Ushuaia, End of the World, Beginning of Everything - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I was nervous the day that we left Buenos Aires for Ushuaia.  It was the day that we were leaving behind everything that we've been brought up on and lived with.  Once boarding the ship on our voyage of the Antarctica, we'd be, pretty much, fending for ourselves in the mass bodies of ocean.

Despite the area being the habitat of The Selk’nam Indians, the Yaghan (also known as Yámana), since 10,000 years ago, the city is so remote that it was once occupied by two prisons and was built by the prisoners.  

The nerve was somewhat quenched by a cruise in the Beagle Channel before bidding good-bye to the city that's long been regarded as being the southernmost city in the world.  Little did I know at the time that it was the beginning of a wildlife paradise that I was about to enter.  As some puts it, Ushuaia is at the end of the world, and yet the beginning of everything.  

Stay tuned for more stories.  In the meantime, please feel free to visit our ever-growing image galleries, including that of Argentina. 

Crested-Caracara-Perched-on-Top-of-Hill-Beagle-Channel-Ushuaia-Argentina-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

You Say La Boca, I Say Genoa - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

For most tourists, no visit to Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, would be complete without spending time at its neighborhood of La Boca.  The popular pedestrian Caminito ("little walkway" or "little path" in Spanish) is well known for tango performance, artist stands and colorful houses.  In fact, the pastel colors facing the once abandoned street was not applied until late 1950s by Argentine artist Benito Quinquela Martín that lived nearby.  

Life in Argentina was probably nothing comparable to that in the glorious Italian city of Genoa, which was once one of the so-called "Maritime Republics".  Had there been a Benito Quinquela Martín  earlier, would La Boca's early settlers from Genoa still be as home sick?

The famous song in the Genoese dialect, "Ma se ghe penso" ("But if I think about it" in English), written and composed by Genoese singer Mario Cappello (with Attilio Margutti's help with the music) in 1925, depicts the yearning desire of an Italian emigrant to return "to lay my bones where my grandmother's are":

"But when I think of it, then I see the ocean, I see my mountains and Piazza della Nunziata..."
 

Play-of-Colors-and-Shadows-La-Boca-Buenos-Aires-Argentina-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography