Across the Strait of Magellan from mainland Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego is a land of windswept bleakness, whose settlements seem to huddle with their backs against the elements: cold winters, cool summers, gales in the spring, frost in the autumn. Yet this remote and rugged archipelago, tucked away at the foot of South America, exercises a fascination over many travellers. Some look to follow in the footsteps of the region’s famous explorers, such as Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin or Bruce Chatwin. Others just want to see what it’s like at the very end of the world. While it may be expensive, fast-developing and time-consuming to reach, Tierra del Fuego offers up an easily accessible national park, epic mountain scenery, diverse wildlife, a truly fascinating history, and an array of outdoor activities – from hiking and skiing to boat trips and dog-sledding. There’s nowhere else quite like it.
What to see in Tierra del Fuego
Though comprising a number of islands, Tierra del Fuego is more or less the sum of its most developed part, Isla Grande, the biggest island in South America. Its eastern section, roughly a third of the island, along with a few islets, belongs to Argentina – the rest is Chilean territory. The major destination for visitors is the Argentine city of Ushuaia, a year-round resort on the south coast. Beautifully located, backed by distinctive jagged mountains, it is the base for visiting the tremendous Beagle Channel, rich in marine wildlife, and the wild, forested peaks of the Cordillera Darwin. With the lakes, forests and tundra of Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego just 12km to the west, and historic Estancia Harberton, home to descendants of Thomas Bridges, an Anglican missionary who settled here in 1871, a short excursion from the city, you could easily spend a week or so in the area.Lago Fagnano, and the village of Tolhuin at its eastern end, is the main focus of the island’s central area, which is of considerably greater interest than the windswept plains and scrubby coirón grasslands in the north. The southeastern chunk of Isla Grande, Península Mitre, is one of Argentina’s least accessible regions, a boggy wilderness with low scrub and next to no human habitation, while, to its east, lies the mysterious Isla de los Estados, known in English as Staten Island. It is an extremely difficult area to visit, even more than the great white continent of Antarctica, which can be reached from Ushuaia – at a price.
Brief history of Tierra del Fuego
The earliest known human settlement in Tierra del Fuego was around 8000 BC, and a number of distinct – and sophisticated – societies lived here at the start of the 1500s. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, in his attempt to be first to circumnavigate the globe, sailed through the strait. which was later named after him and saw clouds of smoke rising from numerous fires lit by the indigenous Selk’nam along the coast of Isla Grande. He called the land Tierra del Humo (Land of Smoke); it was the king of Spain who thought Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) would be more poetic. Early contact between indigenous groups and other European explorers was sporadic from then on, but this changed dramatically in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with tragic results. When Robert FitzRoy came here in the Beagle in the 1830s, an estimated three to four thousand Selk’nam and Mannekenk were living in Isla Grande, with some three thousand each of Yámana and Kawéskar in the entire southern archipelago. By the 1930s all four groups were virtually extinct, largely due to introduced diseases such as measles, and aggression from settlers.Missionaries and sheep farmers
White settlement came to Tierra del Fuego in three phases. Anglican missionaries began to catechize the Yámana in the south, and Thomas Bridges established the first permanent mission on Ushuaia Bay in 1871. From the late 1880s, the Italian Roman Catholic Salesian Order began a similar process to the north of the Fuegian Andes. From the mid-1890s came a new colonizing impetus: the inauspicious-looking northern plains proved to be ideal sheep-farming territory, and vast latifundias (estates) sprang up. Croat, Scottish, Basque, Italian and Galician immigrants, along with Chileans, arrived to work on the estancias and build up their own landholdings.Border disputes
The international border, as elsewhere along the Argentina–Chile boundary, has been a contentious issue over the years. Frontier disputes at the end of the nineteenth century required the arbitration of Great Britain, who in 1902 awarded Argentina the eastern section of Tierra del Fuego; land squabbles were still going on over eighty years later, the two countries almost coming to war in 1984 over three islands in the Beagle Channel. This time Pope John Paul II had to intervene, and gave the islands to Chile. A cordial peace has reigned since. In 1991, the Argentine sector gained full provincial status and is known as the Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur. Its jurisdiction is seen to extend over all southern territories, including the Islas Malvinas/Falklands Islands, which lie 550km off the coast, and a segment of Antarctica.Tierra del Fuego today
Tierra del Fuego’s economy depends on the production of petroleum and the natural gas, fisheries, forestry and technological industries, this last attracted by the area’s status as a duty-free zone. Tourism, centred on Ushuaia, also plays a major role, and continues to expand. Luxury items are comparatively inexpensive (for Argentina), but basic items such as food cost much more than in other parts of the country.Best time to visit Tierra del Fuego
The majority of the region’s visitors arrive during the summer (Dec–Feb), when places such as Ushuaia can get very busy. The best time to visit is between late March and the end of April, when the mountains and hills are daubed with the spectacular autumnal colours of the Nothofagus southern beech. Springtime (Oct to mid-Nov) is also beautiful, if rather windy. For winter sports, you need to head for Ushuaia between June and August; the area is good for cross-country skiing, especially around Sierra Alvear, though the downhill facilities are best suited to beginners and intermediates. The climate here is generally not as severe as you may expect, and temperatures rarely reach the extremes of mainland continental areas of Patagonia, though you’ll need to be prepared for blizzards and icy winds at any time of year.Getting around Tierra del Fuego
Ushuaia is Tierra del Fuego’s undisputed transport hub, with bus services to destinations throughout the region, a busy airport, and a dock served by numerous boats and ships. A car can be useful for reaching some of the more remote places.Top cultural attractions in Tierra del Fuego
We’ve selected five of the best attractions Tierra del Fuego has to offer visitors.- Flying in to UshuaiaThe city’s dramatic location – wedged between the tail end of the Andes and the Beagle Channel – makes this a landing to remember.
- Fresh king crab
Plucked straight from the Beagle Channel, centolla appears on menus throughout Ushuaia, and is delicious in soups, baked in its shell or simply grilled.
- Wildlife in the Beagle Channel
Spot albatrosses and sea lions, terns and whales as you brave the elements on a boat trip through this stunningly beautiful, mountain-fringed waterway.
- Parque Nacional Tierra del FuegoParakeets and hummingbirds are some of the surprising inhabitants of this national park, which spans 630 square kilometres of mountains, lakes, forests and tundra.
- Estancia Harberton
Get a unique insight into the life of some of the earliest European settlers – and their interactions with the local indigenous communities – at Estancia Harberton.
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, 12km west of Ushuaia, is the easiest to access of southern Argentina’s national parks. Protecting 630 square kilometres of jagged mountains, intricate lakes, southern beech forest, swampy peat bog, subantarctic tundra and verdant coastline, the park stretches along the frontier with Chile, from the Beagle Channel to the Sierra Inju-Goiyin (also called the Sierra Beauvoir) north of Lago Fagnano, but only the southernmost quarter of this is open to the public, accessed via the RN-3 from Ushuaia. Fortunately, this area contains much of the park’s most beautiful scenery, if also some of the wettest – bring rain gear.The quarter is broken down into three main sectors: Bahía Ensenada and Río Pipo in the east, close to the station for the Tren del Fin del Mundo; Lago Roca further west; and the Lapataia area south of Lago Roca, which includes Laguna Verde and, at the end of the RN-3, Bahía Lapataia. You can get a good overview of the park in a day, but walkers will want to stay two to three days to appreciate the scenery and the wildlife, which includes birds such as Magellanic woodpeckers (Carpintero patagónico), condors, Steamer ducks, Kelp geese – the park’s symbol – and Buff-necked ibis; and mammals such as the guanaco, the rare Southern sea otter (Nutria marina), the Patagonian grey fox and its larger cousin, the native Fuegian red fox, once heavily hunted for its pelt.
Getting to Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
By boat
There are limited boat services running to the park from Ushuaia, usually going to Bahía Lapataia as part of a combined boat-and-bus tour – enquire at the Muelle Turístico.By bus
Minibuses shuttle throughout the day from the stand at Maipú and Fadul, to various points in the park; services are reduced, sometimes halted, during the colder months. There are also services to the Tren del Fin del Mundo station.By train
The world’s most southern railway, the Tren del Fin del Mundo, chugs its way through woodland meadows and alongside the Río Pipo to the park station, 2km from the main gate. Used to transport wood in the days of the penal colony, it’s now little more than a tourist toy train. The main station is 8km west of Ushuaia on the road to the national park; take a bus or a taxi (about $1000).By taxi
A taxi from Ushuaia costs $1350–1650 one way, depending on where you want to be dropped off; a return trip with three hours’ waiting time costs around $3350.Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego information and tours
The park is open daily 8am–8pm (shorter hours in winter). Entrance is $420; if you plan to visit again the next day, let the park staff know, and you won’t have to pay twice. They can provide a simple map of the park’s trails, as well as info on its attractions. There’s also a visitor centre, the Alakush, with a restaurant on the Ruta 3, near the western end of the Senda Costera.Virtually all travel agencies in Ushuaia offer park tours (around $1500, plus entrance fee); most last 4hr and stop at all the major places of interest.
Accommodation in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
There are four main camping areas: the two nearest the entrance, Río Pipo and Bahía Ensenada, are free, but you’re better off heading to Lago Roca and Laguna Verde, in the more exciting western section of the park. The best-equipped site is Camping Lago Roca; there are also three free sites on Archipiélago Cormoranes – Camping Las Bandurrias, Camping Laguna Verde and Camping Los auquenes – which just edge it for beauty.Camping Lago Roca
This site sits near picturesque Lago Roca and is the only one with facilities, including a cafeteria. There’s also a refugio with dorm beds and a couple of self-contained cabañas.Central and northern Tierra del Fuego
The second-largest settlement in Tierra del Fuego, Río Grande is also the only town of significance in Isla Grande’s central and northern sector. The sterile-looking plains that surround it harbour fields of petroleum and natural gas that generate millions of dollars of wealth annually, with huge quantities of gas transported each year to Ushuaia and as far away as Buenos Aires. North of town, the RN-3 runs through monotonous scenery towards San Sebastián, where you cross the border into Chile or continue north on a dead-end route to the mouth of the Magellan Straits at Cabo Espíritu Santo. On the way to Río Grande from Ushuaia, the RN-3 winds up to Paso Garibaldi, where you have majestic views over Lago Escondido, and then bypasses Tolhuin, crossing the woodland scenery of the central region. This stretch is marked by a string of ripio branch roads, the rutas complementarias, which wiggle away from the RN-3; those headed west take you to a couple of fine estancias, and those headed east into the Península Mitre, the windswept land that forms Isla Grande’s desolate tip.One of the northern region’s principal tourist draws is its world-class trout-fishing, especially for sea-running brown trout, which on occasion swell to weights in excess of 14kg. The river, also named Río Grande, currently holds several fly-fishing world records for brown trout caught with various breaking strains of line. The mouths of the Río Fuego and Río Ewan can also be spectacularly fruitful, as can sections of the Malengüeña, Irigoyen, Claro and Turbio rivers, and lakes Yehuin and Fagnano.
Estancia Harberton
Patagonia’s most historic estancia, Estancia Harberton is an ordered assortment of whitewashed buildings on the shores of a sheltered bay. Though Harberton is assuredly scenic, it’s the historical resonance of the place that fleshes out a visit: this farmstead – or more particularly the family who settled here – played a role out of all proportion to its size in the region’s history. It was built by Reverend Thomas Bridges, the man who authored one of the two seminal Fuegian texts, the Yámana–English Dictionary, and was the inspiration for the other, Lucas Bridges’ classic, Uttermost Part of the Earth. Apart from being a place where scientists and shipwrecked sailors were assured assistance, Harberton developed into a sanctuary of refuge for groups of Yámana and Mannekenk.Today the estancia is owned by Tommy Goodall, a great-grandson of Thomas Bridges, and is open to guided tours that take in the copse on the hill, where you learn about the island’s plant life, authentic reconstructions of Yámana dwellings, the family cemetery and the old shearing shed. Housed in a building at the entrance to the farmstead is an impressive marine-mammal museum, Museo Acatushún, which displays the remains of all the main families of such animals – whales, dolphins, seals and the like – found in the surrounding waters.