Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego was named by Ferdinand Magellan when he explored this area in the 1500s. Sailing past the island, he saw the smoke rising from the fires of the native people living there and thus called it 'Land of Smoke' - this name was later changed by the Spanish King Charles V to the more exciting 'Land of Fire'.

The end of the road

We arrived on the island by boat from the mainland, with dolphins jumping all round us, and then had a bus ride of several hours down to Ushuaia in the south. While Tierra del Fuego is now home to a population of nearly 150,000, it still retains its feel of undiscovered wilderness, with an air of mystery and enchantment. Driving through the island, gazing out at the beautiful mist clad mountains, lakes and forests, it felt otherworldly; I have rarely been so strongly affected by a place.

The mountains rising behind Ushuaia

Ushuaia is quite a touristy town as most Antarctic cruises pass through here, however it is also a working port and nearly half of Tierra del Fuego's inhabitants live here. There are two main museums in the town, both of which we visited. The first is based in the old prison building and is HUGE, attempting to cover maritime history, the prison's history, Antarctica and local art all in one. Although we enjoyed the model ships and the opportunity to see the original prison cells here, there was really far too much information, most of it dry and irrelevant, and we gave up after two visits feeling somewhat brain dead!


On the other hand the second museum, about the Yamana indigenous people, was excellent. We learnt a great deal about the native people and their plight after the arrival of the Europeans. In the 1830s Captain FitzRoy of the Beagle thought it was a good idea to bring four native Fuegians back to England, supposedly to educate and Christianise them. The four were given the names Jemmy Button, Boat Memory, Fuegia Basket and York Minster. In a similar vein, British missionaries travelled to Tierra del Fuego in the 1870s to establish a settlement and 'educate' the indigenous people. As a result of the spread of hitherto unknown diseases, sadly nearly all the Yamana and other local tribes were wiped out.

Tierra del Fuego national park

A beaver dam on the way to Laguna Esmerelda

In addition to Ushuaia itself, we have enjoyed getting outdoors. Tierra del Fuego national park was stunning in its autumnal colours, and we also managed a long walk to Laguna Esmeralda. The latter trail was more of a bog than a path but we enjoyed the challenge (and got completely covered in mud!). We also saw several dams built by beavers, as well as the destruction they'd wrought in the forests - trees reduced to stumps, and others in the process of being gnawed through. There was plenty of other wildlife to see in the national park, birds especially - my favourites were the white throated tree runners, which as you can guess from the name run up and down trees, tapping with their beaks like woodpeckers.

Laguna Esmerelda

We'll be leaving Ushuaia tomorrow for Puerto Williams, the sourthernmost permanent settlement in the world. The plan is to then take a ferry back to Punta Arenas, then a second ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt along the Chilean fjords.

Although Ushuaia claims to be at the end of the world,
Puerto Williams (our next destination) is further south

Into Chile

We arrived by bus in Puerto Natales on April 1st. This was our first international bus journey, crossing from Argentina into Chile. Border crossings are always interesting, and this one took quite some time. Getting out of Argentina was easy enough, but at Chilean immigration we all had to get out of the bus and retrieve our big bags (sacks in our case) from the back so that it could go through the X ray scanner. Although there were two desks for checking passports, only one was designated to each direction. So, while one had a queue of a busload of people, the other watched MTV.

A dry-ish moment in Puerto Natales

We spent a couple of days in Puerto Natales, mainly sheltering inside from the freezing winds and snowstorms. But our main reason for coming was to attend one of the daily talks at Erratic Rock hostel, all about Torres del Paine national park and the famous W trek. This was extremely informative (highly recommended if you visit this part of the world) and useful in helping us plan our future itinerary. The local beer on tap was a bonus! We now think we may end up having to come back to this trek at the start of next season, when the weather is better, more places to stay are open and Kev's leg has recovered.

The Strait of Magellan at Punta Arenas

Not letting the cold deter us, we pushed on further south to Punta Arenas, arguably the southernmost city in the world. The other main claimant is Ushuaia, which is further south but smaller. We're pleasantly surprised by how nice this city is - lots of grand buildings and history relating to various early Antarctic expeditions. Plus the weather has been good - we're not missing the horizontal freezing rain we'd heard about. We've also purchased some crutches so that Kev can walk around without using his bad leg. This combination of weather and crutches has allowed us to go for walks along the seafront, with lovely views over the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. There are also burnt out piers filled with cormorants and gulls. Most things are closed over Easter, but we plan to make use of the duty free shopping area to replace some of our petrol damaged gear.

Imperial cormorants and dolphin gulls