Antarctica -- October-November 2010

Near Ushuaia, Argentina. The southern tip of South America is really a series of island, with Tierra del Fuego being (probably) the largest one. TIerra del Fuego is separated from the mainland by the Strat of Magellan. The Beagle Channel is the southern boundary of that island.

Took a tour sponsored by either the ship or by Vantage, I forget) of this park. This was, in part, to "kill time" until the ship was ready for boarding.

Many of the sights in Ushuaia are along the lines of the southermost golf course in the world, the southernmost bowling alley in the world, the southernmost riding stable in the world, etc. All true, I' m sure, but they hardly need it with the great mountain scenery all around.

As best I could tell, the only town south of here is Port William, which is in Chile (on the opposite side of the Beagle Channel and maybe 35 miles east). Port William (which we were at later) is much smaller.

This sign is at the southern end of the "Transamerica Highway", Alaska (Fairbanks, I believe) is at the north end. I put the name in quotes because I don't think it "really" exists. It seems to be a designation they placed on a bunch of pre-existing roads in the various countries, and there are a few places (mostly in Central America) where the roads don't -- the highway is just a line marked on a map (at least, that's the impression I got).

(19 Nov 2010)


This is a national park a few miles out of town (to the west). Sign indicates this is the south end of the Transamerican Highway – the other end is in Fairbanks Alaska. However, stuff I learned later leads me to suspect there are some pretty substantial gaps, where the highway exists more as a line on a map than as a driveable “highway”.