Two different excursions before wandering the city a bit and getting ready for another day in Ushuaia. Awesome day, and definitely another place I want to come back for some extended time.
Morning Start
Had a relatively late start for the morning excursion. Didn’t have to wake up till 9 for the excursion, but headed out and found that there were a LOT of groups going to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Just meant we were going to have a bunch of people there at the same time, but no matter, I got my stuff ready to go and went with my group.
Tierra del Fuego National Park
We ended up making three different stops, and had only a little bit of time at each stop. It was overcast and started raining a bunch for two of the stops, but the sun came out a bit for the last stop.
The park itself is HUGE. Looking at the views as we drove through and made it to the big parking lots, it reminded me a lot of a blend of Smokey Mountains, Glacier and Acadia NPs all wrapped into one. It was wild to have the mountains, forest / jungle and huge glacial bays / lakes all rolled into one, but also with massively changing weather and climate (they said they can experience basically all 4 seasons within an hour).
Saw only a little bit of wildlife, since people were being much too loud and obnoxious, but I mostly ran off in any direction once off the bus to get away from as many people as I could as often as I could.
There were also a ton of wild horses everywhere which was pretty fun to see them just ignore all the people.
Beagle Channel
After getting back to the port, I had about an hour and a half to warm up and grab a bite and relax before the second excursion. We set back out and it ended up being a catamaran (but a fairly modern one) that was fairly sparse with people (a lot of people went on the same tour in the morning apparently). We had a nice time cruising back down the beagle channel viewing wildlife.
As we approached the first island, I could see through the lens that there were lots of dots on the island and as we got closer, I gasped cause it wasn’t just a lot of dots, it was a LOT of dots. Turned out to be hundreds of cormorants (and babies) all over the islands.
We then went to another island that had a different type of cormorant as well, and watched some fun interactions of the cormorants (and sea lions in the water).
We then went on to a lighthouse with two other islands nearby in a clump, as we got closer, we were treated to LOTS of sea lions as well, watching them run on their flippers and play / fight with each other was really fun, and we spent a good amount of time there watching them. I’ve never seen them so active (on land) and the big ones just lying on top of the pile and asserting dominance was hilarious.
One of them had some open wounds on its side….you know what they say, it’s all fun and games until someone’s bleeding.
My absolutely favorite sea lions though are these two different ones in these pictures.
In the first, there’s two sea lions that were like….”forget these fools, we’re going to our own little slice of heaven and enjoying our peace and quiet”. I call these two my introvert sea lions.
In the second ones, it’s the sea lion at the top thats giving the side eye and watching the drama and fighting happening below them. I feel this sea lion so much. It feels like me watching all the nonsense and drama onboard the ship from my quiet corner of paradise.
Exploring Ushuaia and Back to the Ship
Got back to the port, and set out to explore the city a bit. Really nice, laid back vibe, with a LOT of shops and restaurants. It definitely is a vacation / tourist spot. Enjoyed my time out, but needed to get back, as I have a penguin excursion tomorrow at 7am tomorrow.
I noticed as I was walking around the ship that one of the panels to the Solarium is shattered…it really was kinda crazy windy I guess…
Food
Quick meal, and then went to sleep to get ready for tomorrow.
Vibe Check
5 parts joy – great to be back on land (and then turn around and go on a water excursion :D)
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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