Day 3 - Tierra del Fuego
In each of our three main tourist destinations during this trip, there is one day more or less dedicated to a single tourist attraction. The first of which is a day-long tour of Tierra del Fuego, a large expanse of land south of Punta Arenas that winnows down towards the depths of South America. The trip encompassed a lot of driving, but also a lot of history, and more than anything marvelling at the strange odd scenery on plains that make up this remote corner of our globe.
The beginning of the trip was actually mostly a repeat of yesterday, going back to the same pier where we took the ferry to Isla Magdalena, but this time we took the adjecent boat, a larger, fancier ferry that was destined for Porvinir. Our tour group's van was housed below deck. The boat ride took two hours, a nice opportunity to sleep for a bit. Our earnest, smart, an all around baller tour guide Juan ("Johnny" to the 8 of us on the tour hailing from the US) took a bit of this time to give us a geography and history lesson as well of Isla Tierra del Fuego, a large piece of land split between Chile and Argentina (quite acrimoniously, we would soon find out). The two hours seemed quicker than expected, and before we knew it, we were boarding the van on the Porvinir side.
Porvinir was a great starting point for the various bits of history that were a throughline for the entire day. First was the tales of the aboriginal peoples that once lived throughout southern Chilean Patagonia for thousands of years. These peoples were left mostly unfettered until the late 1800's and early 1900's, when the Spanish came in and summarily wiped them out. There were a few monuments in Porvinir to these people, the Sel'knam, memorializing their history, but the real place of honor was the tidy little museum to the history of the Sel'knam, the Spanish conquest, the Gold Rush that brought in, oddly enough, a slew of Croatians to the region, and the wildlife that still calls it home. The museum was well manicured, and our less well-manicured, heavily bearded guide was there to fill in the details.
The second throughline was the wildlife. The most prominent native wildlife was by far sheep, dotting so many of the vast expanse of plains and farms. The next was the Guanaco, the singular animal that would split off through evolution to the Llama and Alpaca; with the Guanaco being a smaller version of its two more notable relatives. Third was the rhea, an emu-like figure that was far too sparse to ever get a good look at. The real key was the King Penguin, but more about that later.
The next part of the trip was mostly a drive to the King Penguin colony near Cameron, part of the hilariously named 'Useless Bay' when translated - called so due to its shallow waters making it incompatible with most ships. The drive did allow us to see the flat view of Tierra del Fuego, mesmerizing in its isolation. It was, in a weird way, so unlike anything I had seen before.
The King Penguin colony was the real hit of the tour.. Despite seeing penguins just a day earlier, seeing the larger King Penguins was just an amazing experience. We could not get as close (King Penguins are fairly scared of human interaction), but their size was impressive nonetheless. They were set up near the water of Useless Bay, behind a well manicured entry-way. The wind was howling at its finest in this area, a clear message of just how close to Antarctica we were getting. The Kign Penguins were not as movile as their Megallenic cousins, but more stately and regal. Many were incumbating eggs beneath their down-feathers. Others were sleeping upright. A few were fighting and even mating.
Despite the distanace, our tourguides handy tip to combine a cell-phone camera and binoculars to get a close-up was an inspired bit of genius to enliven the experience. He really was such an asset during this trip. We learned more about his background alter during one of the endless drives, but for now he seemed to us to be part Zoologist, being able to dole out so many facts and stories about the Penguin colony and their activities. Penguins are fascinating animals, from their ability to spread self-created oil on their feathers allowing them to dive up to 300 meters in the ground, to the stories of how female penguins would stay with the same mate for life, unless one of their eggs doesn't hatch and they switch over from male to male finding the previous not verile enough. The howling winds cooled the atmosphere, but his stories and well of knowledge heated it right back up.
The rest of the trip included more driving, better scenery, views of the Straight of Magellan, and a whole lot of history. Our tour guide, who effortlessly switched back and forth from Spanish to English, seemingly majored in Patagonian history. The best part was his long story of Jose Menendez, a quasi-fraudster who swindled his way to owning basically all of Southern Patagonia, and then swindled it away. The last true stop on the tour was his deserted 'Estacionmento' (essentially, an outpost), which also had a shipwreck that was cool to waltz around, but cooler to learn was a boat that was intentionally crashed to salvage for its wood.
The final part of the trip included a shorter boat ride across the Straight of Magellan at its northern entry-way, a 20 minute ride through choppy waters where the Atlantic and Pacific currents wage daily battles. The tour ended with a bit of personal story-time, with the tourguide giving us a family history intertwined with the differing opinions and memories of the Pinochet regime, all this during the drive back to our hotel. In this he mentioned having worked in the US for a few years, but coming back to Chile. He claimed happily that he loved his job, giving these tours each day, and the next day he would be running a tour of Torres del Paine park out of Punta Arenas, one that would start about 5AM and end at 9PM. He sure does love his job, and given how much he knew about each site we saw and the general history of this region from ancestral through modern times, I buy it.
We returned from our tour just in time for dinner, which we had at Sotito's Restaurant, a fancy place bordering the Straight of Magellan. The view was divine and the food nearly as good. We had a bit of a rough start with the waiter, asking for an English menu only to realize that the English menu was paired down to include only a few options that they felt would be appetizing to 'English' people (including an Italian section that is not included in the real menu), and then asking for the Spanish one back, but by the time we ordered and got our food it was all good. We ordered a lot of dishes - some would say too much - but each was good. The star was the fresh King Crab, a specialty of the area. Other top choices were the roasted lamb, and a fried Merzluna fish. Everything was fresh and good.
My night ended at Bar The Clinic, which I picked mostly because it was down the road from dinner. It was a nice bar, with a more tourist-heavy crowd than Bar Bulnes the night before, with more of a classic bar/pub menu and drink selection. I returned to our hotel around 1:00, and not all that ready to leave Punta Arenas.
In the end, Punta Arenas is a strange town. It is the biggest city in this part of the world, certainly one of the few that have enough of an economy outside of tourism to survive independently. It is the largest gateway from a transport sense to this part of the world in Patagonia. But the main tourist attraction it houses, the expansive Torres del Paine and southern islands, aren't as stunningly picturesque as the places to come./ But the lasting sense and value of Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine really are its remoteness. I was further South than I probably will ever go, and that sense of unique isolation never escapes.
In each of our three main tourist destinations during this trip, there is one day more or less dedicated to a single tourist attraction. The first of which is a day-long tour of Tierra del Fuego, a large expanse of land south of Punta Arenas that winnows down towards the depths of South America. The trip encompassed a lot of driving, but also a lot of history, and more than anything marvelling at the strange odd scenery on plains that make up this remote corner of our globe.
The beginning of the trip was actually mostly a repeat of yesterday, going back to the same pier where we took the ferry to Isla Magdalena, but this time we took the adjecent boat, a larger, fancier ferry that was destined for Porvinir. Our tour group's van was housed below deck. The boat ride took two hours, a nice opportunity to sleep for a bit. Our earnest, smart, an all around baller tour guide Juan ("Johnny" to the 8 of us on the tour hailing from the US) took a bit of this time to give us a geography and history lesson as well of Isla Tierra del Fuego, a large piece of land split between Chile and Argentina (quite acrimoniously, we would soon find out). The two hours seemed quicker than expected, and before we knew it, we were boarding the van on the Porvinir side.
Porvinir was a great starting point for the various bits of history that were a throughline for the entire day. First was the tales of the aboriginal peoples that once lived throughout southern Chilean Patagonia for thousands of years. These peoples were left mostly unfettered until the late 1800's and early 1900's, when the Spanish came in and summarily wiped them out. There were a few monuments in Porvinir to these people, the Sel'knam, memorializing their history, but the real place of honor was the tidy little museum to the history of the Sel'knam, the Spanish conquest, the Gold Rush that brought in, oddly enough, a slew of Croatians to the region, and the wildlife that still calls it home. The museum was well manicured, and our less well-manicured, heavily bearded guide was there to fill in the details.
The second throughline was the wildlife. The most prominent native wildlife was by far sheep, dotting so many of the vast expanse of plains and farms. The next was the Guanaco, the singular animal that would split off through evolution to the Llama and Alpaca; with the Guanaco being a smaller version of its two more notable relatives. Third was the rhea, an emu-like figure that was far too sparse to ever get a good look at. The real key was the King Penguin, but more about that later.
The next part of the trip was mostly a drive to the King Penguin colony near Cameron, part of the hilariously named 'Useless Bay' when translated - called so due to its shallow waters making it incompatible with most ships. The drive did allow us to see the flat view of Tierra del Fuego, mesmerizing in its isolation. It was, in a weird way, so unlike anything I had seen before.
The King Penguin colony was the real hit of the tour.. Despite seeing penguins just a day earlier, seeing the larger King Penguins was just an amazing experience. We could not get as close (King Penguins are fairly scared of human interaction), but their size was impressive nonetheless. They were set up near the water of Useless Bay, behind a well manicured entry-way. The wind was howling at its finest in this area, a clear message of just how close to Antarctica we were getting. The Kign Penguins were not as movile as their Megallenic cousins, but more stately and regal. Many were incumbating eggs beneath their down-feathers. Others were sleeping upright. A few were fighting and even mating.
Despite the distanace, our tourguides handy tip to combine a cell-phone camera and binoculars to get a close-up was an inspired bit of genius to enliven the experience. He really was such an asset during this trip. We learned more about his background alter during one of the endless drives, but for now he seemed to us to be part Zoologist, being able to dole out so many facts and stories about the Penguin colony and their activities. Penguins are fascinating animals, from their ability to spread self-created oil on their feathers allowing them to dive up to 300 meters in the ground, to the stories of how female penguins would stay with the same mate for life, unless one of their eggs doesn't hatch and they switch over from male to male finding the previous not verile enough. The howling winds cooled the atmosphere, but his stories and well of knowledge heated it right back up.
The rest of the trip included more driving, better scenery, views of the Straight of Magellan, and a whole lot of history. Our tour guide, who effortlessly switched back and forth from Spanish to English, seemingly majored in Patagonian history. The best part was his long story of Jose Menendez, a quasi-fraudster who swindled his way to owning basically all of Southern Patagonia, and then swindled it away. The last true stop on the tour was his deserted 'Estacionmento' (essentially, an outpost), which also had a shipwreck that was cool to waltz around, but cooler to learn was a boat that was intentionally crashed to salvage for its wood.
The final part of the trip included a shorter boat ride across the Straight of Magellan at its northern entry-way, a 20 minute ride through choppy waters where the Atlantic and Pacific currents wage daily battles. The tour ended with a bit of personal story-time, with the tourguide giving us a family history intertwined with the differing opinions and memories of the Pinochet regime, all this during the drive back to our hotel. In this he mentioned having worked in the US for a few years, but coming back to Chile. He claimed happily that he loved his job, giving these tours each day, and the next day he would be running a tour of Torres del Paine park out of Punta Arenas, one that would start about 5AM and end at 9PM. He sure does love his job, and given how much he knew about each site we saw and the general history of this region from ancestral through modern times, I buy it.
We returned from our tour just in time for dinner, which we had at Sotito's Restaurant, a fancy place bordering the Straight of Magellan. The view was divine and the food nearly as good. We had a bit of a rough start with the waiter, asking for an English menu only to realize that the English menu was paired down to include only a few options that they felt would be appetizing to 'English' people (including an Italian section that is not included in the real menu), and then asking for the Spanish one back, but by the time we ordered and got our food it was all good. We ordered a lot of dishes - some would say too much - but each was good. The star was the fresh King Crab, a specialty of the area. Other top choices were the roasted lamb, and a fried Merzluna fish. Everything was fresh and good.
My night ended at Bar The Clinic, which I picked mostly because it was down the road from dinner. It was a nice bar, with a more tourist-heavy crowd than Bar Bulnes the night before, with more of a classic bar/pub menu and drink selection. I returned to our hotel around 1:00, and not all that ready to leave Punta Arenas.
In the end, Punta Arenas is a strange town. It is the biggest city in this part of the world, certainly one of the few that have enough of an economy outside of tourism to survive independently. It is the largest gateway from a transport sense to this part of the world in Patagonia. But the main tourist attraction it houses, the expansive Torres del Paine and southern islands, aren't as stunningly picturesque as the places to come./ But the lasting sense and value of Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine really are its remoteness. I was further South than I probably will ever go, and that sense of unique isolation never escapes.
