 |
| Impressive waterfall at the foot of a giant glacier |
 |
| Glacier Alley to Ushuaia |
 |
| Last night's snowfall dusted the mountain tops |
 |
| Chilly rock and ice below lofty peaks |
Up and on deck by 08:00 – as we are entering one of the most
scenic segments of the Chilean Fjords, where the Espania, Aleman, Francia,
Italia, La Manche and Holandia Glaciers flow over the edge of the Tierra Del
Fuego Mountains into the Beagle Channel. The peaks are so high, the glacier so
huge, that one tends to forget, that Tierra Del Fuego is an Island.
Global Warming has taken its toll here with a vengeance. A
few years ago, most of these glaciers extended to the surface of the sea, and
filled the valleys of their course edge to edge. Now they have retreated, and
some of them hang like giant lozenges descending from lofty and vast ice fields
above and beyond the coastal mountains. One of them, the La Manche (?) still
reaches the water, and calves bergy bits directly into Beagle Channel.
 |
| Deep fjords reach into the sides of Beagle Channel |
 |
| The rocks sticking out of the sea in the foreground indicate how far the glacier's moraine reached into the sea before it retreated during the last Ice Age |
 |
| Sunny decks.... |
My fourth time through this body of water, but only the
first time that the Patagonian weather Gods smiled upon the ship. We were
blessed with calm waters, and more importantly calm air. Although the sky was
cloudy, the holes in the clouds seem to travel with the ship and light up
peaks, icefalls and snowy crests just in time for our passage. At times it was
balmy enough to lay back in one of the lounges on deck, soak in the soft sun
rays and let magnificent scenery float by silently.
Two valiant sail boats, one underway, the other anchored,
were the only vessels crossing our way during the entire morning of passing
through ‘Glacier Alley’. Apart from one Chilean coastal guard post ashore – not
a hint of human habitation. A few Skuas, Albatrosses and Giant Petrels rested
on the sea surface (with little wind they used the calm to rest, awaiting
stormier conditions to launch themselves into their soaring flight) and no other
bird, fish or animal made their appearance.
 |
| A lone sailing vessel crosses our pass |
 |
| Instead of calving into the sea, glacial water springs from an icy cave and cascades towards the sea |
 |
| Never trodden on by human foot, the high mountains of Tierra Del Fuego |
 |
| The last glacier in Glacier Alley, reaching the surface of Beagle Channel |
 |
| Blowing snow on icy peaks |
 |
| That's where we are... |
The original inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego have
disappeared. However, fragments of history of their life and culture remain.
They apparently did not clothe themselves, preferring to fish, paddle their canoes
and conduct their daily lives naked, an astonishing feat of acclimatization to
the harsh conditions in these latitudes. The early European Explorers, like
Magellan, spotted the smoke of their fires, and logically concluding that ‘if
there is smoke, there must be fire’, they called this island, Terra Del Fuego,
Land of Fire.
 |
| Albatros following the ship |
 |
| Panoramic Vistas of Glaciers... |
 |
| The Alpspitz of Garmish Patenkirchen in Germany, repeated here in Tierra del Fuego |
 |
| Anchored in one of the rare protected inlets in Beagle Channel |
Joshua Slocum, the first solo sailor around the world,
passed through the Beagle Channel. To protect himself from the (still
abundantly present) thieving Tierra del
Fuegans, he spread thumbtacks on the deck of his sailboat. Barefooted
indigenous people would not have approved…
Late morning we crossed the imaginary line into Argentinian
waters, changed from a Chilean pilot to and Argentinian one, and commenced they
approach to Ushuaya.
