Ushuaia. Tierra del Fuego. Argentina. Thursday 16th November 2006.

After a morning spent working on the project, Di and I head out to have lunch at Bodegon Fueguino on San Martin.

I then head over to the Ushuaia Aeroclub via the Evita memorial on Maipu.

I am to take a private flight over the Beagle Channel in a Piper Cherokee.

This plane is like a car inside, with a very small back seat. It has dual controls and is used for flying lessons. Inside there is a pungent smell of sick from a previous passanger.

Sitting on the runway we go through the pre-flight checklist and then its off...I feel like a true pioneer as we bounce along the runway. What an amazing place to take such a flight...and then we are up, up and away leaving Ushuaia heading out toward the national park to Lago Roca.

The view of the islands of the Beagle Channel is spectacular. I am very lucky and the break in the weather means that I have crystal clear views.

Flying down the Beagle Channel along the border between Argentina and Chile it is a perfect day for flying. The wind is from the South West (and so the prevailing wind in this area) and at 30 knots it is a little bumpy, but we got clearance from the tower and I didn't need to think twice about this excursion.

Crossing over into Chilean airspace we get a close up view of the Murray Channel in Chile where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet and which leads out to Cape Horn.

Pablo, my pilot was born here in Ushuaia and he has been flying for 11 years, since he was seventeen. He is a commercial pilot and he hands me the controls over the Beagle Channel and I get my very first shot of flying a plane. I am told you need to treat flying like a good woman...you always need to turn and pull up or descend slowly. I don't think I was any good, but then again, we didn't crash!

We fly very close to the Andes as the tower has directed us to make clearance for an Aerolineas Argentinas flight that is coming into land at the main airport.

The mountain valleys of Tierra Mayor and Andorra make a stunning W shape on the horizon.

It is very bumpy as we fly very close to Mount Olivia and then we sit above the city and watch the jumbo come into land.

Another highlight of my flight is the view of Luis Le Martial glacier (the water source for the city) before we come into land at the original city airport.

My thanks go to Pablo Jofre for a wonderful afternoon.

On to the towns' Falklands memorial set in a beautiful plaza on Maipu. The plaza is dominated by a sculpture in outline of the islands flown over by a huge Argentinian flag. This monument serves as a reminder of man's continuing inhumanity to man. We never learn the lessons of history and generation after generation we continue to destroy. The raised names of the dead on the memorial that I rub as I study the monument are a poignant reminder that every casualty is some mothers son.

Tonight on our way to supper we passed a protest on San Martin held by residents of the barrio districts of the city protesting about their economic exclusion from the wealth of Ushuaia.

The local view, from those who grew up here when the city had a population of only 5,000 roughly ten/fifteen years ago is that the protesters came south looking for steets paved with gold and found that there is also depression in this area...somewhere in the middle I am sure lies the truth!

We dine tonight at La Casa De Los Mariscos.