Today is sunny and calm, it’s the first time I’m here wearing a skirt instead of pants. The wind has relaxed too, and different birds have started to come out. Besides seagulls, I hear hawks cawing behind me, and songbirds which are a new springtime addition. The comesebo andino is a bright yellow and gray bird which sounds a little bit like a chickadee. The birds make me miss home, but also feel close to home at the same time. It smells more like seaweed than it did in winter.

I have just returned from a 10-day trip to Antarctica. I recently read that indigenous people from this area, the Yamanes, may have crossed the Drake Passage and reached Antarctica. But they would have done so in Kayak, a journey I made on a retired military vessel. Tierra del Fuego has been inhabited by humans for 12,000 years. Now Ushuaia is a tourist city, with a lot of room to improve in terms of sustainability. Something that makes Ushuaia unique is that we have to import most all food, and energy comes mainly from natural gas. Colonization caused sea lions and whales to fall out of popular taste. There are many opportunities to become more self-sustaining, but a lack of money and complicated politics make that more difficult. With climate change, I see a real need to improve local agriculture and green energy in order to make this place inhabitable in the future. I’m really inspired by local efforts to build more greenhouses, for example. I take the bus most days, which does a decent job of making public transportation accessible. Sometimes I sit in the park, and now I’m at the beach. Interestingly, the coastline and some other greenspace is government-owned, different from neighbors like Chile. Homes must be 20m away from the coast to keep it public access, which I really appreciate. There were several sites in Chile we had to receive special permission to visit because they are privately owned, or couldn’t visit at all. I see this as one way that Argentina reckons with decolonizing natural resources and spaces.

Ushuaia today, Antarctica this past week.