Since arriving in Ushuia, I have been on a few excursions. The first was a canoe trip down a serpintine river to the Beagle Channel. Each bend in the river revealed new birds, Upland Geese, Creasted Ducks,South American Terns, Spectacled ducks, Chilean Swallows ... The weather was lovely and the day was grand. It was silent and calm and wonderful to be in nature. The river ran through forest, and bogs and pasture. We landed near an outlet in to the Beagle where a boat picked us up and we passed by the pingüino colony where we saw two species nesting on the island, Magellanic and Gentoo. An interesting fact about penguins is that every single one of them is photogenic.

Our boat traveled on and we landed on Gable Island where we hiked around the island. The forest here is very interesting. There are only three species of trees yet the pant life seems quite diverse otherwise with many grasses, shrubs, ferns, epiphites, mosses and fungi. We tasted the Indian bread fungus. Small, round, appricote coloured balls protrude from the diseased bols of the trees. Mostly rubbery and tasteless, I found it quite fresh and pleasent in my mouth. The local endigenous people ate them and some local people still do, but mostly you see the wooden bols fashoned into tourist souvieniers in the local gift shops.

Another night, another crab dinner. This time in a light wine sauce. The table next to me ordered a full crab in the shell. It looks delicious but I´m not envious. I don´t have to break into mine. I was not disappointed to learn that I could only order wine by the bottle here and not by the glass. I´m having such fin in Ushuia!!

Today I hiked in the National park. I already knew that Argentina had one of the best developed park systems in the world. I was impressed by this. Today I learned that all (most?) of their parks are on the boarder with Chile and were established as a sovernety strategy and not as a means to protect their natural envoronment. Although that has been a resulting benefit, I continually grow disallusioned the more I learn about politics.

Hiking in the park today I spotted 2 Magellanic Woodpeckers. Hiking through the snow, I thought of all of you at home in the november weather. I´m sure the weather is similar here. Tomorrow I have another exciting day planned. I will take a taxis out to the garbage dump. Apperently it is one of the best birding locations in the area.

On tuesday I head North to Penninsula Valdes where I will meet up with Vance. It´s closing on three weeks since I saw him last. Some honeymoon, but it keeps the marriage fresh. We will spend the next month traveling together. From what he tells me, Vance has been working hard and is deserving of a holiday. We will travel to Salta, Jujuy and Iguaszu together before returning home for Christmas.