Kayaking Day 10, November 7, 2018 Today is the final day of our kayaking adventure, a Wednesday. And as much as I would prefer not to, it’s time to begin thinking again in those terms: Wednesday, a working day, back in the “real” world. I have spent longer stretches away from city life: six weeks … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 9, November 6, 2018 A little cooler now than prior days, a refreshing relief. After waking, I wandered down the beach and was surprised at how close turtle tracks were to our tents. Gazing out toward the channel, I was pleased to see that the water was calm this morning. We launched after … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 8, November 5, 2018 I was greeted this morning by a smiling, distant moon and watercolor sky. As my eyes scanned the eastern horizon, I also noticed a planet (although I don’t which), just visible above the golden haze of morning. Lino, who, as I mentioned, sleeps on the panga, was already awake … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 7, November 4, 2018 We went to bed early, so I was up before sunrise this morning and able to catch a glimpse of the moon before the sky brightened and overpowered it. Today we had an intermission planned at the village of San Evaristo, 7 miles to the south, to resupply. It … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 6, November 3, 2018 Unlike Mario, Lino did not celebrate Día de Muertos. Lino resides fully in the present. He appears uninterested in lore and legend, perhaps because he lives the life of those stories today. He is too busy providing for himself and his family – and on tours, for turistas like … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 5, November 2, 2018 Another day, another glorious sunrise.  Mario had told us the night before to prepare for an early start and a long day. We would be paddling along a stretch of coast with limited opportunity for landing, so we wasted no time getting on the water. About a mile … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 4, November 1, 2018 Prior to going on the blacklight scorpion hunt, I had considered sleeping at least once in the open during the trip like Mario had been doing, nestled between the kayaks, or like Lino in the panga. But, the existence of scorpions now deterred me. We had found quite a … Continue reading
KayakIng Day 3, October 31, 2018 As we cast off from the beach the next morning, I turned to look back at our campsite. In the bright morning sun, the variegated rock strata surrounding us stood out vividly. I had not scrambled up the adjacent slope the night before to see what was there, but … Continue reading
Kayaking Day 2, October 30, 2018 I’ve always been a morning person, perhaps a result of living most of my life on Florida’s southeast coast and the islands of the American Caribbean. Mornings are cooler in the Tropics. In my younger years, I would occasionally greet the morning sun from atop my surfboard, facing east … Continue reading
[NOTE TO READERS: This next series of posts relates to a kayaking expedition we made at the end of October 2018 in a remote part of Mexico. During the trip, we were unable to communicate with the outside world and upon our return to the USA, events in Florida overtook us – the birth of … Continue reading
Here’s a map of our travels around Tierra del Fuego with the rental car: And here’s another map of our flights and bus rides (which added more mileage that didn’t compute on my mapping program); Miami is off the map. We went 20,000 miles! P.S. We’re in Buenos Aires overnight, flying out tomorrow to Miami. … Continue reading
We have often been reminded here in Ushuaia that we are living at the southernmost city on earth – the “Fin del Mundo” – the “End of the World.” As in: Cafe del Fin del Mundo; or Resto-Bar del Fin del Mundo. It’s a lot like Key West in that regard (Southernmost Motel, Southernmost Bar, … Continue reading
Today, Tuesday, found us back on the trail at a national park; this time, Argentina’s Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. We drove into the park on N.R. 3, the national highway, all the way to its end – the southernmost point in the world that you can travel on a public road. The road ends … Continue reading
On the way into Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, we saw a fox trotting down the road. By the time we stopped the car and got my iPhone out to take a picture, he had scampered off into the brush, yet still close enough to see. There are two kinds of foxes in Tierra del … Continue reading
We have a rental car here in Ushuaia, which enables us to get out of the city. Argentina has much to offer in its natural landscape, but the cities – outside of the tourist areas – tend to lack most of the public infrastructure that we take for granted in the USA, like decent roads, … Continue reading
The better part of Saturday was spent in the Mount Pleasant airport, 35 miles from Stanley, waiting for our flight back to Punta Arenas, Chile. The plane was full of returning journalists, Russian fishermen and scientists from the Antarctic Survey teams. The flight was uneventful and we got to our hotel around 7:00, took a … Continue reading
Thursday morning, before Gavin left, Derek offered us the choice of hen’s eggs or Gentoo Penguin eggs. I opted for the Gentoo eggs, over medium, with a side of bacon. One Gentoo egg was the equivalent of three hen’s eggs. The whites had the consistency of silicon and the yolks tasted like fish. Let’s just … Continue reading
Volunteer Point is mainly known for its King Penguin population. Kings are the largest penguins in the Falklands and the second largest in the world; adults are normally three feet tall. They are not migratory and the Falklands lie at the northern perimeter of their range. There was still daylight left when we first arrived … Continue reading
Our flight Wednesday from Saunders Island back to Stanley took about an hour, including a stop at Pebble Island to drop off a kitten and some cat food to the residents of the settlement there. We had a great view of Stanley as we approached the airport. The Malvina Hotel that we stayed at on … Continue reading
We were picked up by David around noon Wednesday and driven back to the settlement to wait for the FIGAS plane to take us back to Stanley. On the drive, we listened to the news analysis of the election results: 94% voter turnout; 99% of the voters saying “Yes” to the referendum question of “Do … Continue reading
After we warmed up for about an hour, we decided to go sit on the hillside to just observe the penguins for a while before turning in for dinner and bed. There are a handful of King Penguins here at The Neck, though the larger colony of Kings is at Volunteer Point on East Falkland … Continue reading
The Falkland Islands are 5,400 miles from our home in the Florida Keys; Saunders Island settlement is 100 miles from Stanley town; and, The Neck is 10 miles from the settlement. Not feeling remote enough, on our second day at The Neck, we decided to hike around Mount Harston to the ponds near Elephant Point, … Continue reading
Not long after we made it down to the beach, a number of Rockhopper penguins came swimming and waddling ashore, surprising a lone Gentoo penguin in the process. I must admit that I have a hard time grasping the whole concept of a bird that can’t fly, but is able to swim. I mean, what … Continue reading
After watching the albatross for about an hour, we retraced our steps around the hill to the Rockhopper Penguin colony as clouds passed overhead. The sun soon returned and we sat and watched them for a little while, but very little rock hopping was going on here… …but it was worth spending some time here … Continue reading
After dropping off our stuff in the Portakamp, we decided to go see the Albatross rookery that Suzan said we could find by following the fence line around the hill to the other side. Our path was blocked, however, by a huge colony of Rockhopper Penguins, another migratory species. These guys will be the subject … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 