We parked on the street in Rio Grande next to this free kiddie carousel. The green post in front is a water filling station that shot water out at full force with no control for pressure or amount. The blue post next to it is a hot water dispenser for folks who want to refill their yerba mate thermoses.
We couldn't find proper fish 'n chips, so went to a popular local eatery, Conferitea Roca. We couldn't understand the menu, so just ordered the beef sandwiches and fries. The portions were HUGE! We should've split one order.
At the Tolhuin Visitor Centre, these paintings of indigenous Mapuche ceremonial wear were colorful. Red and white seem to be the colors for all the different styles of body painting for the costumes.
A giant carved beaver (a nuisance invasive species here) shared the lobby in the visitor center.
Lovely purple Columbines that were about 3' tall were blooming on the outside of the building. Reminded me of Mom's garden in Colorado.
La Union Bakery in Tolhuin was a must see for me. It burned down a few years ago and was totally rebuilt. This is the most modern building I've seen in all of Argentina! Its bakery and artisan chocolates are much talked about in social media and we had to try some. They also provide free yerba mate and hot water to make your own drink to enjoy with their goodies.
You could watch the bakers making breads and pastries too.
They make all kinds of chocolates and we enjoyed some dark chocolate filled with almonds and walnuts. Wished we'd bought more when it was all gone the next day. These colorful candies filled one part of the display.
Another colorful Mapuche statue in the red and white.
We found our way to a nice parking spot next to this beaver pond.
The dam the beaver built crosses the little river but water still gets through.
Water rushes in a fall behind the beaver dam. You can see the mound of the beaver lodge in the background.
A short hiking trail led up and around the pond with a viewing platform above the beaver lodge. You can see the light spot in the water on the left; that's the beaver lodge. Another viewing blind on the right and you can see YOLO in the top right corner. That gives you some idea how big the beaver lodge really is!
Karen trying on some moss for a beard like we see on the trees here.
One of the beavers swimming to shore near us.
He chomped off some weeds near their base and took them back to the lodge.
He came back several times to gather more weeds to eat.
Jason doing the dishes in the creek next to us.
These little growths grew on the burls on the branches of the trees here. They look like golf ball mushrooms, but we didn't know what they were and didn't have cell reception to look them up, so we didn't try to eat them. Odd looking, though and some were brighter orange with barely any indents in them.
The beaver emerges near us again.
Back with the stash of greens and a twig from a nearby bush. He moved pretty quickly when he wanted to get back into the water.
Swimming away with his treasure. They were kind of fun to watch for a few days.
Lago Escondido looking back from Garibaldi Pass.
Jason on the viewing platform at Garibaldi Pass.
We drove right under the chair lift for the local ski area and on through the tunnel near the entrance to Ushuaia. You'd never see the lift going over the main road in the US.
Mountain views got pretty again as we came into Ushuaia, the End of the World!
We made it! We reached the 'end of the world' at Ushuaia, Argentina.
Ushuaia big letters in the Christmas spirit in December 2023.
A view of the harbor of Ushuaia. The leaning tugboat on the left is a grounded vessel that used to be the yacht club and the only dock for visiting yachts. It's getting dilapidated now and is off limits. The cruise ship dock is in the background. Big box cruise ships come down here from Buenos Aires, and Antarctica cruises start and end here on smaller ships.
Grilling lamb Argentina style in the front window of a restaurant.
A pretty mix of flowers in a local side yard along the street.
A thematic museum, with characters hanging out the windows. Ushuaia was a penal colony and the prisoners built the train tracks and their own prison. They were sent out on the train in the icy cold to cut wood to feed furnaces to keep warm. Blue and yellow striped prison garb is still a popular tourist item.
We're at the end of the world now. Only way to drive now is back north.
An interesting sculpture in downtown Ushuaia. So many different scenes on all the different surfaces, it told a story about the evolution of the population here.
Another view of the same sculpture.
The ticket booth for this tourist train ride around the city is also shaped like a little locomotive..
The cutout in the giant slab of granite is the outline of the Malvinas, aka The Falkland Islands. Argentina still considers them their islands and Ushuaia is the capital of them. The rest of the world thinks they belong to the UK, who won that war. This monument is for the fallen Argentine soldiers from the 1982 war over the islands. Argentina lost against the UK, but they still claim the islands as theirs and we see Malvinas presented as being part of Argentina all over here.
The big letters of Ushuaia with the water at the end of the Beagle Channel in the background.
Yachts in the harbor in Ushuaia. The calm waters of this end of the Beagle Channel make a good place for a marina. I can't imagine sailing in these cold waters!
A view of Ushuaia from the ariport across the water. Can't complain about the scenery here.
A zoom in on the city of Ushuaia from the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment