Day 8... Friday.....January 15, 2016
Ushuaia, Argentina to Tierra del Fuego National Park
We awoke to a spectacular day! Gorgeous blue sky and you could see for miles. The mountains were out and absolutely majestic.
We caught the shuttle bus and went hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park. Five years ago when we were here at roughly the same time of year, it had been extremely foggy, cold and rainy. So today, we were especially grateful and appreciative for the gift of this stunningly beautiful day.
It was so clear you could see the Isla Hoste in Chili. Unbelievable!
The water was crystal clear.
We hiked from the coast into the forest,
thru the meadows
and thru some more gorgeous meadows.
Up some stairs
and thru the forest
with a chimango caracara raptor watching over us from on high.
These are burls on a Beech tree.
The burl is a reaction to the growth of a fungus
on the bark of the tree.
Lovely vistas around every turn.
Back down to shoreline
with gorgeous views every step of the way.
Absolutely beautiful day.
We hiked on and on to Ross Lake.
Ahh bliss!
Great hike in Tierra del Fuego !
What a fun day!
We hated to leave Tierra del Fuego, but we had to head back to our hotel for a meeting giving details about our departure to Antarctica tomorrow. We felt we needed to show up.
After the meeting we headed to another hotel for we knew that our wonderful guide, Abelardo, who had led us on the Inca Trail, the Galapagos and on a trek to Patagonia, was to be staying there for one night. He was surprised yet overjoyed that we had come to see him. It was a fine reunion reminiscing about the great trips we had shared together.
Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel to pack, for tomorrow we'll be boarding our ship for the trip of a lifetime. We're going to Antarctica!