Travels with rarecat: caracara

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Antarctica - Getting there

After having gone to both the Norwegian and Canadian Arctic, I couldn't help but set my sights on the other end of the earth - Antarctica. Meanwhile, I have been on and off zodiacs too many times in the past two years I want to keep the trip short. So I just opted for a 4 day jaunt in Antarctica (they call it the "classic") - but it takes four days to get there and four days to come home!

Buenos Aires was my first stop. I was in Buenos Aires in 2017 on my trip to Patagonia and saw quite a bit of the city then (please see my blog posts on that trip here). This time it is just an overnight stop to allow us to catch the plane to Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina to embark on the expedition.

It happened to be New Year's Day so there was a festive atmosphere on the Puerto Madero, near the waterfront where we stayed. Santiago Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer (Women's Bridge) is the centrepiece here and rightly so. The stunning pedestrian bridge is a community gathering place and was festively lit in red. It was like a parade with music and dance - a tango performance nonetheless. The waterfront promenade, lined with restaurant patios and eateries, is a great place for people watching - families, couples, singles out for the New Year strolling down the avenue enjoying the festive ambiance. It is easy to forget that Buenos Aires has been described as a dangerous city at night.

Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer (Women's Bridge)

Puerto Madero waterfront in the business district - catching the last rays of hte setting sun

The bridge lit up on New Year's Day

It was like a parade on the bridge

Tango on the bridge

The waterfront promenade

Local fashion

Patagonian Toothfish (Merluza negra)

We flew to Ushuaia the following morning and had some time to revisit the town. The memorable dinner of Patagonian Toothfish (aka Chilean sea bass) in 2017 led to my obsession with finding the restaurant Kaupé again. I couldn't get through to reserve a table so I made the walk up the steep hill to try my luck. Of course they were fully booked but the very pleasant lady owner referred me to something in town Tia Elvira which turned out to be a gem! While it doesn't have the ambiance or the fine cuisine style of Kaupé, the Patagonian Toothfish tasted just as good here. For some reason, the fish is not on the menu of every seafood restaurant as you would expect. We came back for a second helping at lunch the following day after our visit to Tierra del Fuego.

Sweep of mountains that flanked Ushuaia - stunning view when the plane landed

Ushuaia and its iconic mountains - the one on the right is called "Five Brothers"

A new monument to pioneers

Lots of interesting murals

The prison motif seems to be everywhere, including in front of Corrections Argentina

A churro truck

Scored another lifer - a Dolphin gull (note very red beak and legs)

A Caracara happened to stroll by

An abandoned old ship is now a waterfront fixture

Tierra del Fuego National Park, famous for its dramatic scenery and landforms, is huge, so we only skimmed the surface on our half day visit, a good part of it in light rain.

Our first stop at the bay in Tierra del Fuego

Windswept trees

The dramatic coastline with Chile across the waters

Looking across at the Chilean side of the Tierra del Fuego

Chinese lantern tree

Upland goose couple

LaPataia Bay

In the afternoon, we embarked the MS Expedition to begin our voyage to Antarctica. As you can see below, it's not a big ship (the red one) which made crossing the Drake Passage even more of an adventure. I had considered flying the Drake at one point but decided it's considered such a rite of passage I have to brave it. Glad I did too. It didn't turn out to be the nightmare it could be. We had 3.5 metre waves at the worst, apparently a 1 or 2 out of a possible 10. I had to take it easy for a good half day but managed to get through the passage without getting sick.

Leaving Ushuaia

Interesting landforms in the Beagle Channel - apparently moraines left behind by retreating glacier ages ago.

Last view of the land "at the end of the world" before we head into the open South Ocean.

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Patagonia - Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo"

After an exhilarating few days having our breaths taken away by the magnificent landscapes in Patagonia, we were ready for the last stop on our Patagonian journey - Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo" as the Argentinians called it (the end of the world). After a short 1.5 hr flight from El Calafate, we arrived in Ushuaia - a bustling town, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, a busy port for cruise ships and also hopping off point for adventure trips to Antartica. There were any number of excellent restaurants and our first night we headed straight for the fisherman's restaurant to try the king crab. We picked our own live crab and it was quite an experience. More later on Foodsparks, the food blog.

The main reason for our visit to Ushuaia was to see the penguins on Martillo Island and a zoologist had delivered an interesting lecture on penguins the evening of our arrival to prepare us for the trip. In the morning we boarded a catamaran that took us down the Beagle channel. Along the way we saw king cormorants and other birds in flight - there were islands full of sea lions and cormorants. There was a slight wind and the sea was just slightly choppy, enough to make a few people sea-sick, but not too badly.

The catamaran took us to the Estancia Harberton, a historic farm founded in 1886, the oldest in Tierra del Fuego. From there, we boarded a zodiac which took us to Martillo Island. All through the trip, we were entertained by a charming naturalist (his name is Valentin!) who gave us interesting details delivered in inimitable style - this guy is a natural showman, which certainly enhanced our enjoyment of the trip.

We were lucky that one lone King Penguin was sitting on the beach as we landed. The rest were Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. We were warned to keep at least 2 or 3 metres from the penguins in order not to disturb them. The guide took us through to the rookery where the penguins were mottling. The young penguins had already left the nest at this time of the year, in fact, in a few weeks (in April), these penguins would all be gone. The penguin pairs were fascinating to watch and we had to be dragged away when our hour on the island was up.There were not only penguins on the island, we saw at least 10 different kinds of birds and you can see some of them below.

We had lunch at the Estancia and a guided tour of the museum which had a huge collection of whale bones. The trip back to Ushuaia was on a 4x4 bus! It was quite a day! It was topped off at dinner by a treat of merluza negra (Patagonian toothfish), the sweetest fish I have ever tasted in my life (no exaggeration), a far cry from the frozen Chilean sea bass, the closest thing to this we could sink our teeth into at home.

I was lucky to capture some cormorants in flight - no wonder, there were several islands full of them in the Beagle Channel

And islands full of sea lions AND cormorants

A Southern Giant Petrel - note the tube beak

This looked like a Chilean Skua

Sandpiper in flight

The lone King Penguin on Martillo Island - the Gentoo penguins were keeping it company


This photo gives a better idea of the rookery An informative chart showing the annual cycle of the Magellanic Penguins - note how they will be migrating from mid-April to mid-September so they won't be on the island.