24 December 2016 - Ushuaia (Argentina)

I join the Europa this afternoon for a 22 day voyage to Antarctica and return to Ushuaia. Let there be fair winds and calm seas.

The Europa alongside at Ushuaia

What she looks like at sea

What I am hoping to see

  

23 December 2016 - Ushuaia (Argentina)

Today I went to visit Southern Fuegian Railway or the Train of the End of the World, a 500 mm
(19 3/4 inch) gauge steam railway in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina. It was originally built as a freight line to serve the prison of Ushuaia, specifically to transport timber. It now operates as a heritage railway into the Tierra del Fuego National Park and is considered the southernmost functioning railway in the world.

In the late 19th century, Ushuaia was developed as a penal colony, with the first prisoners arriving in 1884. In 1902, work began on a proper set of buildings for the prison by inmates, and a railway on wooden rails was constructed to assist the transport of materials, mainly local rock, sand and timber. Oxen pulled wagons along the narrow gauge of less than 1,000 mm . In 1909 tracks with a gauge of 600mm were laid for a steam locomotive. They connected the prison camp with the forestry camp and passed along the shoreline in front of the growing town of Ushuaia. It was known as the 'Train of the Prisoners' and brought wood for heating and cooking as well as building. 




In 1947 the Prison was closed and replaced with a naval base. Two years later the 1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquake blocked much of the line.

The railway was rebuilt in 1994 with a 500 mm gauge and started again. A new 2-6-2T steam locomotive (Camila) was brought from England in 1995 with another made in Argentina and three diesel locomotives are now in use.

Services leave from the 'End of the World' station 8 km west of Ushuaia. The route takes passengers along the Pico Valley in the Toro gorge and to Cascada de la Macarena station where visitors are able to learn about the Yamana people. The train then enters the national park and the forest, travelling through the valley below the mountains, reaching El Parque station.

The railway today.

Sign at the entrance

Inside of the carriage

Engine      

Working hard up the hill

Working hard up the hill

Waiting at the station

Waiting at the station

River bridge

Working hard

At the depot

An unknown stationary boiler

The depot

I found the scrap yard

Scenes during the journey

 

21 December 2016 - Ushuaia (Argentina)

Prior to leaving Santiago I went to the Aerolineas Argentinas office to check my flights, all being correct. The afternoon of the flight I receive an email from them, in Spanish, and after help from the hostel staff, the email indited that the Buenos Aires/Ushuaia flight had been cancelled and a different flight shown and hours later than the original. The Happy House Hostel staff were fantastic, they phoned the airline, checked that I was on booked on both flights, printed out boarding cards and told me how to get a free transfer between the two airports in Buenos Aires. The original flights were in and out of the same airport, this change meant that I had to clear immigration and customs in Buenos Aires at the first airport then carry by bags to a bus for the one hour trip to the second airport. Not a happy bunny having to sit on the floor while waiting for the bus!

There was one bright spot when the immigration lady at the second airport looked at my passport, said something to another lady then both laughed, and when I asked she said that she looked at me and thought of Christmas. This was midsummer day here, hot and I have little idea of what Christmas means at the moment.

To top it all I sat next to a mother with a young baby. No child strap was given to her while flying and the luggage situation is such on these planes that when everyone had sat down on suitcase was left in the isle as there was no room in the overhead lockers. I thought that it would be left there during the flight but a hostess tucked it away somewhere. There was a group of six elderly Aussies who tried to rush onto the plane telling me that they wanted to get on quickly so that they could get their luggage into the overhead lockers. Very stressed people! People were booking in with animals in cages to be put on the plane with them. One man walked down the plane isle with a dog poking its head out of a shopping bag. Anything goes on this airline so it seems (shades of PNG). We set off from the terminal then sat on the runway for an hour for some unknown reason. Door to door, hostel to hostel a total flight time of 41/2 hours took 17 hours and I was very tired at the end. At least the Hostel Los Cormoranes people met me at the airport here on a bitterly cold windy day.

The hostel is up a long series of hills, good exercise to go back and forth to the town, and from the veranda I was able to see the Bark Europa arrive in the port, under power, not sail. I have been able to get reasonably close to the ship but have not made any attempt to talk to anyone on board as the boarding time is to be 5pm on 24 December.

The town from the hostel

Trying to show the steepness of the road

The town from the harbour

Hills behind the town

Moasic

      
Besides the town being built on the side of a steep hill there are hardly two houses that look the same and some have the most weird shape, while most streets are one way only. At least drivers stop when I (and locals) want to cross the road even not at a crossing. Driving speeds are slow as there a sleeping policemen everywhere, even on what I would call main roads, some quite substantial. When cars are parked I noticed that the front wheels are turned into the kerb so if anything happens the car would not be able to run down the hills. It’s also very expensive for everything here, the others, and myself, making our own food in the hostel and not eating out at all.

The town from the harbour

Seen in the town

The last DC3 flown by the Argentine Navy in 1978 (5 Tango 22)

Stranded

Maybe the above sign is why I was not able to get money out of the local ATM's using a UK credit card. I tried three of them, one even indicating that I should try another, but eventually I found a HSBC ATM that let me have some money.

18 December 2016 – Easter Island (Chile)

Sunday, and the day all guidebooks indicate that visitors to the island should go to the Catholic Church and listen to the singing. There were three services that day, the 9am one being the better one for the singing the hotel owner advised. Between the local people and tourists the church was full with the singing in the Rapa Nui language being quite chilling, full bodied and easy to listen to. At the end of the service, less than an hour long, the priest stood outside to have photos taken with the tourists.

The Catholic Church

The priest ready to enter

The choir and band

The priest

Inside the church

While on the island I did have a look round the power station after first being refused because of what photos previous visitors had taken and put on the internet. I was even invited to a barbecue there as it was payday and the station staff were having a little celebration. The station had five Caterpillar engines of different outputs while it, and the surrounding area, looked no different to any diesel power station in Papua New Guinea.

There were a lot of horses running free on the island though still owned by the islanders. I was told that they were originally used for transport purposes but after the advent of the motor vehicle the islanders could no longer feed them so they were left to roam and thus increased in numbers so that they are becoming a nuisance now. Also lying (and I mean lying as they did little else) about the place were plenty of dogs looking well fed and very friendly. They would follow people if they thought food would be available, wanted to be petted, and I hardly heard a dog barking the whole time I was there.

The barges are used to transport cargo form ships anchored off the island as there is no harbour there. Fuel is pumped through an underwater pipeline from tankers anchored off the island as well.

A stormy day

Street Art

Street Art

Carving

Carving

A lot of the beautiful carvings were of eucalyptus wood as this grows to a large size tree. It’s also used for house building and fence posts, only the posts have to be watched as they grow shoots quite easily as far as I could see.

A stormy day

The old navy prison, the oldest building on the island

A stormy day

Young girls on the same tour

The same beach two days later

One thing about travelling is the people I meet. In the hotel in there were Swiss, Canadian, American, Russian and Italian single travelers and we went round together when possible, language not being a problem. On my last day there a group of three men arrived from Scotland, none of them Scottish! They were all university lecturers going to a math conference on the island. This was organised by one of the men and as he said, a good way to see the world a someone else’s expense.

It did rain a lot while I was on the island, four days with rarely a stop (very unusual according to the hotel manager) but I still kept going out. There is a lot to see round the island but to take photos one needs to be at the different places when the sun is right which means that organised tours do not always work out. I hired a scooter and went to places at the right time for some of the photos at least.
After the church service it was a last look round the village before catching the plane to return to Santiago. Time enough there to unpack one bag and sort out the other, leaving hot weather clothes in the hostel luggage room and getting ready the cold weather clothes to take to Ushuaia and the Antarctic.

11 to 18 December 2016 – Easter Island Moai (Chile)

I’ll put photos of the various moai (statues) to be seen round the island without too much history and facts.

The moais were built between 1400 and 1650 A.D. by the islanders.There are about 1000 statues, some up to 86 tons tons in weight and 10 metres in height, though average is around half of that. 95% of the moais were carved from the volcano Rano Raraku. This location was chosen because the material is compressed volcanic ash and was easy to carve, which was necessary as only stone tools were used.

Moai statues were built to honour chiefs or other important people who had died. They were placed on rectangular stone platforms which were tombs for the people that the statues represented. The moais were made with different faces since they were intended to keep the appearance of the person it represented.

There was one group of carvers from which the statues were bought. The buying tribe would pay with whatever they could. Examples of trade items would be sweet potatoes, chickens, bananas, mats and obsidian tools. Oddly enough the local people did not eat eggs but only chicken meat. Since a larger statue would mean a higher cost, bigger statues would also mean more greatness for the tribe, since it would be a proof of that the tribesmen are clever and hard-working enough to pay.

Eye holes would not be carved until the statue reached its destination. A pukao of red scoria stone from the quarry Puna Pau would sometimes be placed on the head of the statue to represent the long hair of the deceased, which was a sign of mana; a kind of mental power. Eyes of coral would mark the final touch, and the moai would be a living face. The spirit of he or she who had passed away would forever watch over the tribe and bring fortune in life.

The moai hats actually represent topknots - hair, tied up like a ball on top of the head, called pukao in Rapa Nui. The mana (supernatural powers) was according to ancient beliefs preserved in the hair, which is why chieftains never cut their hair. The statues are called mōai – that he can exist. I did ask if there was a local language to be told that the island is called Rapa Nui with the people and the language called the same. As there are nine clans on the island I would have expected them each to have their own language or dialect, but it seems not.

A line of topknots

The Quarry