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Sentry Duty
At Punta Arenas portTravel for a while and, with luck, you will come across those 'pinch me' places. Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to come through here in 1520. There were others already here of course. The Yaghan and, a little to the north, the Selk'nam had been around for fair while at that time. And now it is us, plus just a few other tourists. Tierra del Fuego has been, for me, a place synonomous with wild landscapes, even more spectacular seas and heroic deeds since I was a child. A few years ago I read a book about the voyages of Robert Fitzroy and then Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle. The island at the end of of the world where smoke rises continuously is a place I never thought I would visit.
In season, Tierra del Fuego is apparently full of people, primarily tourists and the people who feed, bleed and generally look after them, but there is also a significant population that has been attracted here by the tax free status of the Argentinian part of the island. Out of season, April, May and June, there are just the permanent residents and those few tourists who take a
Trompe l'oeil
on the wall of a house in Punta Arenas punt that there might still be things to do and see.
It had become apparent a while ago that we needed to get ourselves down south pretty smartly if we were to get there at all on this trip. As we moved down the west coast of the continent the weather was becoming progressively more difficult. We were keen to get ourselves down to Puerto Montt and picking up the Navimag – a cattle ferry that also takes tourists these days – down to Puerto Natales where we might be able to trek around Torres del Paine, but we found that most of the possibilities for trekking had disappeared with the cold, rain and fog. Eventually, it made more sense to make a break for further south. We decided to skip Torres del Paine – adding it to the Comeback List of course – and head for Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile.
The bus to Punta Arenas would take too many hours to contemplate, so a flight was the way to go. Even that was a bit of a problem. Flights out of Santiago were impossible to arrange for the week after Easter so we
Well used jetty
At Punta Arenas. No longer connected to the shore had to take a flight on Easter Saturday and skip the planned last couple of days in Santiago.
Punta Arenas is the southernmost city in Chile. The guide books don't go much on it but we enjoyed walking the streets – and not always in the rain. The place is cold and pretty flat. The wind howls through when it is blowing but we did have one relatively non-windy and sunny day. There is not a hell of a lot to do – if you are into that sort of thing – but it is a friendly place and, after the frenzy of the various cities we have hit lately, it is a nice easy place. A good place to spend an Easter
Sunday, when everything is shut in most places in Chile. We walked around the town and did a few kms up and down the shore and harbour front. It is a grey and brown sort of place but enhanced considerably by the practice of painting houses in dramatic colours.
There are normally a few options for travel from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia, in Argentinian Tierra del Fuego. But it was too late in the season
for boats and air was too expensive for what should have been a relatively short flight. This left a car or the bus. Fortunately it was a pretty good bus. Basically took us up the channel originally charted by Magellan, then across a relatively narrow but vigorous stretch of water and on to the border with Argentina. I will admit to casting my mind back to the long list of wrecks that I had seen on signs around Punta Arenas as the waves crashed over the ferry.
The trip across doesn't really set you up for Ushuaia. The land is reminiscent of the Barkly Tableland and the outback of Australia generally. Brown, gently undulating, less trees than Australia, sheep and cattle and not a lot else. Beautiful for me, perhaps slightly boring for some. It was, though, a good bus. The conductor was a nice bloke and served us hot coffee and tea with biscuits and buns during the day. He ensured that all went well at the border – although San Sebastian was not a difficult border at all – and he spent some effort explaining that we would be in Rio Grande at 6.00 o'clock and that
our connecting bus would leave for Ushuaia at 7.00. As it turned out we arrived at 4.30 and left immediately. Still not at all sure what that was about.
South to Ushuaia the road takes you through some standard fare Patagonian farmland, past fishing lodges and the like and, increasingly, into the mountains. The snow was apparently at about 300 metres, making for a nice scene from inside a relatively warm bus. Night fell as we headed through the Garibaldi Pass. There we found that our driver was not all that comfortable with night driving for some reason. An interesting time with some sudden braking, high speed at some stages, very low at others and lots of swerving around on the road.
Ushuaia was built by the Argentinians basically to establish a presence here. Those Chileans claimed the other half of the island and there needed to be a presence here. So they followed the lead of the British in earlier times and shifted prisoners down here. The prison was one of those places like Siberia for instance where they didn't need to bother with fences. If prisoners were silly enough to leave the relative warmth and security
Chess by the Water
On the esplanade in Punta Arenas afforded by the prison then that was the end of them. It seems that not so many did. The prison today is a series of museums and well worth a visit. They have set up some wings of the original as a museum but left one as it was. Wondering around in the warmth and almost homey atmosphere is OK but when you venture into the original bit you are immediately hit with what it was really like for a lot of these people.
The weather wasn't really all that bad but wandering around without some sort of wet weather gear at any time of the day or night is both unusual and unintelligent. The wind blows. Not all of the time that we were there, but a good proportion. But the sun does shine, particularly, at the time we were there, in the mornings. Days do tend to start out well.
Ushuaia has tax free status primarily as a means to attract business and investment. There are apparently a number of manufacturers here, mainly in electronics. The major effect of tax free status for tourists though is the number of travel and outdoor suppliers along San Martin
Another Chile Dog
Soaking up the sun in Punta Arenas Avenue, the main street. Even if you aren't completely convinced that you need anything there is still plenty of scope to shop.
We did take a break from looking at the shops to try some of the tours.
We couldn't find a tour operator that would take us around Cape Horn at this time of the year but we were able to get a small-ish boat to take us out along the Beagle Channel to look at the lighthouse that marks one of the more dangerous areas, visit a sea lion colony, a Magellanic penguin colony – unfortunately the penguins had left for the season, all bar one – and we were able to walk on Bridger Island. You can take a large cataraman but we selected a smaller boat which would be able to get in closer to the shore and had the advantage of giving us the chance to get out and walk. The trip out on the boat was pleasant. Seals leaping through the water, vigorous but not violent waves, sun shining. All very nice. The way back was different. Waves crashing over the boat. Some rain and sleet with violent rather than vigorous seas
Cold Chile Dogs
Keeping warm in Punta Arenas and certainly enough to have a fair proportion of the people on board hoping for the shore. Not the captain though. He served us all with his special brew of very nice coffee liqueur.
The nearby mountains and lakes looked pretty cold to us but we kitted up and took a 4WD trip in a Land Rover Defender to see two of the lakes in the mountains, Lake Fagnano and Lake Escondida. Being the last pick up of 8 passengers wasn't an ideal beginning but the Defender wasn't too bad up the back. Some of the other passengers had clearly not been in one of these machines before and it was all very exciting and interesting. We, of course, were pretty relaxed, not really expecting too much drama. Things picked up a little when it became clear that they actually meant 'off road' and that 4WD was absolutely vital. Unfortunately, there was a bit of an interruption in one pretty deep and muddy creek. I suspect that the Defender bent a gear linkage out of shape, or similar. We were able to move but not to move well enough to crawl up a reasonably steep – but not that
steep – bank out of the creek. Eventually we were hauled up by one of 4 other 4WDs that were another party following us.
Lunch on the shores of Lago Fagnano deserves a special mention. This was a barbecue and our first experience of a feed catered by an Argentinian. A very acceptable first course of salami, cheese and biscuits all washed down by an acceptable red wine. This was followed by meat. Three different kins of meat, all of it beef. Nice thick and tasty beef sausages all wrapped up in a fresh and crusty roll. But there were also steaks. Nice thick steaks cooked medium/rare – hard to explain that without too much espanol, especially when the local categories seem to jump from rare to medium. Then we had a roasted fillet. A large one. There was also salad. One plate, relatively full, to share between the one vegetarian and the rest of us. There was plenty of salad though. It wasn't all eaten.
Our next tour was to be in the Parque Nacional. A drive out, a trek for about 4 hours along the shore and through the hills by the coast, followed by a
Chilean Patagonia
Rain and cold on the way south few hours in canoes down to Bahia Lapataia (Lapataia Bay). We were all set for it. Plenty of layers on. Wet weather gear over the top. Walking poles adjusted. Very keen. And when we woke to a snow fall that seemed reasonably heavy in town we figured that this would be even better. A little concerned about the effectiveness of our gear but still keen.
It all came to an end just 25 metres inside the gates of the Parque Nacional. We'd had to ditch the canoes to make it up a hill but we were still on track until we actually entered the Park. Then we found that the Park had closed the road we were on and that we couldn't make it to the beginning of the planned trek. To make matters worse we would not be able to walk along the intended track. Too dangerous.
We did get our money back. All of it. Compania de Guias who booked the tour paid up happily. The tour company involved, Nunatuk, repaid the park entry fee – which the national park wouldn't refund – and delivered the money to our hotel.
Ushuaia is expensive. People here
Ferry coming in
This was the second attempt to get to beach so we could board are paid well and prices are high in the restaurants and bars. Some are not so good on quality either. Tante Sara has a couple of establishments. We visited one and will avoid them in future. Overall though Ushuaia is pretty good value and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time there at the city at the end of the world.
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