South America - Argentina Tierra del Fuego, the Ona calling

The Ona, southern Selk'nam Indians (also known as Yaghan or Yamana), came to Tierra del Fuego 10,000 years ago despite the icy Antarctica weather.  When Magellan first passing the island in 1520, he named this isolated land as Tierra del Fuego, Land of Fire. Today, as the southernmost province for both Argentina and Chile, there are hardly any indigenous Ona left where they survived for centuries. Sadly, it was not the brutal fault of nature.

Satio showed up at 8am with Pepe, the temperature was 7 degree celcius and we were heading to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. Along the way, we had 8 others with us so Satio became the peddling partner of mine.  The national park was a lumbering ground before till 1960. Thus, when we hiked the ground, we can see that the trees are young with the root quite surface to the ground.  The timber industry had wiped out any possibility for aging tree here. Harder more, the wind is so strong that the guide told us the forest renew itself because the wind storm would tow away trees almost every decade. We could see all the trees bent diagonally 45 degree due to the strong wind.

 

Nacional Parque Tierra del Fuego, Apr 2010.

The trees are well trimmed by the Patagonia wind, making it look like the gigantic "bonsai".

The park is more than beautiful.  I would rather use the word - Serene - due to its geographical location and nature.  Looking out to the shore, we saw the bay of another island across belongs to Chile.  It is so close, yet far!

Nacional Parque Tierra del Fuego, Apr 2010.

Nacional Parque Tierra del Fuego, Apr 2010.

I have never been a place in the world where Peace is a norm, especially in the great wilderness.  I couldn't describe more because it is all about feeling.  It feels, deserted but not, soliture but not, loneliness but not, just Peacefully there and give that Sense of Contentment.

Start from Bahia Ensenada, the path was wind around thorny bushes and tough shrubs.  The ground was full of spongy moss on the stepping stones. We hiked 7KM along the coastline of Beagle Canal, in between Argentina and Chile waterway, and reach Lake Boca for our lamb stew lunch afternoon. The activity after the hiking was canoeing across Bay of Beagle. With the best peddling partner Satio, my canoe has no issue safely advancing. While the spanish couple, Juan and Suzana, when Juan jokes that he needs to divorce his wife during his honey moon,  we saw 6 sea lions swimming toward us.

Nacional Parque Tierra del Fuego, Apr 2010.

The 6 sea lions end up swimming along with our canoes till the end, flipping and splashing the ozing cool water at us. It was a wonderful moment! They are so playful, Satio said they are very used to human and they like to play. Satio seems to know them since he is in this national park at least twice a week.

We arrived at Bahia Lapataia, after close to 2 hours in the water. Bahia Lapataia is the end of the Argentina RN3 and the end of the Pan-American highway from north to south of 17,848KM. That is why it is the End of the World. Here, it is 3000KM from Buenos Aires and 3000KM from South Pole.

Nacional Parque Tierra del Fuego, Apr 2010.

We leaved the park and headed back to Ushuaia. I really had an amazing time. After saying good bye to Pepe and Satio, it was tough to leave a day like that behind when the contentment is filled!