Happy 28th Simon

Simon's Birthday!!!

Much colder today as we head down to the dockside to catch a boat, followed by Peloosa, our hostel dog. Simon's choice of birthday treat is to sail on the Beagle Channel so this is what we do! Hop on board a little sailing boat with 8 others (including the captain and our guide) and sit up on deck as we cruised along. Absolutely the most shockingly coldest head-on wind chill we have ever experiened. Despite all the layers and windproof jackets, we stupidly wore just jeans so we froze to the core anyway.  We sailed to an island to watch the huge elephant seals flopping about surrounded by cormorants, gulls and the odd albatross (flipping huge).

Then onto 'Bird Island' for more, well, birds and spot a penguin in the sea.

Then the boat pulled up onto an uninhabited island and had a stroll around to see the fauna and flora of the island. Spotted a few more albatross, gazed at the mountains of Chile across the water, and saw fantastic views of Ushuaia with its stunning mountain backdrop. The guide then took us to a part of the island where a depressed 'pit' circle provides the evidence that a tribe of Indians once lived near-naked on the island, quite suprising considering the temperature doesn't exceed 5 degrees, but they used seal fat to cover their skin. Then the missionaries came along, gave them clothing and killed them off in less than a generation - the Indians tried to dive for their fish in the channel but the clothing didn't dry so they caught pneumonia.

In the evening we went for a slap-up meal in a nice restaurant (no plastic table cloths or anything!!). We had fresh mussels to start, Simon had a huge steak and I had cod caught fresh from the Channel, all washed down with a lovely bottle of Malbec (Argentine decent red).All very nice and less than 20 quid! Then for a few drinks, Simon enjoyed a 'Beagle beer' and a slice of chocolate torte but sadly without a candle.