At the far tip of South America lies a magical area of snow-capped craggy peaks, sapphire-blue lakes and massive glaciers. Known as Patagonia, this region includes the southern Andes as well as the steppes and grasslands to the east. The area boasts a multitude of islands, including the large island of Tierra del Fuego which makes up much of Argentine Patagonia. This thinly inhabited region is home to a variety of wildlife including large colonies of penguins.
The centerpiece of any visit to Patagonia is a cruise around Cape Horn. While cruising the same routes navigated by Magellan, Drake, and other early explorers, you can't help but imagine what it must have been like to cross those treacherous waters in a wooden sailing ship less than 100 feet long. We opted to book with the Australis line which runs three or four-day "adventure" cruises between Punta Arenas in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina.
Travel Tips
Patagonia
• Booking Your Trip: Both National Geographic and Overseas Adventure Travel offer organized tours that follow an itinerary similar to the one we followed. But you can arrange your own trip online. We used Tripmaster (which used to be known as Latin Destinations) to arrange the cruise, lodging, internal flights, and Perito Moreno glacier tour. But we purchased all our other tours after arriving in each town, and I’d recommend doing the same.
• Packing: Our winter is summer in South America. But even in summer high temperatures in Patagonia are usually only in the 40s and 50s, and the constant winds make it seem colder than it is. Pack so you can dress in layers and be sure to include a water and wind-resistant jacket. If you plan to take a cruise be sure to bring waterproof boots and rain pants. Check weight limits on all flights before packing, as some of the regional carriers serving the area have lower limits than those on international flights.
• Changing money: In Chile you’ll get your best deal using your debit card at an ATM. But in Argentina you’ll do better at a change shop. In Ushuaia the downtown casino also will change money. But be aware that currency changers want only crisp, clean bills – no tears, crumpled corners or ink stains.
Punta Arenas is a charming city on the Strait of Magellan with a tree-filled square at its heart. The capital of the Chilean province of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic, this city of about 125,000 inhabitants was founded in 1843. During the late 1800s and early 1900s waves of immigrants settled in the area, attracted by a gold rush and a sheep ranching boom. Settlers came from Spain, Croatia, Germany, England, Ireland, Switzerland and Italy. So you'll find restaurants offering menus influenced by these varied European cuisines.
The vast wealth created by the sheep and cattle ranches of the 19th century can be seen in the mansions of the Braun, Nogueria, and Menéndez families. Today three of their grand homes serve as the city hall, a regional history museum, and a combination historic house, hotel, and civic club. A second regional museum, the Salesian Museum, offers both historical and natural history exhibits.
If you want to include a visit to the Torres del Paine National Park, allow at least three nights in Punta Arenas, with one day set aside for a full-day tour to the park. The Magellanic penguin colony at Magdalena Island also is a must see item during a stay in Punta Arenas. You can visit a smaller penguin colony at nearby Otway Sound, but it is well worth the ferry ride to Magdalena Island to see the much larger colony there.
At the end of our last day in Punta Arenas we boarded the Stella Australis. The next day we went ashore at Ainsworth Bay to hike across the tundra and through the evergreen beech forest. That afternoon we took to the Zodiacs to view cormorants, penguins, and elephant seals on the Tuckers Islets. On day two we visited an overlook of the Pia Glacier and then relaxed in the main lounge as the ship passed through a portion of the Beagle Channel known as "Glacier Alley." Each glacier named for a European nation was accompanied by country-themed food and drink.
Day three brought the highlight of the cruise -- setting foot on Cape Horn. But first we visited Wulaia Bay, where we learned about Charles Darwin's 1832-33 visit to Patagonia on the HMS Beagle. In the afternoon we waited in our life vests while the crew went out to gauge the wind and waves. Finally came the word we had been waiting for -- the captain had given the OK to send us ashore. It was cloudy and sleeting and the wind literally blew some of us off the boardwalk that leads up to the monument on the highest point of Cape Horn. But none of that deterred us from making the climb.
Our cruise ended at the port city of Ushuaia. This town of nearly 60,000 people, called "the southernmost city in the world," is deserving of a three-night stay. Brace yourself against the winds and get out and explore this town founded in the mid-1800s by British missionaries. In the late 1800s Argentina tried a number of schemes to increase population in the area, including building a large prison what operated from 1896 to 1947. Today that prison is a museum that deals with maritime history, Antarctic exploration, marine art, and the history of the prison itself.
Ushuaia is the departure port for most of the cruises to Antarctica and the business streets are lined with tour agencies and outfitters where you can buy or rent gear for a trip even further south. In the parks and residential areas you'll find spectacular gardens with enormous lupines and rose bushes with blossoms the size of small plates. The town also is home to an Argentine naval station, and you'll find a number of monuments and signs that make it very clear that to the Argentines the Falklands are still the Malvinas and still Argentine!
While in Ushuaia you'll want to book a day trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park. A ride on the old train that took prisoners to cut wood in forests is an optional part of the tour. In the national park you'll find waterfalls, lakes, forests, mountains, and glaciers. Another popular stop in Argentine Patagonia is El Calafate. Best known for the Perito Moreno glacier, El Calafate is considerably smaller than Ushuaia. We spent three nights there and filled in our last day with a tour of a sheep ranch, but two nights would be sufficient to see the glacier and get a feel for the town.
If you follow this itinerary, you will not only have explored Patagonia pretty thoroughly, but you also will be able to check off two more of those 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: Perito Moreno and Glaciers National Park and Torres Del Paine National Park. So next winter, think Patagonia!
Gaye Bland was for many years the director of the Rogers Historical Museum. Now retired, she will occasionally report on her travels for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
NAN Our Town on 05/14/2015