Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Tierra del Fuego &
Antarctica
by Christie Pashby
This is the end of the world. It's a
place cut off fr om everywhere else, facing
south to ward the stormy waters of the
Drake P assage, Cape H orn, and ulti-
mately, Antarctica. It's a magical and allur-
ing location that continues to draw
lower eastern coast, and the rest belongs to
Chile.
Vast sheep
estancias
(ranch farms) to the
north co ver a r olling tundra of br own
furze and isolated farmhouses. H ere the
wide, meandering Río G rande holds the
biggest sea brown trout in the world, mak-
ing it a mecca for fly fishers. Farther south,
the land rises into for ests of beech tr ees
and wind-chopped lakes. The sno w-
flecked summits of the Andes giv e way to
the bustling pioneer to wn of U shuaia.
Here you'll find an eclectic mix of resettled
Argentines and silver-haired European and
American bab y boomers stopping off on
cruises bound for Antarctica.
They also come for rich coastal wildlife,
stunning views, the best seafood in Argen-
tina, and off-season skiing beneath hang-
ing glaciers.
Just when y ou think y ou can go no far-
ther, you remember that another continent
lies farther south. If you're lucky enough to
have Antarctica as your final destination, it's
from Ushuaia that you get there.
tourists. F our hundr ed y ears hav e passed
since Ferdinand Magellan cast his ey es on
the dar k headlands, silv er shor es, and
craggy peaks of Tierra del F uego. As he
sailed past, flames blaz ed in the dar kness
along the coastline—bonfir es lit b y the
Yamanas tribe—inspiring him to name
the place “Land of F ire.” Since then, this
wind-swept island, washed b y the M agel-
lan straits to the nor th and B eagle Chan-
nel to the south, has witnessed a rich
parade of shipwrecks, penal colonies, gold
prospectors, and missionaries. The Yama-
nas hav e disappear ed, but Chile and
Argentina have repopulated the area, while
conducting a bad-temper ed tug of war
over its icy inlets and penguin-populated
rocks. This wild, r omantic island is no w
divided in two: Argentina contr
ols the
1
USHUAIA
461km (286 miles) SW of Punta Arenas; 594km (368 miles) S of Río Gallegos
Pinned snugly in a U-shaped co ve facing the B eagle Channel, U shuaia is a substantial
metropolis of 70,000 people. Color ful clapboard houses with rickety stair cases and cor-
rugated roofs at impossible angles are punctuated by the occasional bland block of brick
or concrete. All rise steeply into a backdr op of beech trees and spirelike mountain sum-
mits. N ot only is it the most southerly city in the world (Chile 's P uerto Williams is
actually far ther south, but har dly qualifies as a city), but it also has the distinction of
