Well this experience was nothing like that. The penguins of Ushuaia live on a dirt island with a few tuffs of grass, a pebbled beach, and lots of wind and rain. There were originally 25 couples of the Magellan breed on the island, but now there are over 7000. They breed every year (once they turn 2) and they breed for 20 years. They always have twins, that grow at an exponential rate, so the ones that we saw were 3 weeks old and rivaled their parents in size, but were still a weird fluffy gray and not yet waterproof. There were only about 75 total of the Surf's Up orange beak and orange feet penguins. They mostly congregated in the middle of the sanctuary, so we couldn't get too close, while the normal black and white Magellan's waddled all over. If you weren't careful where you stepped, you could potentially smoosh a baby and its mom because they burrowed holes and lived in them.
All the penguins have unique voices, so when they start what looks like a grand tantrum of throwing their heads back and screaming at the sky while flapping their fins up and down, it is really them calling to their mate, "time to go home, Honey." Fascinating to watch. We got about an hour with the beautiful creatures before we had to leave, but as it had started to pour on us, we didn't mind to much.
The next morning we switched penguins for cormorants and sea lions. Not nearly as exciting as penguins, but it appears that when you're on a boat sailing along the Beagle Channel, you can't help but to keep snapping photos. Maybe it was the excitement of seeing something up close - our boat practically hit the rocks stopping for us - or the fact that I'm on vacation and on vacation I tend to take oh so many photos. After a while I was like, "I've just spent 5 minutes trying to get the perfect angle of a Sea Lion. I've seen 100's of Sea Lions, I don't need 50 photos of them." Away my camera went and only came out when we went to hike a small island covered in green moss, rocks, and small hedges. At the top we had a spectacular view of the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia. We lucked out and the day was sunny and bright blue.
After such a great morning, the rest of our evening wasn't so wonderful. We ended up at the airport, eager for our flight to El Calafate - the start of what was to be 5 days of hiking in nature and enjoying fresh air. Instead, there were streams of people backed up to the other end of the terminal, all looking bored or pissed off. Stupidly we just thought that since the Antarctica cruise ships had got in that morning, everyone was trying to fly home. Nope, Aerolinas Argentinas airline workers decided they'd had enough crap and threw a Strike. No planes going or leaving. We sat (no one moved) in line for 4 hours before one of the couples we met from the penguin tour loaned us their phone to call the airline to book a new ticket. We were told we couldn't leave for 3 days. 3 more days in Ushuaia, a beautiful, but very expensive place. We'd also seen most of the sites during our current stay there. Needless to say, we were not thrilled.
We took a taxi back into town, found the nearest bus station, and booked a 16-hour bus to El Calafate that left the day after. Therefore we still would have time to visit El Calafate and El Chalten before having to make our mandatory bus to the Chilean border on Christmas Eve. If we waited for the plane we would have skipped seeing the nature towns.
We spent our extra day in Ushuaia doing the only free activity we could find - hiking 2 miles uphill to the base of a Glacier that looked like a giant, snow covered lake spread across a mountain side. Not an impressive glacier, but it was a refreshing hike, even when it started to pour on us, me wearing jeans, and proceeded to snow the closer we got to the top. The fresh air was heavenly and just being active helped loosen the joints and our spirits.
The 2 buses we had to take during the 16-hour ride to El Calafate weren't all that bad. Since Ushuaia is an island, the only way to get out is to cross into Chile and then cross back over to Argentina once you cross the Magellan Strait - which we did without having to pay the East India Company. We only encountered a problem on the second bus. 4 children under the age of 4, accompanied by 3 20-something's - that could have cared less what the kids did. 3 of the children had a grand time hitting people on the top of their heads, kicking the backs of seats, and crawling up and down the aisles. About 2.5 hours into the ride, I'd had enough. The 3-year-old boy was making his way towards me while slamming the sides of all the seats in his path. I put my foot in the middle of his path, waited until he looked at me, and then shook my head No while firmly saying No! He tried to inch passed, but my foot didn't move and I gave him a very angry face. For the rest of the trip he didn't go pass the seats in front of me.
So yes, I was mean to a 3-year-old, but I was gonna spank him if he didn't stop. Did I mention it was a night bus and everyone was trying to sleep. Kind of hard when you're jolted out of your slumber by a wack to the head or a kidney punch. But at 1am, we arrived tired, but in one piece to the sleepy town of El Calafate. Better later, than never.
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