Laurie and Steve's South American Adventure: Too Cold for This Canuck

It's the middle of summer here in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. The kids are out of school, the campers and tenters are out in full force, visitors from all over the world are here.....and it is darn cold! We found this out the hard way. This morning we went out to the National Park with a small tour group. We took a van to the train station, then took the Prisoner's Train into the park.

The Prisoner's Train is one that was initially built by the convicts who were sent here to set up a penal colony. They thought the location for a penal colony was perfect...cold, inaccessible, and if someone did escape, there was no place to go. Also, it was a way for the Argentenians to populate the area. The prisoners hacked out the railway bed...only 16 guage, so it wasn't TOO bad (!!!) then took the felled trees and big rocks back to the town to build their prison. It only took 20 years to complete. As a commentator said, “things don't happen quickly in Argentina.'

The visit to the park was beautiful, but it was so cold that I could hardly stand it. People couldn't believe we were from Canada. The winds blowing from the snow capped mountains and whistling down the valleys were the coldest I've felt since my Edmonton days. But, we soon arrived back to the port, boarded the ship, had a good lunch (hot dog/french fries/caramel sundae....no calories there) and am now planning on curling up with a good book.

But before that, I want to tell you about the Yamana people that lived here for many years. They were 'discovered' only about 100 years ago.....in fact, there are many photos of them around. They were not large in numbers, only about 3000 of them. They lived in an area from Ushuai down to Cape Horn. The most memorable things about them were: a) they had strong upper bodies and legs that were considerably weaker. This was from always being in a canoe or squatting in their huts made of leaves and branches. The second memorable thing was that they were naked. Think about it. We are not far from the Antarctic and these people did not wear clothes. They subsisted on a diet of seal and sea lion, which was rich in fat and it obviously kept them warm enough to survive. In the winter, they would wrap a seal hide around them. When the Europeans and Argentinians arrived, they thought they would teach them a better way to live and introduced them to clothing (European style) and houses. Unfortunately, this contributed to their population being decimated. When they were naked and lived in temporary shelters, whenever it rained they became clean. Once they were in clothes and buildings, they lived in dirt and filth and the resulting diseases pretty much wiped out their entire population. We heard that once this people was 'discovered', it only took 40 years for the population to go from 3000 to just a few hundred. One woman remains, but she is over 70 years old and there is virtually no chance of continuing that line.

And a final note on the architecture here. Most houses are modest and almost all of the them have a metal exterior and a metal roof. I doubt there is a building in the city that is more than 4 or 5 stories tall, most of them are one level. Prices are very expensive, but everything has to be flown or shipped in. There is a strong military presence. We have heard it is to safeguard the border against Chile, and I suspect it is also because the Falklands Islands (they call it the Maldives Islands here) is so close and in the event there are any more hostilities.

We leave Ushuaia tonight at 9:00 p.m. and will arrive in Puerto Madryn after two days at sea. We're going straight north so it is bound to warm up.