The End of the World (or the Beginning) - Ushuaia and the Fram

We began our day by boarding a plane at 7:30 am for our trip to Ushuaia, which is the southern most tip of Argentina. 

It is also fondly called by Argentinians as the "End of the World."  However, the locals are desperately trying to change the moniker to the "Beginning of the World." 

As the southern most point in Argentina and the southern most town in the world, we were privileged to see the "southern most post office," "southern most person named  Frederico (our tour guide), "southern most outhouse" and "southern most golf course." 

The town of Ushuaia is beautiful and quaint as it stands surrounded by the Martial Mountains.  The only eyesore is the Casino in the middle of town, which the townsfolk insist looks like a thong.

We took a short tour of the Tierra Del Fuego National Park in Ushuaia before embarking for the great continent of Antarctica.  Teirra Del Fuego (also the southern most park in the world) is gorgeous with mountains, forests, rivers and the ocean all in once place. 

We learned that the residents introduced the beaver (thinking it's pelts would be a great source of commerce).  Unfortunately, the beaver population exploded (apparently having no natural enemies in the area) and have been decimating the forest.  The residents then introduced the grey fox to control the beaver population.  Apparently, the grey fox doesn't consider beaver a food source and is decimating the red fox population (a native species).  Not sure what they are going to introduce next, but hopefully the casino will bring in enough money to stave off the introduction of more invasive species!   

After exploring the National Park, we headed back into town (passing the casino) to our ship THE MS FRAM.  The Fram is a passenger vessel operated by our host, the Hurtigruten Group, out of Norway. The ship is named after the original Fram, the ship used by the explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen.

You may have heard about the Fram as the ship that was recently assisted by a Naval Vessel to break free of ice flows that had surrounded the ship. See the story here  Yikes!  Hopefully, we don't have the same problems... although it would be an adventure!  Anyway, we boarded the ship and checked out our room.  We are so excited to begin our voyage to the great white continent of Antarctica!

Our room... not so roomy, but still nice

Going aboard the MS Fram!