After eight days on buses, either doing excursions or doing travel on rutas ripias (unmade roads), neither of us felt like doing anything too extensive here in Ushuaia. Yesterday we went to the prison museum, the original colony here was basically a penal colony for two reasons. One, there was the (perennial) border dispute with Chile and they felt that they needed a presence other than the native Yamana indians. Two, they were jealous that England had Australia...

The prison started in the 1890s and closed in the 50s... it then became part of the naval base and now is a museum. The cells in one wing are original and the cells in the other main wing are filled with photos and pictures. It´s hard to believe that we´re as far South as Aberdeen is North... the climate here is much cooler.

Today we walked a couple of hours out of the city to the glacier Martial, it was a cross between Alpine and Lakeland scenery, chilly but beautiful. Mate works as a warmer-upper on a cool day like today. The other thing here is the light... it´s great, clear and soft in the evenings. I finally realised the old camera was, if not dead, then hooked up to a life support machine with a badly wired plug. It was seeing white as pink, so I bought a new compact (Pentax Optio M20 for the geeks). Now I get to play with it in the good light.
  ¶ 2:15 AM