Cape Horn and Ushuaia

After four fabulous days in Antarctica, it was time to go back through the Drake Passage to South America.  The crossing was a bit rougher than on our way south, but still manageable.  We were worried that we wouldn't be able to get close enough to check out Cape Horn because of the winds, but luckily our co-pilot was Chilean and knew a few people, so he made sure we were authorized to sail around the cape.  I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but it was really cool to look out and see a genuine big piece of rock sticking out to mark the end of South America.

We spent about an hour sailing around and checking it out.  We were lucky to have a relatively clear day, and it was beautiful.  Our next stop was the town of Ushuaia, which is actually in Argentina.  Chile and Argentina get tangled up a bit there at the end of South America.

We had a tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park scheduled for the afternoon, so for the morning we decided to get off the ship and go for a walk, since we hadn't been off the ship since the Falkland Islands.

The town was small, but cute with plenty of photo ops.  We discovered that Eva Peron really is Argentina's favorite person.  Even that far south, she had a statue.

There was a lovely garden of remembrance next to the statue.

We even found a shout out to the penguins.

We decided the best view of the town though, was from the ship.

We had lunch on the ship, and then we headed off for our tour which started with a bus ride to the park, after which we were going to take a train to "the end of the world".  Jeff made up a song for the girls: bus to the train to the end of the world.  Which they proceeded to "sing" for the entire trip.  The scenery was beautiful.

We entered the park, and then we got off the bus and had a chance to walk around near the water.

I loved the scraggly trees.

The girls had fun.

Mom and Elena did some shell hunting.

Then it was train time!

It was very much a tourist experience, with an old school steam engine.

That was fine by us though.  We like being tourists.

We thought we were just going to get a scenic train ride, but they also talked about the history of Ushuaia as a penal colony.  The train stopped at one point and you could take photographs with "convicts" in their striped outfits.  We decided not to have that particular tourist experience, but I couldn't resist when I saw this mannequin modeling stripes and an apron outside the gift shop at the end of the ride, too bizarre.

That night was New Year's Eve, so after the tour we went back to the ship to get cleaned up and changed.  The destination for New Year's Day was Punta Arenas, and we were all puzzling over the map trying to figure out how we would get from where we were to there.

It involved going down some internal waterways with beautiful hanging glaciers, so we had lovely views to send of 2019 and welcome 2020.