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On our way to the Uttermost Part of the Earth, reflecting by a still pond with dropped leaves from winter, in early spring (Amsterdam). Highly recommended to read: UTTERMOST Part Of The EARTH by E. Lucas Bridges – A History Of Terra Del Fuego And The Fuegians. Buenos Aires, August 1947. A personally fitting dedication by Mr E. Lucas Bridges:
TO MY DEAR WIFE -
And o’er the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
Beyond the night, across the day,
Through all the world she followed him
​
TENNYSON
USHUAIA Port. From where we departed for our sojourn through the Terra Del Fuego Channels. The port has few ships – and one has a vista to the Beagle Channel.
From WIKIPEDIA: The channel was named after the ship HMS Beagle during its first hydrographic survey of the coasts of the southern part of South America which lasted from 1826 to 1830. During that expedition, under the overall command of Commander Phillip Parker King, the Beagle's captain Pringle Stokes committed suicide and was replaced by captain Robert FitzRoy. The ship continued the survey in the second voyage of Beagle under the command of captain FitzRoy, who took Charles Darwin along as a self-funding supernumerary, giving him opportunities as an amateur naturalist. Darwin had his first sight of glaciers when they reached the channel on 29 January 1833, and wrote in his field notebook "It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and especially as contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse of snow."
Taking a 360 degree view, it always rains somewhere. This is the home of the Yamana people, decimated and now absent from these lands, through pestilence and disease, brought by European settlers.
Today pathways are made and passage is easy – Cape Horn, a 'Graveyard of ships' is an apt name; the coastal line is marred with too many sunken ships. Thinking of the absolute terror experienced by its crews and loved ones left behind… The Cape Horn monument for all those perished.
From our comfortable small cruise liner, it was only a short trip to the Cape. We are privileged people.
Early settlers built homes and brought sheep and tame the land. Not Terra Del Fuego, most, if not all settlements were proven indeed foolhardy in ignoring the extreme and severe conditions.
Photographs: Courtesy Ushuaia Museum. 1580 – 1600 First European visitors, Samiento de Gamboa and others. The YAMANA, a sea-going people living in the channels. Living on canoes, men hunting seals from the prow and the women diving the icy waters for shellfish; only a layer of seal grease to protect from the cold. Only the women swam. Fires were lit in the canoes, for comfort. When not at sea, the Yamana stayed in dwellings made of evergreen beech branches. Terra Del Fuego – Land of Fires, because of so many canoes with fires.
Silence, ice in mirror like water and rising mountains. One can only be spell bound by this unique and stunning beauty.
Photographs: Courtesy Ushuaia Museum. The YAMANA, a sea-going people living in the channels. Terra Del Fuego.
Terra del Fuego Canals - light changes continuously, the sun is there, then covered by dark clouds in minutes - snow on the ranges, and not a soul present.