Beagle Channel and Ushuaia, Argentina
It is hard to know when one day officially ends and another begins when you are on a journey such as we have just completed. Even as we returned towards Ushuaia daylight was ever present, and there was still much to see on deck. Numerous wandering albatross followed our wake throughout the night along with hosts of other magnificent pelagic birds like the southern fulmars and cape petrels. The color of the sky changed continuously through the night, strong shades of pinks and yellow fade to more subtle shade of blues and grey before the first rays of the morning sun retuned shortly before we entered the Beagle Channel. We have been blessed with an exceptionally smooth, fast, crossing of the Drake Passage and arrived a good few hours ahead of schedule.
There has not been time to fully grasp and reflect on the magnitude of the journey we have shared together. There has been so much information presented to us, so many new acquaintances made and such a different world explored. It will take time to process and organize our experiences into some meaningful order but we all know what a privilege it has been to visit such a special place as Antarctica. Now we have been thrown back into the real world; not much more than thirty six hours after leaving Antarctica we are back in Ushuaia on what is probably one of the busiest days of the summer.
As we had arrived back in Ushuaia so quickly we were able to offer a sightseeing tour by lightweight airplane for anyone interested. Most of the guests took advantage of this golden opportunity and experienced a truly breathtaking view of the Beagle Channel and the mountains surrounding Ushuaia.
This has been a most unusual last day of another exceptional voyage on National Geographic Explorer.
