Explore Tierra del Fuego
At the bottom end of the South American continent, and split between Chile and Argentina, Tierra del Fuego (“Land of Fire”) holds nearly as much fascination for travellers as Patagonia, from which it is separated by the Magellan Strait. In fact, it was Magellan who dreamed up the dramatic and somewhat unlikely name, after sighting dozens of fires lit by the native Yámana. Though comprising a number islands, it’s more or less the sum of its most developed part, the Isla Grande, the biggest island in South America. Argentina possesses the easternmost half of Isla Grande, plus Isla de los Estados (Staten Island) and a smattering of tiny islets to the south; the rest is Chilean territory.
On the Chilean side, you’ll find the isolated main town of Porvenir, which huddles on the Magellan Strait. Flat plains cover much of northern and central Isla Grande, but further south, the countryside becomes less barren, with thick woodland and crystalline rivers near little Camerón stretching southeast towards a number of exquisite lakes, including Lago Blanco, and the densely forested 2000m peaks of the Cordillera Darwin in the far south. South of Isla Grande, across the Beagle Channel, lies Isla Navarino, home to the tiny Puerto Williams, the southernmost permanently inhabited settlement in the world, plus one of the most challenging hiking trails in South America, the Los Dientes Circuit. Beyond Navarino is Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn), the land’s end of the Americas, accessible only by sea or air.
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Exploring Tierra del Fuego on four wheels
Exploring Tierra del Fuego on four wheels
Visitors with their own vehicles get far more out of a trip to Chilean Tierra del Fuego than those limited to Porvenir and its environs. Cars can be rented in Punta Arenas and brought over to the island on the car ferry. Most of the roads are unpaved and moderately potholed, but can be tackled without a 4WD if driving carefully – with the exception of the coastal road south of Camerón to Puerto Arturo, which is for 4WDs only, and the stretch of road between Onaisín and Cerro Sombrero if it has been raining.
Fuegians rely only on themselves and on each other when it comes to breakdowns and all motorists will stop should you come to grief, but given the low traffic volume on most roads, you should come prepared with a sleeping bag, food, water, a torch, warm clothes and – most importantly – a spare tyre and all necessary equipment. Always stop to help other motorists in need and plan your journey carefully: there are only two petrol stations – one in Porvenir and the other in Cerro Sombrero. If you wish to head south to Lago Blanco, you must take a spare canister of petrol with you.
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King penguins in Tierra del Fuego
King penguins in Tierra del Fuego
A number of king penguins, whose colonies have previously not been found further north than the South Georgia islands and Antarctica, may have made Chile’s Tierra del Fuego their home. The sixteen or so penguins have stayed on a beachfront piece of private land for the whole of 2011, raising hopes that they may create a new colony. The location, 15km south of the crossroads with the turn-off for Onaisín along the coastal road, is to be accessed via Estancia San Clemente, and not the neighbouring Estancia Tres Hermanos. The two estancias own land next to one another, and Estancia Tres Hermanos has been letting visitors cross its territory, some of whom have subsequently trespassed on the San Clemente land and frightened the penguins by getting too close to them.
The owners of San Clemente are working together with a Punta Arenas-based interest group keen to study the penguins’ behaviour. Visitors coming by car will see the sign for Parque Pinguino Rey and the CH$12,000 entry fee must be paid at the trailer. Penguin-viewing tours are run by several companies from Punta Arenas though it makes for a very long day trip.
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The Yámana, the Selk’nam and the Kawéskar
The Yámana, the Selk’nam and the Kawéskar
The harsh lands of Tierra del Fuego and Isla Navarino were originally home to three tribes, the Yámana (Yaghan), the Selk’nam (Ona) and the Kawéscar (Alacalúf). The latter inhabited the Magellan Strait and the western fjords, and the former two resided on and around Isla Navarino. The Yámana and the Kawéskar were both “Canoe Indians”, who relied on their catch of fish, shellfish and marine animals, while the Selk’nam were hunter-gatherers who subsisted almost entirely on a diet of guanaco meat.
Though dismissed by European explorers as savages (Charles Darwin famously commented that the “Canoe Indians” were “among the most abject and miserable creatures I ever saw”), and now largely culturally extinct, the tribes had complex rituals. The Selk’nam, for example, performed a sophisticated male initiation ceremony, the Hain, during which the young male initiates, or kloketens, confronted and unmasked malevolent spirits that they had been taught to fear since their youth, emerging as maars (adults). Father Martín Gusinde was present at the last Hain ceremony in 1923, and managed to capture the event in a series of remarkable photographs, copies of which circulate as postcards today.
