This is one of the sweetest videos I've ever seen.
It will soon be baby deer season. We have had baby deer in our back yard, and our cats have sat patiently close to them, watching them. But I've never seen something like this. It's amazing.
Truly - what a wonderful world this is! How can people hunt deer for recreation?
Let's do our part to protect this planet, and advocate the cause of innocent animals. They don't have a voice. We should speak for them.
Have a wonderful day.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A day cruise on the Beagle Channel
The Beagle Channel separates the largest island in Tierra del Fuego from some of its smaller islands. This strait is 240 kilometres long, with a minimum width of about 5 kilometres.
Many companies offer day cruises on the channel from Ushuaia, to visit some historic locations and to see the channel's famous inhabitants - the sea lions and Magellanic penguins.
When we arrived at Ushuaia's beautiful pier early in the morning, the sky was overcast and metallic grey. I wondered if it would just rain the whole day and we would have to see the sights through the boat's rain-spattered windows.
As we pulled away from the pier, it started drizzling, and all of us crowded into the room below. It rains most of the time in Ushuaia, so no one was perturbed. Though a little disappointed, I decided I would still make the most of it, even if it rained the whole day.
Thankfully though, the rain stopped within the next hour, and we could see the clouds lifting at the distant horizon. Though there was a cold, wet wind still blowing, we bundled up and went up to the deck to watch the dark grey waters and the cloud covered mountains in the distance.
Soon we passed the Eclaireurs Light House standing on a small island. Bright orange lichen covered the rocks, contrasting beautifully with the blue and white surroundings. This old light house dates back to 1919 and is one of the landmarks of Ushuaia.
The Beagle Channel was named after the famous ship HMS Beagle on which Darwin first sailed as an amateur naturalist from 1826 to 1830. The ship's mission was to survey the coasts of the southern part of South America. When the ship reached the channel on 29 January 1833, Darwin first saw the region's glaciers and wrote in his field notebook "many glaciers beryl blue most beautiful contrasted with snow."
We tried looking at the scenery through his eyes, as the first colony of penguins, sea lions and gulls came into view, framed by snowcapped peaks at the horizon.
It was snooze-time for the sea lions and they lay basking on the rocks, enjoying the cold, brisk wind that froze my fingers!
Tiny penguins briskly walked around on the cluster of rocks, going about their day as we gawked at them from our boat.
We next arrived at what appeared to be beach day at the penguin colony. They were out on the sand, soaking in the watery sunlight, with adults just lying around rolling in the sand while the young ones chased each other, diving into the water.
Most of them were busy preening themselves and looking cute for the camera.
But some waddled up close to the boat and stared at us with their cute, smiling faces. I so wished I could communicate with them!
There were a few that stood there with their eyes tightly shut, probably praying that we'd be gone when they opened them again.
We were all very quiet, and the only sounds were from the water lapping at the sides of the boat or from the racket created by the penguins themselves. The sun had come out by now and was slowly spreading its warmth around us.
It is such a beautiful world out there! Even as we hurry back to our lives in the concrete jungles of the world, these penguins and sea lions will still be here in these tranquil surroundings. Our wasteful actions will deplete the quality of their air and water, and will change their climate. But they will never realize it.
We soon left the penguin beach behind and headed over to Henderson Farm, a historic landmark of Ushuaia. More about that in the next post.
P.S. I am busy trying to make some progress on my thesis, because of which my posts and blog visits have become less frequent. Once I get a chunk of work done, I hope to have more time ...
Hope you are all doing well.
Many companies offer day cruises on the channel from Ushuaia, to visit some historic locations and to see the channel's famous inhabitants - the sea lions and Magellanic penguins.
When we arrived at Ushuaia's beautiful pier early in the morning, the sky was overcast and metallic grey. I wondered if it would just rain the whole day and we would have to see the sights through the boat's rain-spattered windows.
As we pulled away from the pier, it started drizzling, and all of us crowded into the room below. It rains most of the time in Ushuaia, so no one was perturbed. Though a little disappointed, I decided I would still make the most of it, even if it rained the whole day.
Thankfully though, the rain stopped within the next hour, and we could see the clouds lifting at the distant horizon. Though there was a cold, wet wind still blowing, we bundled up and went up to the deck to watch the dark grey waters and the cloud covered mountains in the distance.
Soon we passed the Eclaireurs Light House standing on a small island. Bright orange lichen covered the rocks, contrasting beautifully with the blue and white surroundings. This old light house dates back to 1919 and is one of the landmarks of Ushuaia.
The Beagle Channel was named after the famous ship HMS Beagle on which Darwin first sailed as an amateur naturalist from 1826 to 1830. The ship's mission was to survey the coasts of the southern part of South America. When the ship reached the channel on 29 January 1833, Darwin first saw the region's glaciers and wrote in his field notebook "many glaciers beryl blue most beautiful contrasted with snow."
We tried looking at the scenery through his eyes, as the first colony of penguins, sea lions and gulls came into view, framed by snowcapped peaks at the horizon.
It was snooze-time for the sea lions and they lay basking on the rocks, enjoying the cold, brisk wind that froze my fingers!
Tiny penguins briskly walked around on the cluster of rocks, going about their day as we gawked at them from our boat.
We next arrived at what appeared to be beach day at the penguin colony. They were out on the sand, soaking in the watery sunlight, with adults just lying around rolling in the sand while the young ones chased each other, diving into the water.
Most of them were busy preening themselves and looking cute for the camera.
But some waddled up close to the boat and stared at us with their cute, smiling faces. I so wished I could communicate with them!
There were a few that stood there with their eyes tightly shut, probably praying that we'd be gone when they opened them again.
We were all very quiet, and the only sounds were from the water lapping at the sides of the boat or from the racket created by the penguins themselves. The sun had come out by now and was slowly spreading its warmth around us.
It is such a beautiful world out there! Even as we hurry back to our lives in the concrete jungles of the world, these penguins and sea lions will still be here in these tranquil surroundings. Our wasteful actions will deplete the quality of their air and water, and will change their climate. But they will never realize it.
We soon left the penguin beach behind and headed over to Henderson Farm, a historic landmark of Ushuaia. More about that in the next post.
P.S. I am busy trying to make some progress on my thesis, because of which my posts and blog visits have become less frequent. Once I get a chunk of work done, I hope to have more time ...
Hope you are all doing well.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Ushuaia by Night
I have been limiting my time spent on reading/writing blog articles to about once or twice a week, because it was getting out of control! So though I may not read/comment on your posts at once, I will get to it once a week.
In my previous post I had written a little bit about Ushuaia - the city at the End of the World. It was nice to see your interest in my travel stories.
We visited Argentina in the summer (Dec-Jan), and since Ushuaia's latitude is 54 degrees south, we had sunlight until almost 11pm every day! It was wonderful to have the loooong days, because we could fit so much into each day, and then have time for even more before we had to get to bed.
For local kids of course, this is incredible because they can play outside for that much longer. As we were walking to our room at around 10:30 pm one night, we saw boys playing soccer in a field, and stopped for a bit to watch them. The setting was so idyllic, with the mountains surrounding us.
Jude had asked about Ushuaia's economy. The city does get a large part of its revenue through tourism. But there is also livestock farming, fishing, lumbering (yes - from the lovely old growth forests of Tierra del Fuego), and eletronic goods firms. So while food is expensive here, electronic goods are pretty cheap - we didn't try to buy any, but read about this somewhere.
One evening we set out with my tripod, to take some night pictures of the pier in the city. It is a spectacular location for night shots, since the pier is surrounded by snow capped mountains. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, but you can imagine how amazing it would be to have a full moon in the sky casting its reflection in the water as well ...
This bright red boat kept moving and I had to wait to get it in the position I wanted for this picture.
The pier in Ushuaia comes alive at night, with twinkling lights from the city and the matching lights from the boats that softly bob on the waters.
It was almost midnight before we had darkness, and by then the streets near the pier were pretty empty. The sky was very overcast, as you can see in the previous picture. Since we were there for just about five days, and it was raining on and off most of the time, we had to made do with the weather we had for these pictures.
From Ushuaia, we went on a few interesting day trips. The best day was spent hiking in Tierra del Fuego national park - the southernmost in the world. We also went on a day cruise on the Beagle Channel to see the penguins and sealions there, and a visit to the Haberton Farm which was truly idyllic. More on these trips in later posts ...
Hope you enjoyed the Spring weather over the weekend.
In my previous post I had written a little bit about Ushuaia - the city at the End of the World. It was nice to see your interest in my travel stories.
We visited Argentina in the summer (Dec-Jan), and since Ushuaia's latitude is 54 degrees south, we had sunlight until almost 11pm every day! It was wonderful to have the loooong days, because we could fit so much into each day, and then have time for even more before we had to get to bed.
For local kids of course, this is incredible because they can play outside for that much longer. As we were walking to our room at around 10:30 pm one night, we saw boys playing soccer in a field, and stopped for a bit to watch them. The setting was so idyllic, with the mountains surrounding us.
Jude had asked about Ushuaia's economy. The city does get a large part of its revenue through tourism. But there is also livestock farming, fishing, lumbering (yes - from the lovely old growth forests of Tierra del Fuego), and eletronic goods firms. So while food is expensive here, electronic goods are pretty cheap - we didn't try to buy any, but read about this somewhere.
One evening we set out with my tripod, to take some night pictures of the pier in the city. It is a spectacular location for night shots, since the pier is surrounded by snow capped mountains. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, but you can imagine how amazing it would be to have a full moon in the sky casting its reflection in the water as well ...
This bright red boat kept moving and I had to wait to get it in the position I wanted for this picture.
The pier in Ushuaia comes alive at night, with twinkling lights from the city and the matching lights from the boats that softly bob on the waters.
It was almost midnight before we had darkness, and by then the streets near the pier were pretty empty. The sky was very overcast, as you can see in the previous picture. Since we were there for just about five days, and it was raining on and off most of the time, we had to made do with the weather we had for these pictures.
From Ushuaia, we went on a few interesting day trips. The best day was spent hiking in Tierra del Fuego national park - the southernmost in the world. We also went on a day cruise on the Beagle Channel to see the penguins and sealions there, and a visit to the Haberton Farm which was truly idyllic. More on these trips in later posts ...
Hope you enjoyed the Spring weather over the weekend.
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