Patagonia
East Coast: Argentina
West Coast: Chile
Ushuaia


The Beagle Channel

Made famous by Darwin and his voyage on the Beagle.
Funnily, he only liked the view when you got far enough away from the shore
so you could see the mountains behind the mountains.


There are not many places to go once you're in Ushuaia. Take a drive along the Beagle Channel, turn off into the mountains, get back to the Channel, get back to Ushuaia (get back to Chile). You may even try to get a look at the beavers. But those drives are well worth it. Very varied landscape, interesting tide coasts and all surprisingly green. In the summer, just as lush as Chiloé - where it's always supposed to rain as well.

I must say we've been extremely lucky with the weather in that respect. In Ireland, London, Japan and Vancouver there was hardly any rain coming down. All those places are notorious for their heavy rainfall. Matter of fact, on the dusty roads of Patagonia and South Africa we wouldn't have minded some mud at all.

What the **** are those things? You might well ask!
Willy found the answer in Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle
It's a fungus used as food

Cyttaria darwinii
(pan de indio, llao llao)

copyright © 2000
Joseph Dougherty/ecology.org



Beavers
Somebody thought it would be a good idea to introduce beavers to Tierra del Fuego
thus giving the inhabitants something better to do than fishing or herding sheep
and something more to wear than nothing.



As almost always, this backfired. The beavers became a pest and now wreck havoc on the ecology.
Until now, they haven't been able to swim across the Strait of Magellán - but once that happens, "ruin stares face."
However, the sheep must have been as bad - they're just more used to them.
Sorry, only shots of these industrious gnawers' handwork. They prefer night-life excitement.

one more satellite dish
trying to look through the mountains

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