Date of Entry: February 3rd 2016
Date of Writing: March 10th 2016, Los Lupinos Hostel, Ushuaia, Argentina
Hanging out at Cruz Del Sur Hostel can prove dangerous, much like any decent hostel, you’re in danger of meeting super cool people and then accidentally repeating expensive day trips just to keep hanging out with them. That’s what happened here with David and Henrike who I met while playing a crazy children’s Israeli dice game in the common room of the hostel the night before.
To start the day we head down to the tourists booths at the port where David and Henrike book an excursion on the traditional big catamaran to see the penguins of Isla Martillo . The catamaran costs 1050 pesos (95 CAD) but for those going I highly recommend spending 250 extra pesos and going aboard the sailing boat paludine, it’s more fun and includes more, plus there’s only 7 other tourists with you instead of the 100 or 200 that often ride on the catamaran.
From the tourists booths we head to the Museo Maritimo y del presidio in the hopes of learning some interesting things about the history of Ushuaia, which much like Australia began as a penal colony, at least in terms of colonization.
The museum is at the far end of Gobernador Deloqui street and is set in the old prison which is pretty cool. That said it’s an expensive museum and if you don’t love Museums, It’s hard for me to argue it would be worth it.
I’m lucky when I get there and find out that there’s a student price 150 ARS (14 CAD) providing a small discount from the normal price 200 ARS (18 CAD).
Together we go in to what really feels like 5 or 6 different museums crammed into one, there’s an art gallery, history wings, preserved prison cells and so much more. Kind of like the the louvre all the variety can be a little overwhelming if you come without a plan like we did. Still it proves to be a fun enough visit and we learn lots about the colonization of Ushuaia and get a first hand glimpse of how the prisoners lived as they worked hard building the foundations of what is now a city some 90,000 strong.
From here we head back in to town to get some food before going down to the docks where I cave in and pay to go on the catamaran excursion with my two new german friends. It seems silly considering I’ve only just been to Isla Martillo, but life is all about doing silly things sometimes. So we go through the port having paid our 15 peso port tax and board the comfy heated catamaran, snapping some pictures out on deck first.
Our first stop on the catamaran is a rocky island in the middle of the beagle channel absolutely covered in cormorants going about their chaotic and often confrontational day to day life. The weather outside is frightful, a cold driving rain unfortunately building as we draw closer to the penguins, but we still do step outside and snap some photos, refusing to let our moods dampen under the near freezing droplets of rain.
From there we head back inside to warm up briefly before coming to our next stop, a beautiful rocky islet covered in sea lions and two distinct colours of seaweed algae. The sea lions snort and carry on with each other watch and while there’s no massive male like on my last outing to thees the penguins they are still lots of fun to photograph. It’s worth noting that a lot of these photo’s were taken by Henrike with my camera, and that will stand for the next few entries. She has a more natural eye for photography than me I think.
Everyone else heads inside as we pull away from the sea lions motoring along through the rain and rough seas towards the penguins who I’m eager to visit again, but we decide to stay out in the cold and enjoy the scenery around us, also trying to balance in strange positions on the ever shifting southern seas. Somewhere along this trip we pass where the atlantic and pacific oceans meet, which seems cooler to me than to other people and i’m not sure why. We are also visited by some impressively huge but elusive to capture on camera albatross’ gliding effortlessly in amongst the waves. For those who haven’t seen the way albatross’ fly in person, it’s downright impressive how little they use their massive wings.
Eventually though as the rain grows and grows we head back inside to warm up before we reach the day’s final destination. There’s a snack bar inside but the prices are high so instead we much on blueberries and other snacks purchased back in Ushuaia. It doesn’t take long though before we’re approaching Isla Martillo so we head back outside to the front of the boat and wait, passing the time by staring at the people on the inside until they notice us and then smiling at them. It’s strangely fun. But then we get to the penguins and everyone’s attention shifts, our once quiet front deck flooding with people as the catamaran pretty much runs aground to get us as close as possible to the penguins (still not as close as the sailboat).
The king penguins at first are not apparent but we do eventually spot two of them off the right of us and quite aways away… The constant rain makes it tough to get a decent picture, but in the end I get a few, still this visit to the penguins despite infinitely better company pales in comparison to the last one aboard Paludine. We also spend less time with the beautiful birds so again I really recommend paying a little extra for a much more personal and better experience aboard the Paludine Sailing vessel if you are looking to visit Isla Martillo.
