Punta Arenas was founded in 1848 as a way to safeguard the Strait of Magellan for Chile and is the oldest city in Patagonia. We visited the site of the first settlement here, Rey Don Felipe, established by the Spanish in 1584. It started with around 300 settlers but they struggled with the harsh conditions. The sole survivor was picked up 3 years later by an English privateer, who renamed the place Port Famine, or Puerto del Hambre. It is now marked by a rather odd monument to the 'geographic centre' of Chile, as Chile claims ownership of part of Antartica and this point lies halfway between the north border of the country and the South Pole.
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| Braving the conditions at Bulmes Fort |
Nearby is Bulmes Fort, founded in 1843 as the original site for Punta Arenas. This was slightly more successful than the Spanish colony - it lasted for 5 years on a windswept and rain-lashed peninsula before the whole settlement was moved 50 km along the coast to the current site. The fort was left to ruin, but has now been restored to its former glory using timber stakes. It was easy to see why it had been abandoned as we explored it in the horizontal rain.
We used Punta Arenas as the base for a trip to Pali Aike national park, 200 km away on the border with Argentina. It's home to a volcanic outcrop, which provides a fascinating contrast to the bleached Patagonian steppe with sudden black rocks and large cones in every direction. The rock formations are particularly intriguing - there is no erosion by water and the wind forms lots of weird shapes. We finished our visit by scrambling into the extinct volcano crater itself and peering into its depths.
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| The volcanic formations in Pali Aike National Park | |
We've now left Chile for Argentina once more, to a city that's even further south - Ushuaia.
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| The Crater Morada del Diablo (Devil's Pit) in Pali Aike National Park |
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