Ushuaia
Ushuaia Located on the Beagle Channel and billed as the southernmost city in the world. Ushuaia, Argentina, 2,000 miles south of Buenos Aires, is the capital of Tierra del Fuego.
Ushuaia was originally established as a penal colony by Argentina modeled after the British and French examples of Australia and Devil’s Island. In 1882 the president was fearful that neighboring Chile would contest sovereignty of Tierra del Fuego so ordered the establishment of a penal colony. From 1902 to 1947 the Bahia Golondrina (now a museum) held the most hardened criminals in South America.
In the downtown there is the End of the World Museum. There is a display of the indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego. After viewing the images of the indigenous people the origin of the name, Land of Fire, is understandable . Ferdinand Magellan named the place for all the fires he saw from his ship, thinking they were the Indians waiting to ambush him. In fact the fires were an absolute necessity as the Indians wore very little. Having a fire nearby was essential due to the year round low temperatures and their lack of clothing. What was fascinating or more accurately, bewildering are the images depicting the Yahgan wearing very little clothing. There is even an image of a Yahgan sitting in his wooden boat with a fire burning. They hunted but didn’t use the animal skins for protection from the elements.The last full blooded Yahgan died in 1999 and a display in the museum states only one person still speaks the Yahgan language. The homeowners have been bold and playful with color and whimsical in their designs. There are row after row of unique styles.
Ushuaia’s architecture is a contrast of steeped pitched corrugated iron sheet roofed wooden homes against the new modern hotels catering to the emerging tourist trade of Antartica bound ships. There is a patchwork of huge areas of felled trees. It is the result of introduced beavers. When the jail was closed in the 1940’s Argentina’s military rulers decided Ushuaia should become a fur center. Fifty Canadian beavers were imported and turned loose in the surrounding forests. Beavers fell tress and dam streams to create ponds to build their lodges and protect themselves from bears; their primary predator in Canada. It is estimated there are now over 150,000 beavers, give or take a few thousand. It’s ironic that these same beavers are looking down on the port where Darwin and Captain Fitz Roy stopped to collect bio-samples that led to the writing of the Origin of the Species.
Thanx to mjmbkk
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