Patagonia Fire

THE BIG FIRE

Lots of the rules of Torres del Paine national park are to protect it from fires.  The Lingua trees that used to cover the forests grow at 1 mm a year and once a mature tree is gone, it doesn’t grow back.  In 2005, a 20 year old Croatian man started a fire that destroyed forest, in 2006  an Israeli 18 year old started a fire and faced a fine of $200.  In 2011, another 18 year old Israeli man started a fire that accidentally got away from his campfire, the winds were blowing severely and the fire burned ¾ of the park!  The park is 1,773,600 acres.  Everywhere we went for 3 days was burnt trees.    In addition to the trees, many animal died that were unable to escape the fast moving blaze.  The Israeli government voluntarily paid 10 million dollars to Chile and that young man has to come to Patagonia every summer for the rest of his life to help with the conservation effort and to spread awareness of the danger of fires.  Israel has also set up a program to educate tourist.  Maybe calling the above men is giving them more credit than they deserve!  The laws for violating the “no campfire” rules have continued to get more severe.  Last year 2 South Korean girls, 19 and 20 years old were fined 10,000 USD, kicked out of the country and can’t come back for 10 years.  We drove by several reforestation projects where Lingua trees have been planted in green cylinders and as they mature, the trees will be planted throughout the park, but remember a Lingua tree grows only 1 mm a year!!  

Replanting is slow, tedious work

Our first landing on Antarctica

Landing on Antarctica a­­nd Half Moon Island,

January 8, 2018, sunrise 02:22 AM. Sunset 21:47 PM

The Drake Passage only lived up its reputation in being a long crossing, but smooth as can be.  Seasick pills only served to make me sleepy and I had a day and a half of sleep!  There are many rules to keep Antarctica uncontaminated from the outside world and untrammeled by the masses.  Ships with more than 500 passengers are not allowed to land in Antarctica and only one ship at a time can be in any given place.  Only 100 people at a time can be on any landing site, and our time limit per landing was 90 minutes.  There are 5 landing parties named albatross, penguin, petrel, seal and whale that are divided into further groups of three.  We a “penguins” and our subgroup is Gentoo penguins.  We were issued a Hurtigruten windbreaker and boots that came almost to our knees. There are no docks at our landing sites so all our landings are considered “wet landings” and we go off the side of the zodiac into the water to get ashore.   Today at Half Moon Island it was 47 degrees with some clouds, some sun, and some wind.  I’m sure it’s nicer here than in Seattle.  The island is located at 62 degrees South and at no point during our trip do we actually go beyond the Antarctic Circle.  Antarctica is a huge island—at least  1 ½ times the size of the US.  My first view of Antarctica was walking around the deck of the boat this morning and there is white, white, and white as far as the eye can see.  

The snow has melted off much of the Half Moon Island and left warmer nesting areas for the 2000 mating pairs of Chinstrap penguins that nest here yearly.  Chinstraps are quite distinctive and one of the 5 penguin species in Antarctica.  The all have a black band below their beaks that early explorer thought looked like the chin straps of soldier helmets.  They are slimmer, bigger and have bigger rookeries than other penguins according to one of our lecturers on the boat, but they seem about the same size as other penguins we have seen.  At the end of October, the males come ashore to the same rookery where they were born and the males are responsible for making nests of the small stone that lie everywhere on the island.  The nest is elevated and thus drier than making a nest of the ground or on snow.  The penguins, whether as a game or what, steal stones from each other’s nests.  A researcher a few years ago put 100 colored stones in just one area and the closest penguins used them to make their nest.  Over a couple week period, the stones were almost everywhere in the colony due to this pilfering of stones from each other’s nests.  When the nest is complete, the female Chinstrap lays 2 eggs in the nest.  Both male and female care for the eggs and the babies equally.  It is impossible to tell the difference between male and female penguins. These penguins, like most penguin species are monogamous and come back to the same mate after an 8 month absence during which they are in the sea.  The male as well as female has a pouch where the eggs are incubated for 32 days and the baby penguins stay for a couple week after birth. Penguins’ dense feathers make them waterproof and no heat can escape from their bodies so this is the only way to keep the eggs and the chicks warm. The babies are now hatching and we saw many babies, some sitting on their mother’s or father’s feet, some with part of their body inside the pouch and some with their heads inside and their bodies outside.   .    Any threat to the babies is quickly met with action by the penguins as birds called scubas would receive quite a hostile reception as they tried to get into the nests or too close to the babies.  The penguins would extend their neck skyward, open their mouths and let out a squawk and go after the skuas.  The rookery on Half Moon Island has 2000 nesting pairs and the penguins find their mates and their chicks by sound so it’s q pretty noisy place!  The babies, like most species of babies, are just adorable—little bundles of grey fuzz that will stay that way for 2 weeks until their feathers come in and they will look like the rest of the Chinstrap penguin colony.  The parenting responsibilities are finished at 2- 2 ½ months when parental feeding stops and the penguins go to seas for the next 8  months until the cycle starts again next October. 

Antarctica Treaty

Antarctica

Obviously all you have to do is Google “Antarctica” and find all kinds of info, but here are a few things that I’ve found interesting.  Antarctica is the 5^th largest continent and its land mass covers 4.59 millions square miles of which all but.0.4% is covered by ice—LOTS of ice.  So much that is actually weighing down the continent and sinking it.  It pops back up as the ice melts!  There is no permanent human population and it is not the sovereign territory of any nation.

Governance of Antarctica is currently by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.  During the sealing period of 1775-1900 there was very little governance of any kind, and post WWII several countries wanted and tried to make claims on Antarctica.  I won’t go into any of this, but it’s quite interesting and leads up to 1958 when the US invited all interested countries to consider development of a treaty to protect Antarctica, and by 1959 negotiations were complete and included all land, ice and water at the 60 latitude and below!   12 countries signed the original agreement that went into effect in 1961.  In the 5 decades since 38 more countries have signed the treaty.  The treaty came about as a way to not only protect Antarctica wildlife and unique ecosystem, but a way to deal with territorial claims made by 7 nations.  During the first half of the 20h century, Norway, Australia, France, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and the UK all claimed portions to be their sovereign territory.  (Chile, Argentina, and the UK all claimed the Antarctic peninsula-where we are currently cruising—and treated the others as trespassers.)  The Antarctic Treaty dealt with these claims by ignoring them.  It does not dissolve any territorial claims nor does it recognize any of them. It treats Antarctica as a big science lab and more recently, a tourist playground.  Military build-up and nuclear waste disposal is forbidden.  Every nation operating here has a right to inspect any other nation’s facilities.  Exchange of information and personnel among nations is a feature of the treaty and even during hostile actions between world governments, the individual scientists have been able to work together. 

Most treaty countries have built research stations with “science” being the reason, but many of these countries have kept their eyes on the territorial prize, and if the treaty ever expires, territory will again become an important aspect of each countries presence here.  There are 7 countries with existing territorial claims:  Argentina, Chile, France, New Zealand, Australia, Norway and the UK.  All have maintained their presence in their claimed areas and have set up bases, post offices, and schools to strengthen their claims.  A few Chilean and Argentinian women have even been sent to Antarctica to have babies to bolster their claim to colonize the continent.  Give a new spin on “anchor babies”!  

In addition to how countries conduct themselves, there are rules as to how tourist must behave.  We are given a paper of “General Guideline for Visitors of the Antarctic” per ATCM Resolution (Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings) that begins by stating “all visits to Antarctica should be conducted in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty, it’s Protocol on Environmental Protection, and relevant measures and resolutions adopted by ACTM.  These guidelines provide general advice for visiting any location, with the aim of ensuring visits do not have adverse impact on the Antarctica environment, or on its scientific and aesthetic values.”

Misc. Info

Odds and ends

Several species of birds that we saw migrate from Alaska and northern Canada to Patagonia every when winter arrives in N. America.

Patagonia is the name used by both Argentina and Chile for their southern region.  It has a very different geopolitical history, but a shared geology and animals.

The great age for exploration of Magellan and Drake in the 1500 looking for a way around South America, and later day explorers like Scott and Amundsen race to the South Pole fill many books.  The story of Shakelton and his crew’s survival are truly unbelievable and heroic stories that make us look like wimps!

Our current Pope, Frances, lived in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires and is loved by all Argentinians!  There is a papal visit to Chile coming up January 15-19.

The exchange rate for Argentina pesos is 17.50 for 1 US dollar.  In Chile the US dollare is worth 650 pesos.

Public education is completely free from kindergarten through the university. 

The mothers of “Los Desporados” (the disappeared ones) still march in front of the Casa Rosada Presential palace on Thurs. afternoon

Best burger in Buenos Aires is at the Four Seasons.

There is a large Jewish population and several synagogues in Buenos Aires.

There are still bullet holes in the building around the presidential palace from a 1955 revolution to overthrow Juan Peron.  He fled to the Dominican Republic but later returned for another stint as President.

La Boca, a very fun, colorful neighborhood has a soccer team whose colors are blue and yellow after the Swedish flag.  The soccer matches are only for locals, no outsiders.  There apparently were riots, brawls and people were killed in the matches.

The tango became popular in Argentina after WWII.

Many of the glacier lakes are devoid of minerals, fish

Native of Patagonia were completely gone by 1960.  Mapoches, Selk’nam, Daca, Yahanas, Canoers, Ionokenk, Human Zoos in NYC and London.   Documentary Human Zoos.   Jimmy Button

There appears to be 2 major migrations of ancient people to Patagonia—one 10K years ago and one 20K.

Along the road are small houses with crosses in places where people have died.  It is a mix of native and Christmas beliefs—they want the spirit of the dead person to have a house to encourage them to stay.

It is complulsory to vote or show why you can’t and there is a fine of 50 pesos if you don’t.  The Kirschner’s changed the voting age to 16 and promised young people free this and that—obviously it worked!  First he was elected President, then Cristina was President and now Cristina avoids going to jail for corruption by being a seated senator from Santa Cruz state in Patagonia­­­ 

Condors fly overhead!

Over the last 20 years a 40-60% decrease in the number and size of glaciers has taken place, and it’s a much warmer place. 

A prehistoric bear called a Miladon was discovered in a cave in Patagonia.  Its skin was almost intact and DNA showed it was a new species of animal.

Guanacos and Nandus

Guanacos and nandus

Unique to Patagonia is the guanaco.

They are members of the camel family that live in herds of one male and 12-15 females.  The males are much bigger and have distinctive black mouths and their job is to  protect the babies and the females from predators.  The females stay with their babies for 2 years.  Unlike their cousins, the llama and alpacas, guanacos can’t be domesticated.  The meat and the skins were used by the locals for centuries until they faced extinction by 1980 and are now protected by the Chilean government.  We saw many large herds.  Also unique is that one non-alpha male stands guard over the herd. .

If you are getting too close for his comfort, he puts his ears back to warn you away. Guanocos do not migrate but move close to caves or other protected areas as winter comes on.  Winters here can be brutal!

Nandus are a type of emu that are only in Patagonia.  They do not fly.   The nanadu colonies consist of one male and about 15 females and one nest made by the male.  All the females lay their 1 egg in the same nest and the male is completely responsible for nesting  and raising the babies, including feeding them and teaching them to hunt.  One nandu egg is the equivalent of 1 dozen chicken eggs and until 20 years ago, it was eaten by the local people.  It is now forbidden to eat or disturb the nandu eggs. We saw one stuffed nandu at the resort.  They are about the size of an ostrich, have feet and feathers like one, but we didn't see any in the wild.  

PATAGONIA

Patagonia

Our flight from Buenos Aires to Calafate took us to the opposite of Buenos Aires.  Sandy desert with the look of Eastern Washington and a population density of 1.5 persons per sq. km. and many more sheep than people.  Large estancias that are Texas size ranches dot the region that is continually buffeted by the constant winds.   Tree planted by early settlers still appear short and bushy, not like 100 year old trees!  Early settlers also cut trees to create grazing land for their cattle and sheep and they are very hard to grow back due to the adverse conditions and mostly the constant wind.  3 types of tree grown here— a small evergreen called a Lingas (more on them later) tree, calafate, and fire bushes.   The earliest farmers were British, but after Chile declared its independence from Spain in 1818, the area of Patagonia remained pretty well uninhabited except for native peoples.  By 1848, Holland and Portugal were trying to claim parts of Patagonia, so Chile issued an invitation for European, mostly Germans, Spanish, and a few Scandinavians brought their families here.  They were given land, tools, salaries and had one year to make their land productive.  They brought machinery, fruit trees and tried all kinds of farming.  The continuous winter climate proved to be very hard for any kind of farming.  As this trial and error to make the land productive continued, an Irishman brought 400 sheep from the Falklands and not only did they prosper, but they needed minimal people and dogs to run large numbers of sheep.  This free land/ tools/ salary program continued until 1944 when the last group of Yugoslavians arrived.  By 1900, there were 5 million sheep in Patagonia.

 This last group of immigrants included a Croatian named Anthony Bosonovich, who came as a 17 year old post WWII. In 1978 he purchased an estancia at the foot of the Torres de Paines Mountains and thought he’d acquired his dream of being a sheep rancher.  Soon, the area around these mountains was declared a biosphere.  The government of Chile decided that the unique animals, plants and the ice fields surround Torres del Paines were to be preserved.  Also in the early 1980s mountain climbing became fashionable and one of the hot spots became Torres del Paines—three granite towers—in this new park.  Mr. Bosonovich decided to start a resort after a climber knocked on his door to inquire if he could get a bed and some food.  He started with an area for tents and then 9 hostel rooms.                 By 1990, sheep meat and wool production stopped.  Torres del Paines is now a world class resort with 190 rooms, restaurant, 5 mountain lodges with the same service and amenities as the main lodge and 260 horses to take tourist and climbers to locations in the park.  Brosonivich grandchildren are still running Torres del Paines.  350 people work there and live in a village so no need to drive back and forth from Puerto Natales a 3 hr. drive daily.  200,000 people trek to the base of the tower or to mountain lodges yearly.

  Dusk comes at 10:30 PM and the sun is up at 4:30 AM.  There is very little difference between Argentine Patagonia and Chilean Patagonia.  It is a huge area that has remained isolated until recently when mountain climbing and trekking became a popular tourist attraction.  This is one of the richest provinces in Argentine with mining, fishing, sheep ranching creating the main income in addition to international tourism.  It’s a beautiful area, of glacier fed lakes, short bush covered steppes.  Geologically, this was an extremely active area thousands of years ago.  As the Nazca plate slips under the  South American plates the resulting volcanoes and earthquakes  created and continue to create the Andes Mountains to our north.   This area of Patagoia is much younger mountains that were created 60 millions years ago as magma pushed up granite rocks to create the ____________________ mountain range. 

If you’re interested in politics, Argentina has an interesting history from before the Perons and continuing to today with the Kirschners, referred to as “Christina” by our guide, Sylvia..  Both had/have policies that benefited some and really punished others and the country as a whole.  Under the corrupt government of the Kirschners, all non-Argeninian companies were forced to leave, and  Uraguay became list the “Swiss bank” of South America.  Many people put money into these Uraguay accounts in US dollars (a stable currency)  and they go to Uraguay occasionally to pick up money.  The new government of President Maeri is bringing back non-Argentine companies, and people are being encouraged to open  bank accounts in Argentina and move their money out of Uraguay with a 5% tax rate, and the G20 is being held in Buenos Aires next  year. It’s a ­­­­­long ways from the economic crises of 2001 when the Argentine pesos was worth $1 and the black market  flourished with a 60% difference between the official Srate and the black market rate.  The exchange rate is now 8 pesos to the USD.  

Antarctica via Buenos Aires

I’m going to Antarctica!

First of all, a disclaimer—none of this information has been verified.  It is “Argentina, Chile, The Falklands, and Antarctica through the lenses and prejudice of our guides and what I thought I heard and wrote down.   What I hear and what I remember are two different things at times!! So let's go--

The flight to Buenos Aires had issues of its own.  The plane was late and we’d miss our connection in Miami, so we were rerouted through Dallas and on to Buenos Aires.  Buenos Aires is a city of 13 million, 1/3 the population of Argentina, and we’re staying in the Ricoletta neighborhood—one of the upscale neighborhoods in the NE section of the city.  It’s a very European city with broad boulevards and classic European architecture.   South America was divided by the Europeans in manner of the time—half was given to Portugal which became Brazil and they speak Portuguese and half to Spain that eventually broke into several different country and they speak Spanish.

Worthy of mention in Buenos Aires was Ricoletta Cemetery where the heroes of various revolutions,

the rich, famous, not so famous and the infamous are buried in 4650 mausoleums that vary from small cubbies to ornate small houses.  One of the most famous residents is Eva Duarte Peron,

aka Evita who died of cervical cancer in 1952 at the age of 33.  She had a long journey post mort from her family mausoleum at Ricoletta Cemetery to Italy, Spain, and again buried with the Duarte family, but 6 feet deep in the ground in a concrete vault so no one can steal her again!  Another notable mausoleum is that of Rufina Cambaceres,

a young woman who went into a catatonic state when she found out that her mother was having an affair with her boyfriend and was thought to be dead.  She was buried and people kept hearing noises, dug up the grave, but she HAD died by that time.   Now, under Argentine law, there is a 3 day wait until a body can be buried.  She is immortalized forever in Recoletta Cemetery.

 The other highlight was a tour of the Teatro de Colon, built of the finest material from Europe in a grand European style in 1908.  It is always on the list of 5 best opera houses in the world and 3^rd in acoustics behind La Scala and Vienna and has hosted every great opera star from Caruso to Callas to Pavarotti.  Over several years and 100 million dollars, it was painstakingly restored to its former glory.  Several places on the wall were left as the dark, dingy, smoke stained and peeling plaster to demonstrate the difference. 

Casa Rosada, the Pink House,  Argentina's "White House"

Every Thurs afternoon, the mothers of the "Disappeared Ones" meet on the square in front of the Casa Rosada to protest the lack of information on where their children have gone.  For many, it's been years and years since they disappeared under the dictatorships that have run Aargentina.

There was a complimentary tango lesson that both Chris and I groaned about being a part of and then found it very fun—there is a video that we took of each other that I hope never shows up anywhere!