The Beagle Channel is a strait separating islands of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, in extreme southern South America. The Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan to the north, and the open ocean Drake Passage to the south are the three navigable passages around South America between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. The Beagle Channel and the Straits of Magellan are both very narrow passages which severely limit the size and types of ships that can safely use them, hence, most commercial shipping is done through the Drake Passage.
And, thus, the Beagle Channel, not very large and not terribly choked with traffic, abounds with wildlife. Many boats do tours through this channel. We chose a smallish sort of vessel that would take us out around sunset (for the best photography light, of course).
The plan was to see the Iconic Lighthouse, an island of cormorants, and island of sea lions and, finally, a short trek over a tiny island to take in the beauty of the channel.
We are a clever people, so facing three hours on a smallish sort of boat, the children brought books. I huddled by the heater. It wasn't truly cold, hovering around 3 or 4C (double, add 30!!), but I still found great comfort by the heater.
The South American sea lions were fascinating. And hooo-wee, did the island stink! I hesitate to attribute the smell to the animals themselves or just the rotting internal organs of their previous meals that surrounded them. I would tell you what they eat, but my Google-Fu has taken a vacay and I'm just not finding it.
The photos don't do this justice, but apparently there is some inner bit of whatever it is that the sea lions eat that they don't like. When they have finished dining, they leave the bit, and it rots. Maybe that's the source of the smell? Unknown. But interesting.
NEWS FLASH! Since posting, Jeff has perused and pointed out that since he actually asked the guide what the red blotches were (he ventured outside the "heater zone" during the sea lion visit, as opposed to others who should confess that they only saw the sea lions via photos since they refused to leave their seat over the heater in case some other person on the boat might accidentally sit there), he could inform me of the correct answer: the red blotches are poo. Apparently the sea lions eat some form or crustacean or other sea life that stains their waste this charming color. And maybe that's the smell, too.
This is the cormorant island. These are gorgeous birds, and while you might think "penguin!" if you glanced at this photo quickly, I promise you, in real life, these long elegant birds look nothing like penguins.
Here's a slightly better view. Here you may be able to see there long necks; quite unlike the stumpy penguin.
For another thing, they fly. Of course, I only think these flying birds are cormorants. A real birding sort of person might pop on and correct me. I think it's a cool photo, though, and include it with this brief note suggesting that while I think these are flying cormorants, and cormorants most certainly do fly, I am not 100% positive that the image below are actually flying cormorants.
The Faro Les Eclaireurs (Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse) is, as I mentioned, iconic. It's one of those things, like the Flag Tree, that you find plastered everywhere in the city on postcards, t-shirts, and calendars. It is beautiful in real life, although, as you have probably gathered, the "sunset cruise" for "great photography light" really only works if there is sun. Which, there isn't generally a whole lot of in this neck of the world, so it really wasn't a great shock that we didn't have much.
That said, who cares? The Channel is gorgeous - the boats don't go out when the weather is truly "bad," so we were just lacking some sun, and occasionally got a dribble of rain.
The children certainly enjoyed it. I would title this photo something like, "Closer to Reality Than Most of Our Christmas Photos."
The island trek was short, but also brilliant. The flowers you see below, ostensibly called "Fire Bush," were peppered across the small island.
The views were grand, and the light not terribly considering that we were under cloud cover. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be on a clear evening.
The sun set as we headed back to Ushuaia.
Lighting up the boats at the pier.
Ushuaia: it's a beautiful place.
Only a horse person would update their blog with a poo report. :)
Posted by: Debbie Hanson | January 31, 2012 at 07:40 PM