South America (Day 11, Part 1)

June 6

You want to know the secret of life? It is to breathe in and out. ~ Rodriguez

Welcome to the end of the earth. OK, we even have friends who have been to Antarctica, but it was still cool to visit the place referred to as the end of the earth. And Ushuaia is a cool sounding name. So, what’s not to like? ~ Me

And the mystery of life? You never know when it is going to end.  ~  Rodriguez

December 30

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. ~ Mark Twain

Would you believe, a quarter century has passed since Y2K? ~ Me

[Beagle Channel is a 150 milelong (240 km) strait in the Tierra de Fuego archipelago in the southern tip of South America.  Also, Glacier Alley is a short stretch of Beagle Channel, that showcases 5 tidewater glaciers, named after European countries.  These massive blue glaciers inch down the Darwin Mountains from the Southern Patagonia’s Darwin Icefield.  Furthermore, the Darwin Icefield covers 2,500 square km of Isla Grande, the largest island in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The channel is named after its voyage, made by the HMS Beagle, with the Naturalist Charles Darwin on his way to the Galapagos Islands (truewindhealingtravel.com).]

Would you believe, a half century has passed since the last undefeated NCAA men’s basketball champion? ~ Me

[The glaciers of Glacier Alley . . . ]

2011, for example, lasted for an entire year. It was shortly thereafter that cracks began to appear in my bodily infrastructure. ~ Me

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list. ~ Susan Sontag

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. ~ Gustave Flaubert

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends. ~ Pat Conroy

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. ~ Helen Keller

[The view from our balcony of the ship’s bridge, where the officers keep an eye out for pirates (just kidding!) . . . ]

If you are going through hell, keep going. ~ Winston Churchill

[Yup, glacier . . . ]

Live your life by a compass not a clock. ~ Stephen Covey

[Ruthie ISO Ushuaia . . . ]

Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you travelled. ~ Mohammed

[And there’s Ushuaia, population 82,000 . . . ]

Going on a trip. Need about 5 outfits. I’ve packed 35 just to be safe. ~ Anonymous

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. ~ James A. Michener

[Ushuaia is really my kind of place. Beautiful geographic setting, between the mountains and the sea; 54 degrees south latitude (think Saskatchewan); the average temperature for the coldest month is 34, for the warmest month it’s 49 (surrounded by two oceans, certainly not a continental climate) . . . ]

Nothing lasts forever, except the day before you start your vacation. ~ Gayland Anderson

[Another cruise ship (duh!) . . . ]

A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. ~ Grace Hopper

I wonder if the ocean smells different on the other side of the world. ~ J.A. Redmerski

Adventure is just bad planning. ~ Roald Amundsen

[Who knew National Geographic had such boats?]

Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions. ~ Peter Hoeg

[Piers are always a photographers paradise . . . ]

If you don’t know where you’re going any road will do. ~ Lewis Carroll

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance. ~ Alton Brown

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~ Aldous Huxley

Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. ~ Steve Jobs

Take only memories, leave only footprints. ~ Chief Seattle

[We’re heading out for a boat tour of Beagle Channel . . . ]

[And if there’s a wind, your tour boat windows will appear as such . . . ]

Drink heavily with the locals whenever possible. ~ Anthony Bourdain

[Little Ole was tempted by the South American version of a pasty . . . ]

Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life. ~ Michael Palin

[She was our fun host of this excursion. Unfortunately, because Ruthie and I had to sacrifice our Mensa membership for age related reasons, we can no longer remember her name . . . ]

People don’t take trips, trips take people. ~ John Steinbeck

Travel is like an endless university. You never stop learning. ~ Harvey Lloyd

A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places. ~ Tom Lichtenheld

I believe God did intend, in giving us intelligence, to give us the opportunity to investigate and appreciate the wonders of His creation. He is not threatened by our scientific adventures. ~ Francis Collins

If you are of sound mind and body, many exciting and challenging adventures are within your reach irrespective of your age. ~ Gad Saad

[It’s a photo shoot-off . . . ]

A lot of people go off and have fun adventures, or hard adventures, and their impulse is to write about them right away. What really makes a difference is having some perspective on what happened. ~ Cheryl Strayed [Editor’s note: But my perspective has been getting out of hand.]

When you’re in your 40s, you become more conscious of life being of limited duration and that you need to create memories and go on little adventures from time to time. ~ Louis Theroux [Editor’s note: Wait till you’re in your 70’s!]

The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them to be responsible on the various adventures they have on their way to those goals, good, bad, and otherwise. ~ P. J. O’Rourke

Girls just want to have fun. ~ Cyndi Lauper

I want to be the one to walk in the sun… ~ Cyndi Lauper

Adventures are to the adventurous. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

[We’re in the Beagle Channel, for Pete’s sake . . . ]

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. ~ Maya Angelou

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. ~ George Bernard Shaw

If you don’t know where you are, a map won’t help. ~ Watts Humphrey

[Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse (the French name “Les Éclaireurs” means “the Scouts”) is a slightly conically shaped lighthouse standing on the northeastern most island of the five or more Les Eclaireurs islands, which it takes its name from, 5 nautical miles (9 km) east of Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego (Wikipedia).]

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. ~ Rudyard Kipling

[Well, we were promised penguins and sea lions . . . ]

All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. ~ Sally Ride

Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes’, otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life. ~ Ian Fleming

We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round. ~ Jack Nicholson

[Photo by the aforementioned “we forgot her name” . . . ]

Don’t worry about the world ending today, it’s already tomorrow in Australia. ~ Charles M. Schulz

Adventure, yeah. I guess that’s what you call it when everybody comes back alive. ~ Mercedes Lackey

[And this was the back window, a bit of ocean spray when traveling at speed . . . ]

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal. ~ Paulo Coelho

[The brick-built tower is 11 metres (36 ft) high and 3 metres (10 ft) wide at the base, with its windowless wall painted red-white-red and topped by a black lantern housing and gallery. Only a door pointing to the west provides access to the building. The light is 22.5 metres (74 ft) above sea level emitting white flashes every ten seconds with a range of 7.5 nautical miles (13.9 km). The lighthouse is still in operation, is remote-controlled, automated, uninhabited and is not open to the public, guarding the sea entrance to Ushuaia. Electricity is supplied by solar panels. The lighthouse was put into service on December 23, 1920. It is a popular tourist attraction, reached on short boat tours from Ushuaia. It is known to the Argentines as the Lighthouse at the End of the World, although that name is misleading. The lighthouse is often confused with the San Juan de Salvamento lighthouse on the east coast of the remote Isla de los Estados, made famous by Jules Verne in the novel “The Lighthouse at the End of the World, which is actually much further east (Wikipedia).]

I need a 6-month vacation twice a year. ~ Unknown

[“Oh, the places I have seen.” ~ Little Ole]

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

The worst thing about being a tourist, is having other tourists recognise you as a tourist! ~ Russell Baker

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. ~ Winston Churchill

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ~ Lao Tzu

At the end of the day, if I can say I had fun, it was a good day. ~ Simone Biles

Up Next: Day 11, Part 2 . . .