Patagonia is the setting for some of the world's greatest adventures. Even if we don't know much about the area, its name dwells in our subconscious, whispering in our ear untold stories about this far corner of the world.
We imagine vast stretches of silent wilderness, tempestuous seas, and wind-blown loneliness.
The first Europeans to lay eyes on this land were led by Ferdinand Magellan, the first explorer to cross the perilous Straits that bear his name today. His expedition named the continent Land of the Patagons, or Big Feet, because of the large footprints they found in the snow, giving rise to the myth of a race of giant Patagonians. They saw the smoke of native fires darkening the southern horizon, so they named this region Tierra del Fuego, or the Land of Fire . Thus began the legend of Patagonia .
The indigenous groups that lived in Tierra del Fuego fully deserved to become legendary, being the world's first and greatest adventurers.
Their arrival in Tierra del Fuego was the final stop on the longest human migration ever. They had arrived at the end of the world, where the Andes sink into the sea and glaciers creep towards the shore.
With nowhere else to go, they stayed, fishing from their canoes along the coastline, gathering shellfish, and hunting guanacos and rheas (South American ostriches) on the pampas. Photographs from early in the century show a Stone Age culture where extremes had crystallized: It was the end of the road for history's longest wandering people.
Protected from the rain on the east side of the Andes , the Patagonian pampas are an enormous desert; some say it's one of the world's five largest.
On the west side of the Andes lies a different world. Here, both the Central Valley and the Coastal Range have dropped into the ocean. What were once glacial valleys are now fjords, and what were mountain peaks are now islands.
Erosion along the coast has exposed the sources of hot springs , while the huge glaciers continue to break up the landscape, making sea or air travel through the region a necessity. Large forests stretch over the Andes Mountains from the Pacific coast to the edge of the continent, crossed by winding emerald-green rivers that carry glacial sediment to the sea, creating a habitat for reckless trout and salmon.
This vast territory is really two separate regions divided by the Southern Ice Fields.
Northern Patagonia is one of the last great wilderness areas in the world. It is reached by a gravel road known as the Carretera Austral, the Austral, or Southern, Highway, completed in 1988. However, overland access to the road is not yet complete, and travelers on this Southern Highway must board several ferries to cross the mouths of the great fjords.
Here, the port of Chaitén provides access to the north end of the Austral Highway , where the rafting and fly fishing are among the best in the world, and visitors can take cruises to see the glaciers and island hot springs . Farther south lies the city of Coyhaique , the capital of the Aisén Region, an ideal spot for fly fishing and for organizing overland trips to the southern part of the Austral Highway , to General Carrera Lake , and the Ice Fields.
South of the Ice Fields, the Magallanes Region is a world apart, where vast expanses of pampas meet the snowy Andes peaks. Paine Towers National Park -a World Biosphere Reserve- is the most famous of all the conservation areas in the Magallanes Region, and protects ecosystems that provide habitats for guanacos, foxes, rheas (South American ostriches), and flamingoes. South of the national park lies Puerto Natales, the port for the ferries coming south from Puerto Montt. It is used as a base from which visitors take hikes, ride horses, board glacier cruises, go on overland excursions, and go kayaking or white water rafting.
Punta Arenas is the capital of the Magallanes Region. Across from the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego, Punta Arenas is the main starting point for cruises and flights to Tierra del Fuego, the Beagle Channel, Navarino Island , Cape Horn, and Antarctica .
