On to Tierra del Fuego and the Patagonian fjords and glaciers....

 A flight to Ushuaia  the southernmost city in the world was needed to get to the Patagonian glaciers......

...... it has become a booming town thanks to the Antarctic becoming the 'go to' place for adventurous tourists!

Lots of large cruise ships ready to take people to Antartica.......

Many restaurants were offering lots of king crab!

It had originally been a prison colony...now the prison has become a museum with art galleries and interesting stores.

Ushuaia lost quite a few residents during the Malvinas ( Falkland) war....it is very close by!

We passed quite a few large cruise ships...and containers....to get to our boat! 

and some interesting graffiti......

 Fortunately we were going on a much smaller ship to go through the Beagle channel to explore its fjords and glaciers. The Ventus Australis was built narrower to go through tight passages...

So we were now looking forward to 4 days with no internet nor cellular connections! A choice by the company!  The quiet trip was actually amazing.

Our first stop was to be Cape Horn.......

Going onto the Cape by zodiac was at the discretion of the ship's captain and he deemed it dangerous with wind gusts of up to 160km/hour!

Instead we got to tour the Captain's Bridge......

All very impressive!

Having explored the navigation area it was time to explore the lounges.......

I was a little aprehensive about the first trip in a zodiac (and happy actually that it was not in the stormy Cape Horn sea).... but no need!

We were starting on a relatively easy hike, visiting a house where Darwin had stayed......

The hike was fairly steep......

with a view of our boat.......

This was an easy start........

From then on it was glaciers...... amazing glaciers!

The next glacier was essentially a drive by! Nowhere to land!

...except back on our boat!

Next day again a glacier with no landing available.......

There were birds on the cliffs, cormorants maybe......the only signs of life!

The next glacier visit required a hike into it......

Food on the boat was excellent, as were the wines and Pisco sours! Open bar!!

A few days in Buenos Aires

 Buenos Aires is often spoken of as the Paris of South America. It is indeed a beautiful city with lots of different vibes in different sections of the city. I did try to get a good overview! A lot had changed since my last visit many years ago.

The hotel I was staying in , the Recoleta Grand, was in the upscale Recoleta area within walking distance of the Recoleta Cemetery with its illustrious permanent guest Eva Peron.  

I also found the grave of William Brown, head of their navy , born in Foxford, Ireland as were my mother and her ancestors.

I lunched opposite the cemetery in the Cafe Biela once frequented by authors like Jorge Luis Borges.....

It has retained its historic look and the lunch was great.......

and has a famous 200 year old rubber tree just outside......

Just across the street was the Basilica ... built by the Franciscans.....

Next stop was on to the Plaza de Mayo and the Palacio Rosado where supposedly Eva Peron gave her historic speech as shown in Evita.

In the centre of the plaza there are painted white diapers ..........

These were worn by the grandmothers looking for their disappeared grandchildren , in their protests during the disastrous military government 

Then on to La Boca area... charming if a little over the top.....a mandatory stop for all visiting tourists it would seem!

Then on to the MALBA.......

Dinner in the evening was in a new, quieter, but charming, area by the river...