We spent a day on the Beagle Channel yesterday. The group of us boarded a catamaran that sailed east down the channel to a King Cormorant rookery. They are as elegant as Fred Astaire in the their black and white. From there we stopped to watch seals hauled out on a rocky island. Much bellowing and unpleasant smells accompanied our silent appreciation. There was a lots of room on the rock, but they appeared to prefer to pile on top of each other.
Our next stop was a Magellanic Penguin rookery. It was early in the breeding season, so the 3,000 breeding pairs that would inhabit the rookery had not arrived. But the early birds were industriously climbing hills and waddling across the beach. Above them was a handful of Gentoo penguins who have taken up residence on the island. Gentoos love the higher ground.
Our landing was at the oldest estancia on Tierra del Fuego, Estancia Hamberton. Still in family hands a portion of the 50,000 acres are set aside to protect indigenous plants. We saw the 3 kinds of false beeches that grow along the channel and a calafate. The Argentine equivalent of a blueberry plant. Lichen hung from the trees. A lovely spring walk that turned into a birding adventure.
We returned to Ushuaia with sunburned faces and the hope that Kapitan Khlebnikov had begun to sail north to collect us. We were delighted to learn she was making some headway.
