Ushuaia is breathtakingly beautiful, ticking all the boxes in what I want from a place: by the water, views of incredible mountains (the Martial Mountains and not the southern tip of the Andes as we initially thought), cool climate. It was almost literally breathtaking as I stepped out from the state room onto the balcony because of the cold snap in the air. I knew we were going to need to wear layers on our upcoming excursion that day but I was stunned with open-mouthed awe just looking at the dark, imposing skyline before the sun had even had a chance to rise, and shivered while taking a few photos of the light industrial port where our ship and a few other hardy explorer vessels were docked.

It was interesting to see the difference in sky colour and increase in brightness in just the half an hour either side of going to grab some breakfast and I took advantage of the conditions to get some clearer photos of the city’s surrounding mountain range. But I didn’t have much time as we had to leave to meet our excursion group on the ship. The wind was mostly coming from the port side of the ship and as we were on the starboard side we had some protection from the worst of it and the light rain it was carrying along but I was a little bit concerned as I knew the trip we had planned would take us down the Beagle Channel and there would be no shield from the weather there.

It was a constant battle to keep the camera lens clean of drops of either spitty rain driven in by the wind or by spray from the boat. My advice to keen photographers and videographers partaking in an excursion down the Beagle Channel would be to get a decent hood for your camera if you can and keep a cleaning cloth in your hand at all times to check and wipe the front of the lens every couple of shots. I did my best to keep on top of the difficult photography conditions but there are still noticeable soft spots in the photos where water drops got in the way.

Speaking of hoods, you’ll want to wear one. I wore a hoodie, a woollen hat, and had a hooded waterproof jacket on as well. Also: gloves and two pairs of socks on. It was incredibly cold on the deck of the boat taking us down the Beagle Channel. Many people stayed inside except for when we stopped to look at the local wildlife more closely – my wife amongst them – or ventured out only occasionally until the temperature sent them scurrying back inside for comfort. Only one person on the cruise down the channel remained outside for the entirety of the nearly two and a half hours. That person was me. I figure if you’re going to die of exposure somewhere you may as well make it somewhere beautiful like the end of the world.

Owing to the sheer number of photos I took of the Beagle Channel this excursion will be split into a number of parts.

While under power the boat was quite bumpy and for those of us up top it was difficult to keep our balance often. I took most of my photos while leaning against railings for support, one hand ducking into my pocket frequently to pull out my lens cloth in an attempt (not wholly successful) to keep the lens clear of spray and occasional rain.

You can see the previous images here:

• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 1)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 2)

The boat would periodically switch off its engines and drift, especially when near some of the more interesting rocky islands that were dotted throughout the Beagle Channel straits.

• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 1)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 2)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 3)

The two and a half hour excursion by boat down the Beagle Channel included two main points of interest along the way, not counting the staggeringly beautiful landscape of snow-capped mountains that surrounded the straits; the first of those points, and the main draw as far as most people were concerned I believe, was the main grouping area for sea lions, a few large rocky areas on which they sunned themselves (when the wind blew the clouds out of the way) and which they shared with a large colony of cormorants too.

I had seen the occasional sea lion swimming in the water of the channel as we had approached this rocky area with another tour boat but the slick, black body in the blue-black, often-churning water was something my camera had trouble getting a focal lock on and there was only a brief window of opportunity to switch to manual and try to dial in a fast enough shot; not the easiest job when you’re wearing gloves and shivering so I resigned myself to waiting until we came upon the sea lions en masse.

• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 1)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 2)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 3)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 4) – Sea Lions And Cormorants

We’d spent enough time for everyone on our boat and the other one that was out on the excursion with us to slowly circle the rocky island on which the sea lions were mostly congregated so we then set off again down the straits. The freezing wind picked up along with our speed and most people disappeared back under cover but I stayed outside and took in the still wonderful views of the snow-capped mountains that lined the edges of the Beagle Channel. As I’ve already mentioned in one of the earlier posts in this series of pictures I was the only person who remained on deck for the entirety of the cruise trip.

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse

The furthest point we reached from the Star Princess was Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse which guards the sea entrance to the east of Ushuaia. As with our stop to see the sea lions our boat here cut power for several minutes at a time and allowed us to slowly drift around the island on which the lighthouse was situated and take photos.

There are more photos and write-ups of our Beagle Channel cruise here:

• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 1)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 2)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 3)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 4) – Sea Lions And Cormorants
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 5) – Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse

While the cruise down the Beagle Channel had taken place out in the centre, more-or-less, with the impressive mountains of the surrounding landscape fairly distant from the boat we headed back to Ushuaia closer to land. This part of the trip was also conducted at a generally faster speed, only slowing occasionally for a few points of interest and photo opportunities for anyone who wanted them, which made taking pictures very tricky indeed.

Because of the wind direction and speed during this return part of the excursion I was forced to keep my head and camera turned away as much as possible; my method of photography then became one of trying to spot a picture I wanted to take, giving the lens a quick wipe from the spray or rain coming in, then whipping it up and snapping the shot as fast as possible in the hope that not too much moisture would get in the way and spoil the image. And, of course, all the time I was nearly frozen solid. That’s what you get for standing outside on a boat in the middle of a stretch of water in single digit temperatures.

The Beagle Channel cruise excursion took about two and a half hours. It was exhilarating being on top of the boat for that entire time, taking photos of the stunning scenery and wildlife, but I was quite happy to see the Star Princess grow in size as we neared her at the end of the trip. A highly recommended excursion indeed.

Protest

We didn’t have to walk very far into Ushuaia before we spotted and heard groups of locals out in protest at something. Coming upon protestors in Argentina seemed to be a thing as we’d encountered a group on our arrival in Buenos Aires as well. The difference here was that we hadn’t been told about any planned protests in Ushuaia so we didn’t know what they were protesting about and we were on our own without a tour guide at this point. What we did know was that we’d been instructed not to wear anything Falkland Islands-related on account of the region’s relationship with the location and our recent visit to them (we didn’t; we respect common sense) and we’d spotted some graffiti that seemed to indicate tourism was killing Ushuaia (although my translation of the Spanish was based purely on guesses based on other languages and might have been completely wrong). Subsequently, we put two and two together and concluded that our cruise ship’s arrival might be the cause and that we should keep a low profile. I mostly kept my camera aimed away from the people at this point and we tried to look inconspicuous as we looked for a souvenir shop.

In the souvenir shop we picked up a few items and paid with some dollars in order to get Argentinian money in change. We’d been unable to get any Argentinian money before heading to South America and we like to keep souvenir notes or coins from wherever we go. The shop assistant was surprised when we requested the oldest, tattiest-looking notes in change but was happy to get rid of them. I then asked about the protest going on outside the shop and was told it was against the government. This was such a relief so on leaving the store I decided to hang around and take some photos of everyone around with more confidence that I wasn’t going to get yelled at.

We later discovered back on board the ship that a couple we knew on account of becoming regular quizzing partners with us had had a closer encounter with the protest groups. They’d been bolder than me and had approached the group directly asking what they were protesting about. On finding out their grievances with the Argentinian government they’d helped the protestors first with stoking a brazier that many were huddled around to keep warm and then marching with them at one point waving flags and banging drums. I envy their experience although I think keeping a respectful distance and seeking information indirectly was possibly still the wisest move.

Ushuaia Art

We left the protestors behind as they marched down towards the waterfront and continued to have a look around Ushuaia. I’m very fond of local street art wherever I go and there was plenty to see of varying levels of quality; simple tagging to murals and stencil work were all present and we found a brightly-coloured craft centre with a number of monuments and sculptures nearby. The protests and the artwork showed us that the people of Ushuaia were very passionate and it’s another reason why I absolutely loved the place.

Ushuaia Dock

By the time we reached the waterfront area the protest group had headed back into the town so we had a chance for a few last shots of the area from Ushuaia itself.

We were getting periods of sunshine warming everything up by this point and it was impossible not to imagine living here and never tiring of the views of the landscape.

I stopped to take a photo of a sign in the dock area that reiterated the Argentinian view of the Falkland Islands as seen from that region of the country although, as explained elsewhere, the Argentine people we’d met on the Falklands didn’t seem to share quite as strong a view.

The last shots of Ushuaia from dry land were of the few vessels along the dock.

My main focus, though, was on the Martial Mountains, some of which looked absolutely gorgeous.

This was supposed to be the end of our trip to Ushuaia and, indeed, the end of our stops in Argentina on the South America cruise aboard Star Princess, but that wind that had chilled me to the core on the Beagle Channel cruise excursion still had something to say on the matter; the wind was strong enough to keep the cruise ship pinned against the dock for an additional four hours and we spent the next few days of the cruise trying to make up time.