In Patagonia
My first mistake was looking for an umbrella. After the taxi left me off downtown, I walked from store to store in the cold rain in search of one, and not finding it. Finally I stopped by the tourism office and asked for one. The woman behind the counter made a face and I knew I had made a mistake. “Don’t people use them here?” I asked. “No, really we don’t,” she answered. So I bought a hat and scarf instead.
I couldn’t see much when I arrived, but when it cleared I found that, at 55 degrees south of the equator, the southernmost city in the world is not too unlike my birthplace at 60.5 degrees north. Of course, in Ushuaia they have lupines instead of fireweed and guanacos instead of moose, but the overall feel of the place – mountains, glacial till and lots of junk laying around – wasn’t unfamiliar.
The Clarks hosted me in a cabin overlooking the Beagle Channel. It was a fantastic spot with a kitchen and a great view. Its seclusion meant we had to take a lot of cabs, but every driver had something different to say. Some things I learned (most, I think, are true):
Cab 1: Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela visited Ushuaia along with many other national leaders perhaps five years ago, staying in the Hayas 5-star hotel, but only for 1 night.
Cab 2: Hardly anybody lived in Ushuaia twenty years ago. Then government incentives designed to increase population outside of Buenos Aires attracted large electronics companies, particularly Philco and Grundig. The population grew from a few thousand to its present 50,000. Somewhere along the way, unfortunately, the electronics companies shut down. The town now gets by as best it can on tourist dollars, aided by the newly enlarged airport.
Cab 3: The city has 12,000 dogs, most of which appear to be roaming the streets. They don’t look unhealthy, despite subsisting on a diet of garbage.
Cab 4: It gets cold during the winter in Ushuaia, but not cold like you might expect – the temperatures run about -8 Centigrade, or about 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The local population mostly sticks around through the winters. There’s a skihill right outside town, and down the road is a 3-year-old resort thought to be the newest in Latin America.
Cab 5: You can’t see penguins in the summer; they all swim to Antarctica. If you want to see Guanacos, you have to go to Tolhuin, on lake Fagnano, where they keep them in a little zoo. They may also roam free around there.
Cab 6: The best fuegian lamb is found in the supermarket.
Cab 7: The predominant tree around Ushuaia (I can’t say in Ushuaia because there are no trees in the town) is the Lenga, a deciduous tree with tiny, tough leaves that turn brilliant colors in the fall.
Ushuaia began as a prison colony, and for many years the town’s inhabitants consisted of former inmates and prison guards. How would you like to go shopping and run into the guy who kept you locked up for 15 years? “Hey Jim, how you been?” “Doing just fine, thanks Leroy.” The prison colony – which you can tour today – was Argentina’s way of preventing somebody else from seizing more of what they saw as their territory; Britain had just claimed the Falkland Islands (here known as the Malvinas Islands), and Argentina didn’t want to lose any more.
The prison colony came sometime after most of the local natives were killed, but before all remnants of local tribes had died off, as is currently the case.
There were still plenty of natives around for young Charles Darwin to describe when he sailed through Beagle Channel on the HMS Beagle about 170 years ago. The natives he saw didn’t wear clothes, even during the winter, preferring to smear themselves in grease. (Apparently they were pretty tough.) Darwin, who had yet to coin his theory of evolution, viewed them as pre-human.
On my own voyage through the Beagle Channel, I made my second mistake, which was eating the tour boat’s matambre. This soon left me in such a bad way that I had to forgo my guanaco-seeking mission and only now, 66 hours later, am attempting my first normal-sized meal.
But every US citizen is supposed to have this sort of experience when they live in Latin America, right?
previously there was would you like some toast with that jam?
afterwards you have Cow Tools
Love,
Dad [submitted on 26 Jan 03]
Your NY relatives [submitted on 30 Jan 03]
You look very fricative in Ushuaia.
XO, Amber and Danny [submitted on 31 Jan 03]