Today, our last day in El Calafate, we decided on another horseback ride. We hired some locals to take us on a five.hour ride that included lunch, to get us back in time for our evening flight out of town. Our group consisted of seven riders-- from Australia, New Zealand and France and ourselves--plus two guides and seven dogs. We had a wonderful ride over the scrubland outside of town and down to the lake,and on the way home the dogs caught two hares, which our top guide tied onto his saddle and was looking forward to having for dinner. Hunting is what happens out here, and there are bones around to prove it. We haven't seen any pumas but are told they are around, looking for colts and lambs too weak or slow to defend themselves.
It was another fabulous day, but the wind was in our faces going out and the sun was hot so we were whipped. We got to the airport the requisite two hours ahead, to find the plane to Ushuaia delayed an hour. Blessedly, once it did take off we were fed on the plane, and after an hour´s flight we landed at the most remote destination of our trip, Ushuaia..the southernmost city of the planet! And.our bags arrived with us. A cab took us to our chalet hotel, the Patagonian Jarke, once again a hotel cantilevered down a hill. This time we are overlooking Darwin´s Beagle Channel!! It is a city on Tierra del
Fuego, a large island that points to Antarctica 500 miles away. Cape Horn is in the vicinity, too--in Chile, a bit south of here. We are amazed to be here.
Ushuaia is all lights along the shore till the mountains abruptly stop the sprawl. We are amazed to see anyone living here, so far south, on waters legendary for their storms and hostility to human and animal life. But the weather at 10 pm feels milder than we
expected. We have to remind ourselves that we are at 55 degrees south--which allows for roughly the same climate as Northern Ireland at 55 degrees north!
Important factoid: During the California gold rush, it was faster and safer to get there on a boat around Cape Horn (100-200 days) than to go on land by wagon (5 months) and risknlosing a scalp. This explains why the McGowans in our family chose the sea route to go to San Francisco and ultimately Portland O in the 19th C.
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