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JR's Journal Lago Escondido to Ushuaia
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| I awoke briefly in the middle of the night to hear a heavy rain pounding
on the tin roof. The clouds socked in the lake by the time I got
up, obscuring all signs of the beautiful mountains that surround the lake. Bob
and I walked through the fog to the main building for breakfast. I ate a quick breakfast,
returned to our cabin, packed, and threw my bag on the pick-up that
took it to the bus. Everyone was photographing the asado that the cooks
were preparing for the midday meal.
We headed northward on Ruta 3 to Tolhuin where we took a gravel road eastward along the 1949 fault trace. The fault marks the most recent boundary between the South American and Scotia plates and is the southernmost active continental crust fault in the world.. Bob Yeats had put in much work to organize our visit to the fault scarp. After about 40 minutes we arrived at the estancia of Sr. Oliva, a rotund, jolly fellow. We inquired if Sr. Kaibul was around and Sr. Oliva went off to get him. Sr. Kaibul is the only living witness to the ’49 quake. He was at the Hostería Kaiken and saw the seiche that inundated the forest at the east end of the lake. He took us to a trench site on the Scarp that was done by the USGS and some people at Universidad Nacional de San Luis. The trench was filled and rather underwhelming in the constant drizzle. Joan Baldwin and Bob Yeats and I said a few words about Dottie and spread some of her ashes on the trench. I didn’t really think it was the right spot so I was glad that we saved some ashes to spread in the Beagle Channel. We walked back to the bus and were invited to an asado by the Oliva family. They were disappointed when we had to decline due to time constraints. I knew that the asado would turn into an all-day affair. We drove back to Tolhuin and went through the town to the old road along the east end of the lake. I had not been there before; it was very pleasant. We continued up to the Hostaría Kaiken and had a good lunch of milanesas napolitanas. The clouds lifted briefly but then we had a heavy downpour. On the way into Ushuaía, we stopped to photograph the jagged mountains along the Río Tristen valley. Checking into the hotel went smoothly at the Hotel Canal Beagle. The hotel is still way too hot but otherwise pleasant. BBC World News caught me up with the current world happenings. We walked 3 blocks along the channel to a nice restaurant and had a
good dinner of grilled sea bass. Back at the hotel, Sally, Greg,
and I continued our evening tradition with a bottle of red wine.
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Division of Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences |