World Travels 2023 - 2024, Buenos Aires, Argentina -05 Jan 24 - Valparaiso, Chile Leg.

Updated: Jan 19

Ultimate World Cruise Map 2023 - 2024

Buenos Aires, Argentina -05 Jan 24 - Valparaiso, Chile Leg.

Chile, Punta Arenas – 19 Jan 2024 – Another Shore Excursion CANCELLED.

Another big disappointment on this cruise. Well, I will just have to get use to it.

Photos of the Magellan Strait to the Pacific Ocean.

Many Mountains, waterfall, and Glaciers of the Magellan Strait.

Tierra del Fuego National Park – Train ride to the End of the World -18 Jan 2024

We’re going on a tour to visit Tierra del Fuego National Park, by bus I’m guessing, not the train. The park goes to the border with Chile and contains rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, glaciers and all kinds of interesting wildlife including more guanacos, penguins and sea lions.

There are supposed to be lots of great hiking trails here as well if you’re looking for a day outdoors.

A fairly mild hike that’s about 20 minutes from Ushuaia is going to Laguna Esmeralda, a beautiful spot in the mountains.

We’ll leave Argentina behind here, relatively early as departure is 2:00 p.m., and wend our way to our first stop in Chile, Punta Arenas. Scenery should be spectacular so you may want to spend some time on deck or at least near windows as we head north.

Train ride into the park

Scenic train ride through the forest.

Various Photographs of the train ride and the end of the world

Tierra del Fuego National Park

Most beautiful National Park in Argentina

“City at the End of the World”, Ushuaia – 17 Jan 2024

I looked this one up a long time ago to find out the pronunciation is “oo-shway-ah”, at least that’s the way I’ve been saying it, the “oo” is like the “ou” in “you”.

Confused yet?

The name comes from the native Yaghan language and means “deep bay”, which works for this city’s beautiful location on the Beagle Channel that has forests, mountains, and sea all within sight.

Once we do get to the pier the center of town is only a ten-minute walk away.

I’ll be arriving during the warmest month of the year, high temps may get all the way to 50 degrees F (10 C).

I had to smile when I saw online that Google called Ushuaia a “resort town” and had to wonder if it really meant “remote”…. It’s possible to get a souvenir passport stamp here but it is GIANT and will take a whole page.

I’ll be in the southernmost city in the world and the capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and Southern Atlantic Islands Province, what a mouthful! If you weren’t aware already the words Tierra del Fuego mean “Land of Fire’, so named because of all the smoke the first European explorers saw rising from the land, not realizing it came from the native’s fires.

The Martial Mountains rise behind Ushuaia, unique in that unlike the rest of the Andes, these run east/west rather than north/south.

Just an fyi, the channel here was named for the same ship Darwin sailed on, The Beagle, which explored the area in the 1830s.

Entering into the City of Ushuaia

My visit the Ushuaia Prison Museum - 17 Jan 2024.

1902 saw the opening of a penal colony here where some of the country’s worst criminals were sent.

After they arrived they had to build their own prison and a railway to get the lumber for it into town.

It’s been called the “Siberia of Argentina”. The prison was closed in 1947 after reports of inhumane living conditions and abuse, however the murderers and thugs were replaced clandestinely in the late 1950s by political adversaries of then President Arturo Frondizi, whose military coup had overthrown Juan Peron. The inmates remained here until another coup overthrew Frondizi in 1961. Now the prison is a museum to the past and an art gallery to celebrate native culture and the future.

Ushuaia Prison Museum and Art Gallery

Ski Lodge Luncheon - 16 Jan 2024

Part of my journey was to have a classic wood stove Argentian lunch of lamb and local wine. It was very hearty and tasty meal.

The local Malbec wine was very tasty and the Lamb dish was very tasty

Falklands Islands - 15 January 2024

Today I planned to enjoy some time on land today. That said, the ship's captain cancelled the tender operation because of rough seas. Joe sad!!

I would have journeyed back to 1982 and visit the historical battlefield sites and memorials of the war with Argentina.

My tour would have taken me to Estancia Farm, which became a base for hundreds of British troops. Learn about the mountain battlefields and see some of the areas where British forces fought in combat during the Falkland Islands conflict.

I wanted to travel to the epicenter of the main battles fought during the 1982 war.

I wanted to stop and view one of the many rock formations in the area known as Stone Runs.

I wish I had the opportunity to learn in person about various battlefield sites, including Sapper Hill, Mt William, Mt Tumbledown, Mt Harriet, and Two Sisters.

I will journey to Cape Horn before arriving at our last port in Argentina, Ushuaia. I plan to update my next blog post on Saturday, 20 January 2024.

My failed plan to see the Falkland Islands.

This is the closes I will ever get to see the Falkland Islands.

Stock photographs and maps of the Falklands. Also, my photograph of the Celebrity Cruise Ship dock at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

Elephant Island - 13 January 2024

Have you wondered where Elephant Island got its name?

it’s not because there are pachyderms found here! If you look at the map of the island on the collage you should hopefully see an elephant-like shape, which is part of the reason for the name, the other is due to sightings of elephants' seals here when the isle was being mapped.

If we do see this type of seal on location, we may be able to hear them as well as they can be extremely loud and can get vicious during mating season.

Elephant Island is located 150 mi (241 km) off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands in the Southern Ocean.

This mountainous and ice-covered island is considered one of the most desolate places on earth, no vegetation grows here. It was discovered in February of 1820 by the British Navy’s Edward Bransfield, but it was originally charted and put on a map in 1821 by the first Russian Antarctic expedition.

These explorers named it Mordvinov Island in honor of a former Russian admiral and it’s still known by that name in Russia.

The most exciting thing that ever happened here took place almost a hundred years ago.

In 1916 Ernest Shackleton took his crew and ship Endurance into the Antarctic waters of the Weddell Sea and got frozen in place there. Once the ice melted the ship was so damaged it flooded and sank so Shackleton and his men loaded lifeboats and ended up taking refuge on Elephant Island.

They were stranded there with little in the way of supplies, eventually making their way to a spot they called Point Wild that sheltered them from potential avalanches, rockfalls, and the sea.

Knowing that no one would find them if they just passively waited for rescue, Shackleton took a few of his men in a lifeboat and they incredibly made their way 800 mi (1287 km) rowing to the northeast to get to South Georgia Island for help.

After four and a half months he succeeded in returning to save his crew.

There is now the Endurance Memorial Site, an Antarctic Historic Site, located at Point Wild.

Weather here can be treacherous so let’s hope for fair winds and smooth seas.

Have those binoculars and zoom lenses handy again for various wildlife sightings.

From here we’ll make our way across the Drake Passage which connects the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Oceans in the seas between the Antarctic Peninsula and Cape Horn.

These waters have the reputation for being the world’s roughest sea passage so keep those seasickness meds close just in case, and eat a light dinner…and breakfast….and lunch, for that matter, maybe fasting for a day would be a good idea.

I know some of you made this crossing last year and it was the Drake Lake, nice and calm, but it’s also known as the Drake Shake.

I know the thrill seekers among us will be hoping for the latter, my husband among them.

There’s just no understanding some people!

Most our next day will be at sea until we sail by our first glimpse of the Falkland Islands.