island, however only the Gentoo species lives their year round. We were there towards the end of summer, so there were no small chicks left (which hatch in the Spring) though a few birds still had their visibly fluffy juvenile feathers left. The girls loved watching the birds waddle, squawk and laze around. The island was super windy and chilly (but we were lucky to have no rain!)- so the only 30 minute walking tour seemed just about right. I would definitely recommend this unique opportunity if you ever find yourself in Ushuaia!
After the walking tour of the penguins we were also able to visit a cool Acatushun museum of marine mammal skeletons at the Haberton Ranch, which although only the size of a single large garage barn is apparently one of the most notable collections of its kind. It is always super cool to see skeletal structures and particularly of such large animals! Though the girls were interested to look at the skeletons, they did not have patience for what sounded like a very interesting presentation led by the museum staff, so we took their busy bodies outside for a walk along the seacoast instead while we waited for the return trip home.
