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Day 5 - Feb 1st - Ushuaia...we board ship today!

The weather gods are in our favour with another great day, plenty of sunshine and temperatures around 10-12c…obviously a big difference from Buenos Aires in terms of temperature but we are now much further south. Our ship M/V Ushuaia is tied up waiting for us in the port. We won't be boarding until this afternoon so this morning we visit the Tierra del Fuego National Park, located 12 kilometres from the city of Ushuaia. The road skirts the Pipo River to reach Ensenada Bay, from where we get very nice views of Redonda Island and the Chilean coast across the Beagle Channel. We also visited the most southerly post office is South America, a small hut perched on the water side. There are a few cards in the post! We then move on to Ensenada Bay and Rock Lake, taking as short hike to Lapataia River. From there we get a view of Cerro Condor on the border with Chile. We finally end up at the end of the Pan American Highway. This road covers almost 18000km beginning in Alaska and travelling through the United States, Central and South America end here in Tierra del Fuego National Park as a dirt track! Making our way back passing Laguna Verde and Laguna Negra, areas of peat bogs and beaver dams (castoreas) we reach the end of the park. Time to return to Ushuaia, grab some lunch and then make preparations to board ship and begin our voyage!

Time for a quick photo opportunity with the group at the ship and then we board and get checked in to our cabins. Following that we have our welcome meeting to meet the staff, crew and other passengers. There are 88 passengers in total made up of 22 different nationalities so we are a real mixed bag!

We set sail at 6pm making our way east along the Beagle Channel. Safety brief is carried out before before we will then turn south and head out into the Drake Passage. Weather forecasts are showing a storm moving west to east, right across our path but we will be in the shelter of Cape Horn for most of the night. The hope is that we can avoid the worst of it but that's what expedition cruising is all about. Let the real adventure begin!
