Jan. 25, 2011  Exploring Usuaia  by Milbry Polk  Created with
flickr slideshow from softsea.  January 21, Beagle Channel  I am
writing from Ushuaia, Argentina, the “End of the Earth,” where I
am staying in a hotel perched high on the mountain that gives me
a commanding view of the port and the Beagle Channel. Snow-
covered mountains, the Patagonian Andes, cascade into the sea
around us. Small islands dot the distance in either direction.
South lies Antarctica.  The Beagle Channel is a strait
separating islands in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It was
named in honor of the ship, The Beagle, commanded by Captain
Robert Fitzroy, who arrived in 1833. He found that the area was
populated by Selk’nam, also known as the Ono, who had arrived in
the area some 10,000 years ago. By the early 1900’s, nearly all
the Ono had died as they were wiped out both by disease and
warfare with the Europeans. There is a lovely tiny museum in
town, Museo Yamana, that encapsulates the little that is known
of these hardy people who l