Ushuaia. End of the world

the ferry to Tierra de Fuego, land of fire.

what animal is that?

At El Calafate, the success of entering the Glacier park, free by passing thro the guard office before 730am, we had a saving of 40pesos per person. there were not much tourist around so we were free to roam around and take good pictures and had a picnic while listening and watching to the falling of ice bergs. as usual, we met some Chinese nationality and were very amused about our trip. we were just like celebrities to them. I over heard someone asked them if we are celebrities or someone famous because they were flashing their camera at us and Hope Too, surrounding us and questioning us. we were so shy.
after the horizonsunlimited meeting at Viedma earlier this month, we split our ways but everyone was going to the south. we met almost everyone on the next town or two then we were on our own. we met Sunny, the biker from Turkey at Los Antigous. we met Miriam at Rio Gallegos. the most intresting one was Daniele, the Italian. Daniele and I had never met before. He had been following our blog in Italy since july this year. he was working then and at the same time preparing for his bike trip. I had cleared his few queries that he gave me. Daniele knew everything about us from the blog. so at the argentina border, he came to me, shake hands and introduce himself as Daniele, the one that was following our blog. its kind of weird but happy to meet someone, like a penpal.
at Rio grande, we met up again with Thomas, Andrea, Oliver and Silkia. we were so happy to be together and hugged each other tight.

I made a promise to Paul and Sylvia, the german couple traveling with us on Grimaldi, to meet them in Ushuaia on Xmas. yes, they gave us their GPS position and we had to find them. my GPS map doesn’t work in this most southern part of the world, luckily, I had some basic navigation sense.
Paul and Sylvia had their big truck. the place they stationed was cool! windless and quiet. by the lake, in the woods with a proper parking space. we saw gray fox, some weird birds and lots of big trees fallen. I wondered why. as an Arborist, I could not figure out until I saw beaver marks. these beavers looked cute in picture but they are affecting our nature. in Singapore, we spent so much money in protecting a tree but these beaver just bite here a little bit, bite there a litter bit. this a litter bit cause much damage to the tree and cause the tree to fall. we shall put up an anti-beaver campaign to protect the ozone. some beaver art works.

grey fox?

21st December was the longest day the southern part of this planet had. less then 6 hours of night only. I think in Europe or the northern side, people traditionally celebrate this day. for the Chinese, we celebrate this day by eating rice dumpling.

its Xmas. I spent every Xmas in my life with the Lee family of Queenstown. My sister and I were being brought up by them, considering them as our nanny. the Lee family is more than being our nanny. In my point of view, though we had no blood relationship, I would consider them as my close relative. they had given me so much love that is so hard to explain by words. I only had emotional tears when I think of them being so good to me.

Here in Ushuaia, all the travelers came here to celebrate Xmas, mostly Caucasians. Xmas is so important to them. For some people back at home, it’s a reason to party whole night and get themselves drunk and sleep until 2pm the next day. For Sam and I, we had a German and Swiss Xmas with Thomas, Andrea, Oliver, Silker, Mathias, Andreas and Saskia. Its summer here at this end of the world and it is almost 5 degrees Celsius in the night. We had a warm Xmas with friends around. Our heart is still back at Queenstown, Singapore, missing the Lee family.
Hope Too had clocked 44000km at the most southern city in the world, Ushuaia, which is almost 6000km away from the equator.

From Singaporedream, to all our readers that had been clicking on our blog religiously for the past 14 months, wishing you have a peace, meaningful and lively 2008 Christmas.

S 54° 49.664’
W068° 21.665’