We disembarked from our home for the past two weeks at 9AM, after breakfast. We had a long goodbye yesterday, turning in our boots and group velcro patches, having a goodbye meeting with the Explorer Crew and then another with the Captain and the onboard photographer played an outstanding video compiling the trip highlights.
Now we were off the ship, onto a bus that would carry us a few hundred yards, then let us disembark to “wander around town” for three hours. We had better plans! Thanks to our bird expert, Lancy, we were off on one last birding adventure! A fifteen minute walk on the waterfront brought us to a park named “Reserve Natural Urbana” which consisted of a path around a lake and some paths leading into the grassy fields.
Our targets included ducks, lots of ducks, and we weren’t disappointed. We had a good look at Red Shovelers, Yellow-billed Pintails, Yellow-billed Teals and Crested Ducks were everywhere and then there were a pair of the attractive Chiloe Widgeons.
During our walk we spotted what we presumed were two Magellanic Snipes landing in the long grasses. As is typical of this shy species, we weren’t able to see them once they landed. During our walk, we ran into a charming couple who were guides on one of the Antarctic Ships and had a few hours of downtime between voyages. They helped us find both the local Correndera Pipit, which had eluded us throughout our trip, and then pointed out a Snipe that uncharacteristically decided to show off, instead of hide.
We then wended our way back to the bus and got there apparently too early as they had been instructed to wait another 25 minutes before taking us on the very short ride to the airport. We now had nearly an hour to catch a bite to eat and return. Between slow service and language translation issues, we arrived at the bus what we thought was on time, but actually fifteen minutes late, which aggravated some of the passengers. We arrived at the airport still with an hour and a half and took off on time.
Ushuaia, the gateway to the Antarctic, is a small but beautiful place, not so much for the town but for the surrounding mountains and coastline. As we took off, we looked one last time at the town at the Southern end of the Earth.
