Early morning after a long day and late night yesterday. No one was too chipper at breakfast. Maybe they should just spend a summer studying watermelon pollination. 5:30AM is nothing. Well, maybe it is something the day after a ten-mile hike....I'll let you decide.
As I mentioned, we woke up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00. Same breakfast we've been having. Coffee and tea (and yerba mate) and croissants with jam and/or butter. And some orange juice that I don't think is really juice but is probably Tang or its Argentinian equivalent (is there anything equivalent to Tang?). Well, the hotel managers decided to pull a fast one on us this morning. They mixed in plum (though I think the manufacturers are a little confused about their fruits because these "plums" looked a lot like cherries) jam packets with the peach jam packets. Sneaky sneaky.
Then on to the bus for about an hour drive to Estancia Harborton, a ranch established in the late 1800s and maintained as a nature preserve and tourist destination. It was a very quiet bus ride. I think everyone fell asleep. Well everyone except a few, mainly those people who were serving as pillows. I myself was not a pillow but did stay awake. And was glad I did. I saw Nothofagus trees (ummm...surprise?) and lichens and horses and birds. I also saw two very lost-looking cows. They were just grazing around a lake, among some fallen trees. I didn't see any people or fences or buildings of any sort. Just some cows. And beaver dams. I think the beavers are really starting to take over, so much so they have started practicing animal husbandry. Scary thought.
As I mentioned, we woke up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00. Same breakfast we've been having. Coffee and tea (and yerba mate) and croissants with jam and/or butter. And some orange juice that I don't think is really juice but is probably Tang or its Argentinian equivalent (is there anything equivalent to Tang?). Well, the hotel managers decided to pull a fast one on us this morning. They mixed in plum (though I think the manufacturers are a little confused about their fruits because these "plums" looked a lot like cherries) jam packets with the peach jam packets. Sneaky sneaky.
Then on to the bus for about an hour drive to Estancia Harborton, a ranch established in the late 1800s and maintained as a nature preserve and tourist destination. It was a very quiet bus ride. I think everyone fell asleep. Well everyone except a few, mainly those people who were serving as pillows. I myself was not a pillow but did stay awake. And was glad I did. I saw Nothofagus trees (ummm...surprise?) and lichens and horses and birds. I also saw two very lost-looking cows. They were just grazing around a lake, among some fallen trees. I didn't see any people or fences or buildings of any sort. Just some cows. And beaver dams. I think the beavers are really starting to take over, so much so they have started practicing animal husbandry. Scary thought.
We arrived at the ranch at about 8:30 and people still looked exhausted. Look alive!
Our guide's name was Santiago. He has been working at the ranch for almost four years now, though the ranch has been providing tours for nearly a decade. We took a very short boat ride on the Beagle Channel to an island that serves as a breeding ground for Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. (On the way, we saw rock shags on a smaller island. A joke from a classmate: It must be horrible for rock shags. Every time they fly, it is a red-eye flight.) Yes, penguins. And no, I did not snatch one for you. The photographs at the beginning of this post are of Magellanic penguins. They are a temperate species and this is the southern edge of their range. Then gentoos are a subpolar species and this is the northern edge of their range. There are fewer breeding pairs of gentoos on the island than there are magellanic penguins. The gentoos and magellanic penguins have unique behaviors. The gentoos lay their eggs in a circle of rocks and raise their young cooperatively. The magellanic penguins burrow and raise their chicks as a couple.
We also saw skua on the island. Skuas eat the eggs and chicks of penguins and cormorants. But the baby was so cute, all down feathers! I guess you eat what you eat and we have to just accept the circle of life. I feel kind of bad when I hear people vilifying them.
After our tour of the island, we visited Museo Acatushun. It has a large collection of skeletons of marine mammals, probably one of the most unique in the world. A guide there showed us the specimens, as well as how they are prepared - how to clean the bones and scrape off all the guts, simply put. A friendly reminder of why I work with plants. No guts, no stench (well, except for some plants, but that's beside the point).
And an interesting bus ride back. I saw a giant can of coca-cola in the forest. In all seriousness, there was a large cylindrical structure, large enough for a couple human adults, with the coca-cola label, in the forest. Do not ask me why. I found it quite curious myself. Our bus driver tailgated a taxi until he finally got so fed up he just passed the guy. The road was not as well-paved as it could have been. Very many people came off the bus slightly sick to their stomachs. This does not bode well for the crossing of the Drake Passage.
I bought chocolate penguins for my roommates and I to share this evening. Merry Christmas all! (P.S. I asked our tour guide yesterday if the movie theater in town would be open tomorrow. Sadly not.)
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