Beagle Channel

Hello from Del Fin Del Mundo! We are in Ushuaia at the end of the world. It is an amazing little town nestled against some amazing mountains down here at the bottom of South America at about -54% latitude. You can read more about the town, but the gist is that it was originally a penal colony similar to Australia, and the town was built by the prisoners. We’ve been fortunate to have great fall weather here with a couple sunny days of about 50 degrees. We took the opportunity today to get on the water and cruise the Beagle Channel.

Here’s the view of Ushuaia as we left port for our cruise of the channel. The Fall color is really in full swing, and this shot gives you a bit of a taste of how varied and vibrant it is right now.

Beagle Birds

One of the main draws of the Beagle Channel voyage is the wildlife living on the many islands. We started our tour visiting several islands covered with cormorants and sealions. The Imperial Cormorants had huge colonies on the islands. Here’s one who escaped the fray to enjoy his surroundings.

The Beagle Channel is home to two species of cormorant. We were fortunate to see both. Here’s a pair of Magellanic Cormorants displaying their signature red coloring around the eyes.

There were many other birds on the islands. There were seagulls, giant petrels, and some turkey buzzards feeding off of dead sea lions. We either didn’t capture great photos of those or have chosen to spare you the gruesome details. Instead, here’s a juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron we saw during a shore stop.

The Sea Lions

While the birds were plentiful, the stars were the aforementioned sea lions. They were all over the rocks rolling on their backs to scratch, climbing bluffs, making noise, or just lying dead in the sun as sea lions are want to do. Here are a few of our favorite photos of those large beasts. There were two species on the islands: Southern Sea Lions and Fur Seals (actually sea lions as well). The Southern Sea Lions were breeding, so they’re the ones with the babies. The Fur Seals have a softer coat and display a ruddy undercoat when the light hits them the right way.

We dubbed this one the “Sea Lion Family Photo” as everyone seemed to be posing for the photo.

Speaking of posing, the baby sea lions were nursing, and many of the moms were just over it. You can interpret the look on this mom’s face as you like.

Of course, you don’t have that many babies without some sea lion love. Here’s a big bull with his harem.

Beagle Views

The wildlife that we saw was only the foreground in a landscape of colorful and majestic views. One of the signature destinations for any Beagle Channel tour is the lighthouse at the end of the world.

We visited the Maritime Museum the previous day, and one of the tour highlights was the map of shipwrecks. Countless ships have gone down in and around the Beagle Channel. Here’s a few shots of those perilous islands we navigated around during our tour.

When the background of the islands wasn’t jagged silhouettes or snow-capped peaks, we were treated to more of the Fall color emerging at the lower altitudes.

On our way back into port, we stopped at one of the islands where we could take a short hike and take in the views. One of the island features was an old Refugia no longer in use.

There’s a lot more to explore here in Tierra Del Fuego at Del Fin Del Mundo. We’ll do a bit of coastal hiking tomorrow and then rent a car for two days so we can explore the nearby national park during the Easter Holiday. We’ll need to entertain and feed ourselves as most businesses will be closed this coming Sunday. Hope you all enjoy the Easter holiday as well and get some favorable Spring weather in your hemisphere.

Jake and Ande