Today I bought a cow
Well, not a live one. I was out in Ushuaia wandering around with Gabi, and we went into a big souvenir store. I bought myself a nice wood and bone handled gaucho knife, and we were about to leave when I looked up to the second floor of the shop and I saw some pelts hanging over the railing. Anyone who has been to either my flat in London that I used to live in, or my flat in Brussels when I was there will know I'm a sucker for a nice animal pelt. The sheepskin rug I had in London, and the reindeer pelt I had in Brussels. So I was being shown all these stupidly expensive but oh so nice fox and otter pelts when Gabi commented on the nice black and white cow hide on the floor. I got to thinking about it and then concluded that it would look very nice on the floor of my new flat when I get back, so I bargained them down from 1,000 pesos to 800 (about 160 pounds) and was quite pleased with myself. It's actually not *too* big so I'm hoping that I'll be able to fit it into my suitcase without too many problems. It shouldn't be too bad.
As to what I've been doing here in Ushuaia, I haven't been taking that many photos, but what ones I have, I'll try and upload tomorrow morning before I go to the airport (so late afternoon London time). Gabi has taken me around Ushuaia and so I've seen the town fairly comprehensively. This morning we went on a bus and small train tour of the national park which is a few miles out of Ushuaia. The train is a reproduction of the train that the convicts used to travel on to collect timber for building Ushuaia up (it used to be the home of a large penal colony for second offenders, used to develop the area). The park is fairly marshy - mainly due to the beavers which have colonised it. Apparently a few decades ago 25 pairs of beavers were brought from Canada to demonstrate their nice pelts, but no-one was interested in them so they were released. Now there are around 50,000 beavers around Ushuaia and they have turned into a bit of a plague - blocking rivers with their dams and killing trees.
We were meant to go on a boat trip around the Beagle Channel this afternoon, but it was too windy so the port was closed for small ships. I guess I'll just have to come back and do it another time!
We've been eating and drinking here almost non-stop. We went for a traditional Argentinian barbecue meal last night, lots of seafood for lunch, and we're about to go out for more seafood tonight. I've also been trying as many of the local beers as possible.
Anyway, I have to go as Gabi will be here to pick me up any minute now. I'll upload a few photos tomorrow.
Ken
As to what I've been doing here in Ushuaia, I haven't been taking that many photos, but what ones I have, I'll try and upload tomorrow morning before I go to the airport (so late afternoon London time). Gabi has taken me around Ushuaia and so I've seen the town fairly comprehensively. This morning we went on a bus and small train tour of the national park which is a few miles out of Ushuaia. The train is a reproduction of the train that the convicts used to travel on to collect timber for building Ushuaia up (it used to be the home of a large penal colony for second offenders, used to develop the area). The park is fairly marshy - mainly due to the beavers which have colonised it. Apparently a few decades ago 25 pairs of beavers were brought from Canada to demonstrate their nice pelts, but no-one was interested in them so they were released. Now there are around 50,000 beavers around Ushuaia and they have turned into a bit of a plague - blocking rivers with their dams and killing trees.
We were meant to go on a boat trip around the Beagle Channel this afternoon, but it was too windy so the port was closed for small ships. I guess I'll just have to come back and do it another time!
We've been eating and drinking here almost non-stop. We went for a traditional Argentinian barbecue meal last night, lots of seafood for lunch, and we're about to go out for more seafood tonight. I've also been trying as many of the local beers as possible.
Anyway, I have to go as Gabi will be here to pick me up any minute now. I'll upload a few photos tomorrow.
Ken
posted by Ken at 1:46 am
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