Tierra del Fuego

Yesterday, we explored the area around Ushuaia.  We went to Tierra del Fuego national park, which is a nice place overall with some good scenery.  There were some bird watchers among us.  Mike for example, had a camera lens so big that he looked like he might fall over.  We saw a great grebe, which everyone got extremely excited over because I suppose that is quite rare.  We also saw an Ibis, which I got very excited over because their beaks are just so cool.  They are like curved daggers about 12” long.  I imagine the female turning her head to talk to her mate and accidentally stabbing him if he happened to be too close.  Oops, didn’t realize you were there, dear.
The highlight was a red fox which meant that the whole bus leaned to the right as everyone moved to that side to grab a photo. click click click.

There is supposedly this route 3 that ends in Tierra del Fuego and goes all the way down South America.  We encountered a group on their motorcycles, some of which had driven all they way down from Alaska!  That was almost better than seeing a great grebe.  One guy had stickers all over his beamer with different flags from several different countries.  At first I assumed they were places he had ridden through on this trip but then I noted Germany and Finland and said out loud, “Oh he just is putting the flags on, can’t have driven through those countries.”  And then this huge guy in motorcycle clothes comes up and looms over me.  He tells us that he is from Vancouver, has driven down from Bogota on this particular trip - but he ships his bike around the world and he actually had been to all those countries.  Of course he does this very politely because that is how Canadians are.  I stand corrected anyway.

Also there is a post office at the end of the world (fin de mundo) where for 10 pesos (about $2) they will stamp your passport (see picture below).  The man there kindly put a sticker on a page and then put a huge stamp that filled the whole page.  He then did a date stamp.  I didn’t even know that was allowed, to put a stamp there that wasn’t a country stamp.  We looked at the sticker and it’s a picture of himself!  Hilarious.  His name was either Lorenzo or Carlos, depending on who you ask. I suppose if I was Lorenzo/Carlos, I would change my name regularly, just for kicks, to confuse all the tourists.
(does this mean that I can put other fun stickers in my passport?)