Friday 11th January; day trip to inland lakes [Escondido and Fagnano] via ruta 3 which if you keep going ends in Alaska! On the way visited a Husky Farm where dogs are bred for racing and exploration in the Antartica. They were excited at the propect of pulling a sled and all hell broke out when only some were selected for the demonstration sled race. Gillian and Willis did a short guided walk and David completed his reading about the Bridges family [see Harberton Blog]. On arriving back we visited the Maritime Museum and part of the Prison Museum. The former was excellent for an update on those who surveyed the area; including Fitzroy and Darwin in the Beagle.

Saturday 12th;David toured out and Willis sadly had a cold so Gillian went alone on the arranged trip to the Tierra del Fuego National Park which included a steam train trip. The steam train was used to transport lumber felled by prisoners from the Ushuaia Penal Colony. She saw beaver dams and learnt about the bad effects of introducing new species e.g. beavers and rabbits. Foxes where then introduced to kill the rabbits but they quicky found that sheep were tastier! That afternoon we all went on a two hour boat trip on the Beagle Channel visiting various small islands and the local lighthouse. Again we had an English commentary. Because of the calm weather we were able to get very close to the wildlife [see photos]. On landing we visted the Yamana Museum. This outlined the history and way of life of the original inhabitants the Yamana indians; sadly now extinct. Though small this was an excellent museum. The Yamana lived their lives in their canoes and in temporary shelters. They kept warm by constantly having fires in their canoes and their shelters. These fires seen from the sea gave the name to the land "Tierra del Fuego" "Land of the Fires". They were considered by Fitzroy and Darwin in the Beagle to be very primative, in fact they lived very much in tune with thier environment. Until the arrival of Europeans they had survived 1000's of years.