tierra del fuego

[Jim Budde]

I'll be in Ushuaia, Argentina next week. Any wooden boat (or other nautical sights) y'all might recommend? Non-nautical recommendations appreciated, too. Thanks

[Ron Williamson]

My inlaws just got back from there.They went on a dude sailing trip around Cape Horn.They didn't mention anything in particular,but I haven't asked either. smile.gif
R

[Iceboy]

Museo De Presidio has a maritime museum, go fishing or canoe sailing, see the glaciers or the tierra del fuego national park. Bring lots of cash and your shades. Great old frontier town.

[Johannah]

Sunscreen, lots of sunscreen. You'll be right under the ozone hole.

[seafox61]

In passage maker magizine this month their is a story about doing cape horn. I noted in a photo that their is a catamaran craft there it has big pontoons and a bridge deck looked like 10 feet above the water.

not sure what the use / reason for these craft but if you do see them and find out I would apreciate hearing about it.
good luck and thankyou very much

ps the Huscar an 1870s turreted ironclad is down there somewhere in chile
jeffery
seafox@xmission.com

[Tom Galyen]

You may want to check out the "And you think you have bad weather" thread on the Misc. Boats forum

Tom G.

[Jim Budde]

Thanks for everyone's input. We spent a few of our South America days in Ushuaia

The catamarans are for tours to see penguins ... yes we did and they are cuter in the wild than I had expected

The glacier hike and national forest are enjoyable walks .. not very aggressive hiking, just fun sight seeing

The museum is intersting, expecially the part depicting life in the prison up to 1947 .. not a place where I would have wanted to spend a lot of time

Met an Argentine sailor with two partners heading to the Pacific ... the day he left port the winds were gusting 40 or more. In their survial gear, they looked more like astronauts than sailors .... we waved as they headed out into a whited capped Beagle

Ushuaia (the town) had good food and wine ... if you like to hike go there ... if you need a 4 plex movie theater with the current Oscar nominees ... stay in Buenois Aires. Relative to the dollar, Ushuaia is very inexpensive.

Another South American sight interesting to boating enthusiastsis are the reed boats of Lake Titicacca ... once again proving that simple sometimes is better than high tech ... grab a handful of reeds, combine with ancient techniques and wa lah ... ya got a boat that floats

[Hwyl]

I wonder how many other forumites were like me and thought of Joshua Slocum's description of the indigeonous people there; but decided not to post. I was torn between my love of Slocum and my striving for non prejudice and egalitarianism.
Now you are back, how are the local people a hundred years post Slocum? I saw no mention of "tacks placed point up on deck" or "cries of "Yammerschooner"

[Bayboat]

In 1958 I traveled the Chilean inland passage from Puerto Montt to the Strait and Punta Arenas aboard a small steamboat. On the way we stopped at Puerto Eden, on Wellington Island, and a crew of Alacaluf folk came alongside in a dugout canoe to trade. These were the only nautical aboriginal people I saw. I got a ride on a Chilean navy patrol launch down to Cape Horn waters and circumnavigated Horn Island. We doubled the Cape from east to west. It was almost dead calm! I'm not sure this qualifies me to wear the golden earring, but it was a great trip. The farmers in the archipelago were still sailing their produce to Puerto Montt and Chiloe Island in tubby little wooden boats.

[Jim Budde]

Hundred years post Slocum ...I believe an article at the museum mentioned that by mid 1950's there were almost no native peoples left .. disease, prejudice, etc. Everyone local I met appeared to be of European decent.

Given lateness of season, we did not see many boats. Those we did see were of steel and/or fiberglass construction ... very sturdy work boats (except for one mid sized wooden sailboat tied up to a small dock .. no one around and it appeared to have been unused for some time)

[Bayboat]

The people Slocum encountered in the Strait were probably Yahgan, often called the "canoe people."
They spent a lot of time in their boats, made of slabs of bark sewn together. The last recorded Yahgan, an old woman, died in 1944 on a sheep ranch in Tierra del Fuego, according to a newspaper report. Presumably there are a few Alacaluf left, unless they have died off since 1958. They were also "canoe people" who made their boats of wooden planks sewn together. In the twentieth century they and the Yahgan changed to dugout canoes. I haven't read about the Ona, the third group in this region who lived inland, for a long time.
It's interesting that the reed floats ("balsas") at Lake Titicaca have survived. There is no doubt that they are an aboriginal type--the early Spaniards described them. Similar craft can still be seen along the seacoast in northern Peru, where they were also pre-European.