Beagle Channel Darwin Ice Field Glacier Alley (Morning of December 30th)

I think I have been very lucky with timing on my, very few, cruises. First, on the Mediterranean cruise, I managed to wake up and go outside just as we were passing the Strait of Dardanelles. Then here, I woke up and went on the balcony just as the ship started making its way down the spectacular Darwin Ice Field Glacier Alley. This is a section of the Beagle Channel, named after the HMS Beagle, which on its first voyage discovered this channel, and then returned on its second voyage under the command of Robert FitzRoy carrying the recently graduated naturalist Charles Darwin on his voyage around the world. It was because of his observations made on this voyage that we now know about the evolution of the species. Because of climate change, who knows much longer the blue glaciers lining the Beagle Channel will persist to exist. Come seem them while you still can. Being able to watch the glaciers drift by from the comfort of your room was an unbeatable perk of a balcony cabin. Hugo was still sound asleep but we made sure to wake him up.

Ushuaia (Later December 30th, 2023)

Then around 10 am, we found ourselves in Ushuaia, Argentina. We only found about this later during a Q&A session with the crew, but apparently docking was a major ordeal and was only made possible because of the expertise and skill of our Captain Zisis. Additionally, the Viking ship tried to dock first but couldn't make it into port due to the strong headwinds. It was only after our larger ship docked and provided enough of a wind break that they were able to get in. Here we were signed up for a Beagle Channel excursion. The way cruise ship excursions work is that everyone with a booking was told to arrive at the theater at some specified time, and after checking in, are given a number corresponding to their excursion group. You then wait until your number is called. On the prior trips, we were one of the earlier numbers, but that was not the case here. We waited and waited, but after what seemed like eternity, our number was finally called. We really got to appreciate the weather once we got outside! The air temperature was above freezing, but the wind was brutal.

We were taken to sightseeing section of the pier where we boarded a smaller boat from which we were to explore the highlights of this wonderful land of Tierra del Fuego. We first traveled eastward towards the lighthouse Les Eclaireus. This trip was absolutely top notch. The scenery here is unbelievable. As you pull out of Ushuaia, you get to truly appreciate the massive snow covered peaks that tower over this southernmost city in the world. For someone who likes mountains, this is paradise. Of course on this trip we did not get a chance to venture inland, but I will definitely be back for some backpacking in Torres del Paine national park.

Near the light house we came upon a small island that was jam-packed with seals and cormorants. What a spectacular sight to see! We stayed here for good 20 minutes just observing the animals. I very much appreciated having a compact camera with an optical zoom, specifically the Panasonic Lumix C-ZS80D with a 30x zoom, for framing the pictures and taking close up. No amount of megapixels combined with cropping (i.e. digital zoom) will bring you the depth of field narrowing and lens compression offered by a telephoto system. The last two pictures below with the snow covered peaks towering over the animals are some of my favorites from this entire trip. Of course, framing pictures here was not all that easy due to the constant rocking of the ship.

From this rock we traveled back to and then beyond Ushuaia to arrive at the Tierra del Fuego National Park. The sea was quite choppy now and there were a few passengers getting visibly sick. We later found out that there were some issues with other later excursions in that those boats could not got out because of the wind and people got upset for not being able to participate in what is for many a once in a lifetime opportunity. I guess we were quite lucky that all our excursions ended up happening and delivering the advertised highlights. At the national park we were bused to three stops. The first one was a visit to the Lago Acigami (per signage, but apparently called Lago Roca per Google Maps). We were then taken to the "post office at the end of the world", Correo del Fin del Mundo. Here we even got to meet the person running it, Carlos de Lorenzo. We also stopped at the visitor center where we could look at some exhibits describing the local environs.

The tour ended with a drop off back in Ushuaia with several hours until we had to head back to the ship. Sandra has for several days now been craving the famous Patagonian lamb, and we even got a restaurant recommendation from somebody on the ship who has been here before. Well, unfortunatelly for us, and also not exactly ideal from tourism perspective, pretty much all restaurants are closed in the post-lunch, pre-dinner mid-afternoon we found ourselves in. We could only obseve the traditional grills through the restaurant windows. For a while it looked like our only option for food (and we were hungry by now) were some "palm leaves" from a bakery. But then we found a pub that was still open and willing to feed us. It wasn't the famous barbecue we came for but at least I got to try some lamb in a stew form.

Something really cool here was that Celebrity gave us the option to get our passports stamped (the ship held onto our passports through most the voyage as is customary), and when we got our passports back in Buenos Aires, they had in them the really cool End of the World stamp.

Cape Horn (December 31st, 2023)

The next morning we found ourselves heading for Cape Horn. This site is infamous for bad weather, but our luck could not have been better. Not only were there no waves nor wind, but the visibility was also excellent. The captain even mentioned that in his years of coming here, he very rarely gets this lucky weather wise. We got a clear view of the horn as well as the lighthouse and the Cape Horn Monument. This prominent rock formation is often thought to be the southernmost point of the South American continent. That distinction actually goes to a tiny 1 mile long Aquila Islet at the bottom of a small chain called Islas Diego Ramirez. They are so small that they don't even show up on the map unless you zoom in really well, unlike Cape Horn. Cape Horn also marks the location where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet. To the south of us was the frozen continent of Antarctica. Turns out that the next voyage for the Eclipse, after dropping us holiday revelers off in Buenos Aires, involved coming back to Ushuaia, and then actually continuing to Antarctica. We met quite a few people doing this back-to-back journey. In fact, there were also some doing a back-to-back-to-back, starting in Los Angeles, and cruising the Valparaiso. I can imagine that both of those legs were much more quiet once the holiday family crowd departed! But anyway, as we were not going to be on the Antarctica leg, the only glimpse of the white continent had to be in my mind, peering over the horizon in the direction indicated by Google Maps.

New Years Eve

What made this voyage so special was that we got to celebrate the start of the New Year 2024 almost at the southern end of the world. We drifted northward by the time the clock struck midnight, so it's possible that we were even north of Ushuaia. But even counting its 83,000 inhabitants, this meant that 99.9989% of the world's population celebrated this occasion to the north of us. A board the ship, Celebrity planned a special dinner, followed by a musical concert featuring a Czech violinist. We then had an ABBA dance party in the Grand Foyer, with free champagne offered at midnight. Then there was more dancing in the Observation Lounge, where we stayed up until around 1:30 am, long after the underage teens got escorted out by security.

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