This was a better night for me, so we wake up quite well-rested and immediately the captain announces that we are at the beginning of Glacier Alley. It's half past 6 and at 7 o'clock, the first of the 6 glaciers comes into view.
We quickly get dressed and head outside where it's still chilly at this time, but it looks promising. The clouds hang from halfway up the mountains to the top, but they're not very thick, and the sun peeks through here and there. This makes the light beautiful and the blue ice of the glaciers particularly visible. With the sun on it, you don't see it as well.
We head to deck 4, where the lifeboats are hanging. The glaciers all have names of countries, except the Romanche, which is named after a ship. In order from west to east, they are ERAFIH, also known as Espagna, Romanche, Allemanja, Francia, Italia, and Holanda. They all have their own characteristics and are clearly visible, each one magnificent. The Holanda seems small but is a bit further away. We have a brief discussion about the name of the first glacier, but with the mnemonic, we figure it out.
An hour later, we sail through the northwest arm further towards Ushuaia via the Beagle Channel. We still need to have breakfast, and we expect the Lido to be quite busy now because everyone naturally wanted to see Glacier Alley first, but it was manageable.
We have tickets for the Drive to Tierra del Fuego NP this afternoon, but it's rather unclear how we're supposed to tender today. The tickets state to gather at 2:45 PM Ashore pier. Usually, gathering is in the Mainstage. How do we get to the pier now? Do we need to get a tender ticket or not? We decide to ask at the tour desk in The Crow's Nest, where we were planning to sit anyway.
There we receive a vague answer: "If there is an open tender, then it is not necessary." We can't do much with that. We spend some time reading in the cabin, me on the balcony, but we are quite restless. Off to Guest Services we go. There, we get clearer instructions. If we want to be in the city earlier, as we arrive between 11:30 AM and 12:00 PM, we need to get a tender ticket in the Rolling Stone Lounge. It's almost time, so we gather everything we think we'll need and head to deck 2. We have to wait for a little under half an hour and then we can board the tender.
It's a bit chaotic here because there is only one tender available in the port. Loading and unloading always take some time, partly because a significant number of people are not very mobile. There are more cruise ships in the harbor. The Infinity from Celebrity Cruises, 2 expedition ships from National Geographic, a Hurtigruten, a Viking, and another gray ship from Quan or something.
Once we're finally ashore, after a bit of bobbing around before we could dock, we first make our way through the shouting tour operators towards the tourist information. There isn't much information there, but Jan finds a small map, and I jot down a few Ushuaia stamps on a piece of paper, pronounced: Oes-wa-ja or possibly Oesj-wa-ja. It turns out to be quite a modern city with a lot of tourism and 80,000 inhabitants. The main issue here is the lack of doctors. So, if, for example, you break something, you might have to wait days to get a flight to Buenos Aires for treatment. Cars are very cheap here, but the law says they can only leave the island after 3 years. Tierra del Fuego or Fireland is an island that belongs to Argentina but borders Chile on 3 sides and only the ocean on the 4th side, the south side.
First, we look for a currency exchange office because we no longer need Chilean pesos; we need Argentine pesos.
Once we've exchanged the money—receiving approximately 21,000 Argentine pesos in return for 60,000 Chilean pesos, roughly equivalent to €60—we want to find the southernmost post office in the world, but it turns out not to be here. We still want to visit the prison museum and grab some food, but time is limited. After all, we need to be back at the pier by 2:45 PM. So, we stroll around a bit and specifically search for an affordable Argentine steakhouse where we won't have to wait forever. That's proving to be a challenge because A) we're indecisive, and B) we don't want to spend too much time backtracking through the main street where there were some eateries. I'm starting to feel a bit uneasy because I always fear being late.
We settle on Bar Ideal, which has been around since 1951. It seems decent enough, a football-themed café.
We opt for the "lomo con championes," which is steak with mushrooms. The waitress asks how we'd like it cooked, and we emphasize that we want it really rare/red. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem in Argentina. Turns out, it is. It comes out medium and leaning towards well-done. Bummer 😞. Fortunately, it's still tender, so it's manageable. The mushroom sauce is simple but tasty, and the fries are good, as is the beer. Thankfully, it's served promptly, and after paying nearly 15,000 pesos, we're allowed to leave.
Amidst the chaos at the pier, we find a Holland America Line staff member who directs us to the bus for the tour. It's a full bus, and Jennifer is our guide. She speaks English fairly well, but with a heavy Spanish accent, making her sometimes difficult to understand. We quickly realize that she's sharing interesting information about the places we pass by, but the driver, who knows who's in charge here, is speeding along, so we only catch glimpses of what she's saying. We had hoped to see the monument for the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands), but we couldn't find it. The bus drove past it, giving us a glimmer of hope, but without a word and no brakes.
The goal is Tierra del Fuego NP. The weather is unbelievably beautiful. It's over 18 degrees Celsius, so we're lugging around our jackets and an extra layer. This is quite unusual for here. On average, in the summer, it's around 10-12 degrees, and it's usually rainy and windy. Last week, it was snowing, and there was a strong wind blowing at 100 km per hour. Undoubtedly, this isn't good for the climate, but since it's happening, we might as well enjoy it.
The road to and within the park is unpaved once we leave the city. It's the last stretch of the Pan American Hwy and the very last piece of real road on Earth.
Jennifer collects the tickets at the entrance of the park, and then we drive to the sign "Parque Nacional Bahia Lapataya" for the typical photo opportunity. The parking lot is by a beautiful lake that Jennifer doesn't mention, and we don't walk around it either. However, three wild horses do.
Further along, people with large cameras are gathered around a tree, and we're intrigued. It turns out there are a couple of cachañas (Magellanic woodpeckers) there. They have excellent camouflage, making them difficult to spot. In Dutch, they're called Magelhaenparkieten and are a thicker, darker green variation with a red tail and blue wings compared to the ring-necked parakeets you see where we're from.
The plan is to take the left trail and head towards Lake Lapataya. It's a short walk, and indeed, it's a lake. We also take a short section of the right trail and would have enjoyed walking that trail more, but no, back on the bus.
We continue on (with high speed), crossing the Pipo River, and pass by a ranger station where the island's national birds always reside. It's a monogamous pair of Kelp Geese. There's only one there now, but we don't get the chance to observe it or take a photo. On to the next stop, crossing narrow bridges. We completely skip one stop.
The next stop is another lake. It's a beautiful area, but spending half an hour there feels both too long and too short at the same time. A glance is enough, and the time feels too short for walking, which could be quite enjoyable.
Back on the bus. Next stop: visitor center. As you might guess, it's located by a lake. What's interesting is that there's a bird there, a cara cara. It turns out it's been fed, so it's willing to pose for photos. Unfortunately for us, it's out of luck, especially since we don't even have anything to offer it.
Inside, there's a small exhibition about the indigenous population. Once we've seen that, we still have about 20 minutes before we move on. I strike up conversations with people from the bus, asking them what they think of the tour. There's just a bit too long of a pause before responses like "ehh," "mm," and "mwah" come out. That's exactly how we feel about it. Someone has a beer that looks intriguing. Patagonian honey beer. We feel like we've earned it, and it's almost 5 o'clock, so we decide to share one. Honey sounds very sweet, but you only taste it if you really try hard. In any case, the beer gets the stamp of approval.
We have one more stop to go, to a lake. That's the stop we had skipped earlier. Then we find out that there's the southernmost post office in the world. It's a little booth on a pier, and it's... closed, grrrmpf 😡. I had hoped to send Peter a postcard with a stamp specifically from here. It was open until half past 5, and we arrive at a quarter to 6. Top tour! 😝
We're actually feeling quite annoyed and stand by a fence, sulking a bit. But doing that for another 20 minutes seems a bit much, so we walk to and over the rocks where there are lots of very small purple mussels. On the hill, the wild horses are roaming again, and for a brief moment, we manage to enjoy ourselves a little bit.
Then it's back to the endpoint, in one go, without stopping or slowing down. Jennifer shares a few more tidbits about the nature, mentioning that foxes here tear open garbage bags, which is why there are no garbage bins in the park. Apparently, bear-proof trash cans aren't a thing here. On the way there, she mentioned that beavers are a problem. They were introduced once, but now they've become overpopulated. Therefore, they're allowed to be hunted, even in the park, and if you shoot one, you get a bonus from the government.
Back at the pier, we find an enormous line for the tenders. The last one was supposed to leave at half past 7, but they'll never make it. It's quarter to 7 now. They've also cut off 45 minutes from our tour, as it was supposed to last 4.5 hours. Not that we wanted it to be longer, but still. No tip then.
At 20 minutes past 8, we're back on board, stow our belongings in the cabin, head to the Lido Market, and once again, opt for Asian cuisine because it's consistently good here.
We missed the first show by Meagan and Gabe, but catch the last two. Three members of the Rolling Stone Band were also there, and it seems like the band is more of an occasional formation, as they don't seem to have much regular activity together. The singer seems like a loner, as you always see him sitting alone.
At 11 o'clock, we head upstairs and go to bed.