Did anyone think they would get through all these blogs without a reading recommendation? Well, one of the great things about Ushuaia, Argentina is the number of books they sell (it’s a jumping-off port to voyages to Antarctica and seems to have a thriving publishing industry), and Sam managed to squeeze trips into town both before and after his tour here – no mean achievement.
What he thinks a lot of you would enjoy is E. Lucas Bridges’ “
Uttermost Part of the Earth,” a classic from the 1940’s that has recently been
republished. The Bridges family was intimately involved with Tierra del Fuego and its tribes, from their
conversion in the 19th century to later development and the subsequent loss of most of the native population. (One pure blood survives today.) It’s an epic story and Bridges is a
wonderful writer. OK, end of plug. Reading it, however, did give Sam and
extra appreciation of what he saw on this trip. The drive up to Lake Escondido offered amazing views of the Patagonian forest and the surrounding hills.
Sam persuaded the guide to let him run back and photograph a group of roadside
shrines, so guess what you are going to be seeing a lot of pictures of?
The area is a former sawmill operation and we certainly stopped at a location which has been converted from a “mill town” to a restaurant – the technique that they used to barbeque lamb in the backroom was the same used by the Patagonian Indians to cook their kills, supposedly keeping the meat from being “fatty.”
On the way back, Sam asked the guide about a graffiti, “English = pirates” and whether it related to the Falklands War. He replied, “A lot of people lost a lot of
sons – it’s hard to talk about.” So there’s a lot to be seen and experienced, both the obvious and what lies underneath the surface. This is a stop where we could easily have stayed a couple of days – we both want to return.
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