Sr. Fabian
picked us up at 2:00 AM and transferred us to the reginal airport! We both
slept most of the 3½ hour flight. UGH!
We arrived
in Ushuaia at 8:15a. We were picked up by the Quark transfer and taken to the Albatros
Hotel.
Albatros Hotel
walkway to hotel
lobby of hotel
room was basic, but clean
I had planned a
low-key day today due to our early wakeup call. Well, we changed the plan since
there was more chance of rain the next day when we planned our hike in Tierra
del Fuego National Park, so we decided to do it today instead. The hotel let us
check into the room as soon as we got there, which was really nice. So, we
unpacked a bit and headed out to find the shuttle to the park.
shuttle schedule
We had planned
to do the train and then a short hike to see the Beaver dams, but it was close
to lunch time and the only food in the park is at the visitor’s center and it
was at the back with the train being at the front. So, the driver said to eat
lunch and take the Costera trail (about 3 hours) and that would take us back to
the other trail and the train if we could make the 3:00 train. We had some
tasty empanadas and a short look around the visitor’s center and headed out to
the trail.
view from the Visitor's center
inside the visitor's center
Alakush Visitor's center
walk from the visitor's center to the trail
Black-headed Swan
start of the trail
Greg on the trail
me on the trail
yep, still the trail
Darwin's fungus is a parasitic, golf ball-like fungus
Well, 3 hours must have been in dog years as it took substantially
longer. We passed people going in the other direction and asked how long they
had been walking and it was way longer than the estimated walking time, so it
wasn’t just us. So, we missed the other trail and the train. I didn’t get to
see the dam Beavers…errrr the Beaver dams. We did however have a very scenic hike
and stopped to eat the brownie we got at the visitor’s center while sitting on
a log and watching the beautiful lake. It was a warm sunny day and really was
an amazing hike with a lot of various terrain.
sitting on a log eating brownies
mussels
mussels
Flying Steamer Duck
Limpets
Magellanic cormorants (aka Rock Shags)
Gray-hooded Sierra-Finch
White-crested Elaenia
White-crested Elaenia
Austral Thrush
Tufted Tit-tyrant
Kelp Gull
finally at the end of the trail
We still had to walk another half mile or so to get to the bus stop and saw this Parakeet while we were waiting.
Austral Parakeet
We grabbed
the last shuttle back to town at 7:00 PM. We went back to the hotel and asked
where the best close place to get a steak and then walked to the Estancia,
where we finally had a really good steak.
painted wall we saw on the walk to the restaurant
dinner
painted on the wall of the post office
We were pooped after being up so long
without sleep and the long hike so we crashed and burned for the night.
I'm impressed that you took on a hike and adventurous day considering the little sleep you had. Looks like an amazing place and I'm sure you are glad you visited the park.
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