Saturday, January 31, 2009

Friday, January 30th, Trelew to Ushuaia

Greetings!

No photos today. The tour had the morning off, and I watched one of the men's semi-finals of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. Rafael Nadal versus Fernando Verdasco, with the match going five sets (five hours 14 minutes). It was the longest in tournament history, and was decided on a double fault on the last point. Rafa won it, as he usually does in five-setters, wearing down his opponent. I felt sorry for Fernando, as he played so well to lose. Now for the final with Nadal and Federer. It should be another epic battle.

In the afternoon, we went to a new museum featuring the paleolithic remains from this area. Unfortunately, I had accidentally hit the switch on my camera which kept me from focusing correctly, and the photos were a bit blurry. Oh well, just imagine a bunch of skeletons of veloci-raptors as in the movie "Jurassic Park". Some quite agressive creatures made their way down the eastern side of the Andes when North and South America got re-connected at Panama after the breakup of Pangea. Armadillos went north, and the meat-eaters went south to go after the marsupials in Latin America. Not a pretty site for a few years.

At five pm, we flew 400 miles south to Ushuaia - the end of the continent. A cold rain forest cradled in the right turn of the Andes. We arrived to brisk weather and many more hours of daylight, and the best meal we've had (beef stew with rice, and a great ice cream dessert featuring a local berry-flavor, combined with chocolate, berries, and cream. With a great local Malbec wine (Mansur de Mendoza) to take us higher, we must be in heaven.

Gregory and Pat

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