Probably one of the best things about winter down here is the spectrum of colors that slap you in the face each morning on the horizon. This morning was spectacular and I couldn’t resist stopping to take a pic. This is the closest I could get to showing the true colors and I think I got it pretty close. Expect more.

Finally after a week of cold and dreary weather, the sun reemerged in all its glory. To take advantage, I decided to journey out and snap a few pictures. The wind in the city was a bit strong but not overly so. Only when I hit the wide open expansion of ocean and land, did I realize that today was the wrong day. I managed to take a few but had a hard time keeping the camera steady. More on the following subjects later, but until then….

La Misión Salesiana De Rio Grande. The mission was founded in 1893 while the chapel above was constructed in 1898. This is where Jose Fagnano, of the Don Bosco order, evangelized many of the indigenous indians.

Cabo Domingo. I planned on taking some close-ups but getting sandblasted isn’t my cup of tea. Unfortunately, the cliff has a bad mark on its history but more on that later.

.

Built in 1945, a strong earthquake in late 1949 put the lighthouse into a lean. Sadly, we noticed that someone robbed the historical plaque. Another lighthouse, that took place of the original, was built in 1966.

If you view this larger image here, you can see Pablito in the background on the left.

Update:
It has come out that they are not all Belgians. One is from Holland, one from the United States, and one from Belgium. And yes, drinking was involved. Latest news is that they are free but can’t leave the province or country. Again….when you drink too much, please, go back to your room and sleep. Everyone has a good time, you don’t have to wake up feeling guilty for something stupid you did. Hey, I know what it’s like, you get a good buzz going, think you can accomplish anything, think you are invincible, think you’ll have a funny story to tell everyone back home, but it doesn’t always end that way. Don’t chance it. Story Here

When touring a country, any country….

Enjoy the food
See the sites
Take some pictures
Buy some touristy stuff
Make new friends
Kick back and have a few beers at a bar or nightclub
Then go back to your room and sleep.

Whatever you do, don’t attempt to steal a symbol of that country’s national pride. Especially around the 25th anniversary of a touchy subject.

Three Tourists Steal National and Provincial Flags In Ushuaia [In Spanish]

Three from England were caught doing it a couple years ago-they even went so far as to dump it into a trash bin- and were sentenced to jail for a year. You might get lucky like this guy who had many chances for freedom, four times in 10 days, but continued his robbing spree shortly after each release. Maybe he won’t be so lucky this time but who knows.

From the road that leads up to Martial Glacier.

Just lay out a plot with some string and stakes. Toss some pallets or other junk in order to make it hard for others to claim that land as theirs.

The first tin tipi I’ve ever seen.

Might help to build a shack over the weekend.

A sign with your name too…

…but then someone might cross it out and put their own.

Robert Wright up in Buenos Aires has a great ongoing section called “housing for the masses” over at his site. Although that section primarily covers mass housing projects and their style of architecture from the days of old, I couldn’t help but think of a similar situation that is occurring down here in TDF–minus the grand architecture schemes.

I was driving around the other day to see what’s new in the development side of things around the city of Rio Grande. Electronics assembly plants, warehouses, and homes are popping up everywhere. Chacras, the name given to government-funded housing projects (Chacra I, Chacra IX ,etc), are also in on the boom–the new ones are now numbered in the mid-teens. Before they pretty much consisted of large apartment type complexes but now the new developments are focusing on houses and duplexes. (This is just a quick half-assed post and I’ll grab some shots of the older apartments and cover the topic more another day.)

The whole width of the above shot is filled with units that are under construction.

I really don’t know how many are being built in this Chacra.

Each unit is a duplex. (Might be some single-family mixed in but not sure at the moment)

Date: 13-03-2007
Location: Just outside Rio Grande, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina

Date: 18-02-2007
Location: Estancia Maria Behety

I don’t know if this guy has a name but I’ll just call him Pablito since the cliff is around Cabo San Pablo. We didn’t notice the facial features until we were checking out one area nearby, but I found he makes a few appearances in other shots that were taken beforehand. It’s amazing, there are eyes, eye brows, a nose, a mouth, and a protruded chin. Later in the day because of the sun’s position, we couldn’t distinguish anything. Larger view here

Date: 1-1-2007
Location: Cabo San Pablo, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina