Even if I wasn’t leaving for Antarctica in less than 24 hours, I could return home now with happy memories. The last few days will be among the highlights of my trip.

To preface: prior to and during this trip, I have been reading the book Uttermost Part of the Earth, by Lucas Bridges, published in 1949 (thanks to Mike DiGioia for recommending this book). It’s an amazing true history, and superbly-written – one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I would enthusiastically recommend it to anyone. Lucas’ father, Thomas Bridges, an English missionary, was the first successful European settler here in Tierra del Fuego in 1871. The book describes how Thomas started a family here in a place that was remote and wild and inhospitable. The Bridges family became friends of the native people, and they eventually left mission work to try to save the natives from being annihilated by advancing European civilization in Argentina. Sadly, they were only able to delay the inevitable, and the native cultures are all now extinct. However, the Bridges family, and their descendants, the Goodalls, still live here on two of their original estancia (ranch) homesteads. The estancias are still working farms.

Before I’d even heard about this book, I had made reservations to stay at Estancia Viamonte… which, it turns out, was the last and largest estancia that Lucas Bridges founded, in the early 1900’s, in large part to provide a refuge for the Ona people (one of the native tribes) to live and work. As I started reading the book, prior to the trip, I realized what an amazing opportunity this would be, to experience a living piece of history.

Thursday evening I arrived in Ushuaia, now a town of about 60,000 people, and the port from which my Antarctica cruise departs. Although the city of Ushuaia is unremarkable (growing rapidly with no thought to urban planning), the setting is breathtaking. The mountains, 7,000 feet high and dusted with snow (even now in “summer”), rise straight up from the ocean to ring the city. Ushuaia was the site of Thomas Bridges’ first mission village with the Yaghan people, a coastal tribe who lived by fishing and hunting seals.

Thursday and Friday I stayed at a little B&B owned by a woman named Silvia. An architect, she had built the house… modern and clean, but fairly Spartan. Silvia was something of an odd duck, but it was a decent place to stay.

Friday I did an 8-mile hike in the hills and on the coastline of Tierra del Fuego National Park… along the Beagle Channel, near Ushuaia. It was a damp and windy day and so I encountered only a few other people on the trail, even though this is the high season. Again, this all feels like home to me… the geology and setting (mountains and coastline), climate (damp), plants, even the smells. I saw some interesting birds and the setting was beautiful, but the most interesting thing was seeing the middens at the Yaghan village sites at each little bay along the trail… the distinct circular mounds of shells and bones and other refuse that built up around the huts over thousands of years, very clearly described in Lucas Bridges’ book. There are no interpretive signs or anything to even protect these sites… in fact, I would guess most people don’t even notice them, since they’re just grassy mounds now. And so I could walk right among them and imagine the people that had been there 100 years ago.

On the bus back to town, I met an ornithologist named Anniche, from Switzerland, who was getting ready to work her third season as a naturalist on an Antarctic expedition ship (not mine). I scrolled through all the bird photos on my camera and she was able to identify every one.

Friday night, I walked a long way (much longer than I bargained for, especially after having already hiked 8 miles) to a restaurant far away from the touristy areas. It was right on the water, and I had a superb meal and drinks. It was a little odd, though, because I literally had the place to myself – at 9 p.m.… apparently it is the place where the young local crowd hangs out, but not ‘til much later. My waiter said there would be a great scene at midnight, but I was wiped out and went home.

Saturday I rented a car and drove up to Estancia Viamonte. The highway (surprisingly good roads here) went through beautiful valleys and moorlands surrounded by snow-capped mountains, over a low pass, and then along a lake. The landscape transitioned to the windblown coastal rangelands where there are numerous estancias. I took a detour off the highway on a gravel road through rolling rangeland out to the coast… along the way I saw many sheep, as well as numerous wild guanaco, which are closely related to llamas.

On the coast, I saw the rusty remains of a ship that wrecked in the 1980’s… a surreal scene and a good photo opportunity.

Back to the highway, I traveled on up to the estancia… a homestead and farm right on the coast, extending into rolling hills interspersed with grass and scrubby trees. When I arrived, it was apparently siesta time (as with many Latin countries, Argentines take siesta seriously) and so I had to let myself in through the front gate and wandered around the place before finding the right house, and then was greeted by another couple of guests waiting for our hosts. Soon, however, our hosts turned up, and gave us a warm welcome… we sat and chatted over drinks and they were very pleased when they found that I was reading Uttermost… I asked Adrian, the great-grandson of Thomas Bridges (now a grandfather himself), to sign my copy of the book. We were given a tour of the estancia... among the things we saw was the “company store” complete with dusty old account books, with entries by Lucas Bridges and full of other names I recognized from the book. In the evening we had a wonderful dinner. We stayed in the house on the estancia that was Lucas’, and I think I even slept in the original master bedroom.

The Goodalls were amazing hosts… Adrian, Simon (his son), and Simon’s wife Carolina. Even their beautiful little girls greeted me with kisses on the cheek.

Sunday, I got up, had a great breakfast and chatted with the other guests (only two other couples here besides me… one couple from Denmark and one couple from Brazil, with an adorable baby daughter). Adrian gave me a key to a part of the estancia down the road aways on the coast – the original homestead site – and so I drove down there and walked around and took some photos. I came back, read a little, took a siesta (when in Rome…) and later met the only other guest for the evening – a gentleman who is a member of Canada’s parliament.

It was an incredible experience, seeing the places described (and illustrated) in the book, but even better to be so warmly welcomed into the home of this “first family” of Tierra del Fuego. I felt like I made new friends.

On the way back to Ushuaia today (Monday) I stopped in Harberton, another of the Bridges/Goodall family homesteads. I took a tour of an excellent little museum the family started there with skeletal specimens of many of the marine species, then another tour of the estancia. And Natalie and Thomas Goodall (also fourth generation, at Harberton) signed my book, too.

Back to Ushuaia… found my hotel, showed up a little late for the briefing meeting but got the basic info for embarking tomorrow. Met several of my fellow shipmates, including one of my cabin mates, Wayne from Calgary. Then went back into town to return the rental car and find dinner. I queried the group if anyone wanted to join me and was joined by Faye from Hong Kong… she’s the director of the World Wildlife Fund branch in Hong Kong, and we hit it off… lots of good discussion about environmental issues and science. Finally taxi back to the hotel and now blogging and listening to CNN abuzz with inauguration coverage.