 The first Europeans to lay eyes on this landscape were
led by Ferdinand Magellan, who pioneered passage through
the treacherous strait that now bears his name. His expedition
named the mainland 'Tierra de los Patagones', unwittingly
spawning the myth of a race of Patagonian giants. To
the south, they saw the horizon darkened by smoke from
the natives' fires, and named the great island Tierra
del Fuego. The legend of Patagonia was set in motion.
The indigenous groups who inhabited Tierra del Fuego
deserved to be legends, as these were the world's first
and greatest adventurers. In arriving on Tierra del Fuego
they had completed the world's furthest human migration,
arriving finally at the very end of the earth, where
the Andes disappeared into the sea and glaciers flowed
to the water's edge.
With nowhere else to wander, they stayed and fished the
coast in canoes, collected shellfish, hunted guanaco
and rheas on the pampa. Photos taken at the turn of the
century depict a stone age culture where extremity had
crystallized: the end of the road for the most restless
wanders in history.
To the east of the Andes, the Patagonian pampa is an
immense desert, by some accounts among the five largest
deserts in the world.
West of the Andes is another world. Here both the Central
Valley and the Coast Range have sunk into the Pacific;
what were once glacial valleys are now fjords, and what
were once mountaintops are now islands. Hotsprings lay
revealed by coastal erosion, while great glaciers further
fragment the landscape, necessitating maritime or air
travel. Great forests cloak the Andes from the Pacific
shoreline to the continental divide, bisected by surging
emerald rivers carrying glacial silt to the sea and providing
habitat for fearless trout and salmon.
This immense territory is best understood as two separate
regions, separated by the vast expanse of the Southern
Patagonian Ice Field.
Northern Patagonia is one of the world's last great expanses
of wilderness, accessed by a gravel highway known as
the Carretera Austral, completed in 1988. Even today,
road access to the region is not complete, and travelers
on the Carretera Austral must hop ferries across the
mouths of the great fjords.
Here the port of Chaitén provides access to the
northernmost portions of the Carretera Austral, including
truly world-class rafting and flyfishing, and cruises
to glaciers and island hotsprings. Further south is the
city of Coihaique, capital of the Aisén province
and an ideal base for flyfishing and overland trips on
the southern Carretera Austral, to lago General Carrera
and the Northern and Southern Ice Fields.
Southern Patagonia, known as Magallanes, is a world apart,
where the broad expanses of the pampa meet with the glacially
sculpted spires of the Andes. Torres del Paine National
Park and World Biosphere Reserve is the most famous of
the vast protected areas in Magallanes, preserving habitat
for guanacos, foxes, rheas and flamingos. South of the
park is Puerto Natales, terminal for southbound ferries
from Puerto Montt and operations base for hiking and
horseback trips, glacier cruises, and overland trips.
Punta Arenas is the capital of the Magallanes province.
Facing the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego,
Punta Arenas is the principal departure point for cruises
and flights to Tierra del Fuego, to the Canal Beagle,
Isla Navarino, Cape Horn and Antarctica.
Article © 2002-2006, Visit-Chile.org.
All Rights Reserved. |
