Monday the weather was superb, cold but bright sunshine and no wind. Perfect for a boat trip on the Beagle Channel to see the islands and wildlife. We had a tour on a large catamoran for a couple of hours with the opportunity to disembark on one of the Bridges Islands and walk around. We also stopped to look at two sealion colonies and two king cormorant colonies.
In the afternoon, we went to the end of the world museum which is expensive at £5 entrance but informative and interesting. It has displays on the history of the town from the indigineous peoples to missionaries to the first European settlers and the use of the town as a prison. It also details a few of the many shipwrecks. And there are 95 stuffed birds - at least one example of every bird native to the area. Quite creepy but also stunning to look at birds like a condor up close.
Tuesday I went scuba diving. It's 5 weeks since we left Tobago so I was very much looking forward to getting in the water again. There is only one dive shop in town - Ushuaia Divers - run by Carlos. It's a small SSI dive centre but supplies reasonable equipment inlcuding 5mm neoprene drysuits. The cost is £100 for two dives off a RIB in the Beagle Channel. On our trip there was one other diver who was inexperienced in using a drysuit but things went fairly smoothly underwater. I was hoping for sealions or king crabs but wasn't that lucky. We saw many starfish, a few crayfish, nudibranchs, a interesting squid/jelly like thing that had flashing neon lights down its sides and many shell fish. However, the highlight is swimming amongst the giant kelp and enjoying the light and atmosphere it creates.
The water was 7 degrees today - the coldest I've ever dived in! However, the air temperature is probably colder. Unfortunately, when renting a drysuit you always have the risk that it will leak and flood. The neck and wrist seals on my drysuit were not perfect for me and I had a small trickle from one wrist and the neck and the dump valve as well. I was wearing my own Fourth Element Thermocline top underneath which insulates when wet so it was 30 minutes before I started to feel cold. I lasted 45 minutes and surfacing shivering and unable to take anny of my own gear off :-( brrrrr... I would recommend Waterproof 5mm 3 finger mitts though - it was the first time I'd used mitts and my hands didn't get that cold. Obviously, we couldn't do the second dive as I had a wet undersuit and we needed to get back to the shore so I could warm up. Disappointing but I am still pleased to have dived here - I just wish I had my own drysuit and Arctic thermals!
Carlos was lovely and kept making sure I was OK and not going to get too cold but I would've liked to have had a small discount for missing the second dive. He offered that I could go back tomorrow but as we are leaving I can't. He did waive the £5 port use fee but that is small compared to £100 for one dive! He also gave me a lift back to the hostel and came back later to stamp my log book and deliver a CD with some photos of the dive and a film of the area. This is nice but most of the photos are quite green as he uses a compact camera set on the standard underwater mode rather than setting the white balance manually.
But in summary, I would recommend diving at the end of the world and Ushuaia Divers is safe and friendly.
Tuesday I went scuba diving. It's 5 weeks since we left Tobago so I was very much looking forward to getting in the water again. There is only one dive shop in town - Ushuaia Divers - run by Carlos. It's a small SSI dive centre but supplies reasonable equipment inlcuding 5mm neoprene drysuits. The cost is £100 for two dives off a RIB in the Beagle Channel. On our trip there was one other diver who was inexperienced in using a drysuit but things went fairly smoothly underwater. I was hoping for sealions or king crabs but wasn't that lucky. We saw many starfish, a few crayfish, nudibranchs, a interesting squid/jelly like thing that had flashing neon lights down its sides and many shell fish. However, the highlight is swimming amongst the giant kelp and enjoying the light and atmosphere it creates.
The water was 7 degrees today - the coldest I've ever dived in! However, the air temperature is probably colder. Unfortunately, when renting a drysuit you always have the risk that it will leak and flood. The neck and wrist seals on my drysuit were not perfect for me and I had a small trickle from one wrist and the neck and the dump valve as well. I was wearing my own Fourth Element Thermocline top underneath which insulates when wet so it was 30 minutes before I started to feel cold. I lasted 45 minutes and surfacing shivering and unable to take anny of my own gear off :-( brrrrr... I would recommend Waterproof 5mm 3 finger mitts though - it was the first time I'd used mitts and my hands didn't get that cold. Obviously, we couldn't do the second dive as I had a wet undersuit and we needed to get back to the shore so I could warm up. Disappointing but I am still pleased to have dived here - I just wish I had my own drysuit and Arctic thermals!
Carlos was lovely and kept making sure I was OK and not going to get too cold but I would've liked to have had a small discount for missing the second dive. He offered that I could go back tomorrow but as we are leaving I can't. He did waive the £5 port use fee but that is small compared to £100 for one dive! He also gave me a lift back to the hostel and came back later to stamp my log book and deliver a CD with some photos of the dive and a film of the area. This is nice but most of the photos are quite green as he uses a compact camera set on the standard underwater mode rather than setting the white balance manually.
But in summary, I would recommend diving at the end of the world and Ushuaia Divers is safe and friendly.
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