Diving Tierra del Fuego

Location:  Ushuaia, Tierra del Fugeo

Rundown:  Diving the frigid Beagle Channel and exploring the southern most city in the world!

 

 Flew to Ushuaia, Argentina.  The last city, the end of the road.  The Martial mountain range wraps the city in a protective embrace against the vicious Antartic winds... most of the time.







Naturally in such a savage land one's first impulse is to find a dive shop.  Ushuaia Divers is run owned and operated by Carlos Giuggio, an ex-Argentine Navy man.  He drove his zodiac like a Mirage III, navigating the rocky islets and bays with precision.  We wore thick drysuits to keep the freezing water out.  Why didn't we try these in Michigan in February?

Topside we zoomed by sea lions basking in the sunshine.  Underwater the kelp forests enveloped us.  Huge columns sprouted from the bottom and reached up to the surface.  We finned through the towers without problem, like a slow and very cold game of hide and seek.

 

The world below seems so unlikely to have life it's shocking how many critters are to be found crawling all over the bottom like slow-motion savannah.  Even the star fish crawl up the kept columns like five-armed monkeys.

But the coolest thing on the dive had to be the massive king crabs.  Their long legs and spiny bodies made formidable objects of study.  With few predators they grew to huge proportions.  Made me wish I brought some melted butter on the zodiac.