Tierra del Fuego Has a Winner!

It took longer than I thought, but we finally got a winner from last Thursday’s quiz [2], whose answer was Tierra del Fuego [3]. I didn’t think it was so difficult that it would take a Caltech postdoc - Kuenley Chiu of Glendale, California - to answer it. Even then I had to provide a hint--Kuenley and one other reader who came close were thinking too small, and proposed Isla Gordon and Tucker Islet, both of which are part of the archipelago (the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is the largest of many islands here). I had to advise them to think big, and I’ll take the blame for making the quiz sound more difficult than it really was, and I’ll try to be clearer the next time around.

Meanwhile, I’m sailing tomorrow (Tuesday) evening from Punta Arenas [4] on the Via Australis, to revisit places such as Cape Horn [5] and Tucker Islet, arriving in Ushuaia [6] (pictured above) Saturday morning. Though it’s been calm and sunny here, the weather forecast calls for 50 to 80 kmh winds, which should make for an interesting crossing of the Strait of Magellan [7].

Once in Ushuaia I’ll try to figure out how to get back to Punta Arenas and pick up my car-- the bus from Ushuaia only costs about US$50 and goes every day, but takes 12 hours; the plane takes less than an hour but costs more than US$300, and only goes three times weekly.