Christof's Blog: It's the end of the world continued

Continuing to explore Tierra del Fuego, I went North today over the Andes. The whole island is about as big as Switzerland, but it's snow covered mountains are by far not as high as the Alps. As Ushuaia isn't much higher than sea level, those snow covered mountains you see in many of my pictures are rarely much higher than a thousand metres. For your reference, the tree limit is at 600 metres here. Most people living here aren't native Fuegians, but hsvr come here attracted by government-initiated job opportunities. At first, the Argentinian government wanted to strengthen it's claim to the land, later an industry was developed and with tourism came even more inhabitants.

Economic reasons have not only driven the growth of human population on the island, but also led to the introduction of species with an economic value - with questionable success. For example, in the 50ies, beavers (el castor) from Canada were introduced to Tierra del Fuego, in order to build a skinning industry. Due to the fact that Canada is quite a bit colder and Ushuaia was like a Mediterranean resort with all inclusive catering and no natural predators, the beavers have first decided not to grow as thick a fur as they would at home and then to procreate so quickly they have become a plague. Although the dead trees in many of my pictures might look picturesque, the impact the beaver has on the woods here is desastrous. It is a morbid thought, but it really made me wonder how something dead can be so beautiful.

In the North, where the two photogenic lakes called Escondido and Fagnano are, the vegetation is differnt from the South and as it is more flat, you can also find Guarnacas (a kind of Lama) here. Under lake Fagnano, two tectonic plates meet, which leads to earthquakes, one of which has recently also contributed to inundating and thus killing many trees. We ended the trip with a visit to Estancia Las Cotorras where we had an excellent lamb asado snd I had a look at their trsining centre for sled dogs. They have both Alaskan (quicker) and Siberian (stronger) huskies that have won may international races.