The "Land of Fire": Tierra del Fuego

Red fox along road, Reserva Nacional Laguna Parrillar, Chile.

I left Torres del Paine after my time-lapse shoot, but as usual, I was not alone. I actually picked up a special hitchhiker at Laguna Azul, Poshun from Taiwan. He has been on the rode, on his bicycle, since 2014 (I think), and we met that last morning while I was shooting my time-lapse sequence of the torres across the lake. We chatted, and the next thing you know, we were loading his bike, panniers, and the rest of his gear into my Sprinter. He rode with me (avoiding a couple of nasty hills) to a cross-road in the park, I was heading south to Puerto Natales, while he was going to bike north a bit in the park, and camp one more night before also heading to Puerto Natales. I told him where I might try and stay, but you just never know about these things until you actually get to a town. So he heading back into the park, and I headed to Puerto Natales, had to get back on the road, heading south. I hoped that I would see him again, great guy, and very interesting. The only time in a couple of years that he went back to Taiwan was for his sister's wedding, otherwise, he has been traveling the world on his bike.

I headed south, to Puerto Natales, again, and stayed three nights there, two in a nice little hostal, the Tree House Hostal, and one night camping (i.e., sleeping in my van in a driveway), at Plum Tree Camping. Puerto Natales is a nice little town, right on the Golfo Almte. Montt, and as it is a jumping-off point for many heading north to Torres del Paine, it is full of tourists, and is a busy little town. I had some time to bike and explore, and work on the blog. I also met some interesting folks, as usual, including Eric from California, who had ridden a motorcycle all the way from Alaska, heading to Ushuaia, and who knows where else, and a mother and her daughter from DC (really from everywhere as her husband is career military, a Marine, in the USA), very nice people. Next, I continued south, to Punta Arenas, and as usual, I picked up a couple of hitchhikers along the way, couple of young Chilean girls heading to Punta Arenas to visit some friends. I tried to visit a penguinera along the way, it would be my first time seeing Magellanic penguins, a species which I had not yet seen. I started down the road to the Colonia de Pinguino Seno Otway, but some locals stopped me, told me the colony was gone, area closed, mostly due to dogs, damn dogs. I was not happy, just too many damn dogs in South America, they are everywhere, and now, they are clearly impacting the biodiversity of the area, not good. I ended up camping (libre = for free) at a municipal campground north of town, Camping Chabunco, sad place, garbage everywhere, though many sites stretch along the road, right along the coast. One night there was enough. Next night, headed south of town to Reserva Nacional Laguna Parrillar, though not much to do there unless you want to fish. I did fish that evening, tried fishing in the lake, just not what I was prepared for, and fishing in a small stream which meandered below the campsite where I was, was also not productive, just could not get anything interested in anything I tossed out there, assuming there were fish in stream. There are really only two hikes, one a loop, Sendero Chorrillo Hermoso, and a trail along the laguna, Sendero El Nono, one, the loop, in the park. I did the loop hike after fishing, and then hike the Sendero El Nono the other the next morning before I left. The road to get to the reserve was another rough stretch of ripio, plus, much of the landscape completed denuded, all trees were cut, now just open fields filled with stumps. It was here where I really started to try and think what these places should look like, what vegetation should be here, especially in southern Chile and next, on Tierra del Fuego. The name of the Reserve is taken from the name of a once common shrub, the Magellanic currant shrub, part of what is called the lenga forest (Nothofagus pumilio) and which includes Magellanic coihue (Nothofagus betuloides). The genus, Nothofagus, or southern beech, dominates the forest on the south here, with a number of different species which were once common on low forests which dominated the area. Now, most forests are gone, cut to clear land for raising sheep, which are everywhere, especially in Chilean Tierra del Fuego. The few forests which do remain are interesting, though this far south, there is not much diversity, either for plants, or animals.

After my brief stay in the Reserve, I explored a bit before heading north into Punta Arenas. I was not impressed, just a busy town, a bit old and disheveled, with a busy port. I stayed two nights at a hostal, Hostal Adventura Austral, only to get organized, do some shopping (food), and work on the blog. I caught a late ferry across the Estrecho de Magallanes ("Strait of Magellen") to Porvenir, the only settlement of any size on Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, and the provincial capital. I had left Patagonia, and was now in new territory, Tierra del Fuego.

Tierra del Fuego, known as the "Land of Fire", is an archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America, and the main island is called Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego, or just Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego is divided into both Chilean (62%) and Argentinian (3%) territory, though some islands have been disputed for years. My eventual goal was to get to Ushuaia, the southernmost "city" in the world, and a point in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Argentina, known as the Fin del Mundo, the "End of the World".

As the ferry got in late, I wild camped by the lighthouse outside of Porvenir, nice quiet place to hang out for the night. The next day, after a quick stop in town (where I met a nice Italian guy, would see him later along the road leading to Tierra del Fuego National Park west of Ushuaia), headed for a newly established king penguin colony not that far away, the only king penguin colony that I am aware of found in Tierra del Fuego, or anywhere outside of the islands of the Subantarctic, such as South Georgia Island. I picked up more hitchhikers at the edge of town, two young Swiss women heading to the penguin colony as well. The road sucked again, took over two hours to drive the 80 km to the colony. The colony, Campo de Los Pinguinos, is just outside of Onaisin, and the colony is small, with only about 50 birds as far as I could see. They charged each of us $12,000 pesos, and you were not allowed to get close, I think we were well over 50 meters away, so really not much to see. It was cool to see king penguins, again, but it will take many years for the colony to grow, and make for a better viewing experience.

I wild camped again, along a stream just up the road from the colony. Tried fishing that evening, and again the next morning, but it was too windy, which is pretty much the case most days on Tierra del Fuego. I next headed down the road, all more ripio of course, to Cameron, then east to Russfin, where I fished the Russfin River, through Rio Grande, where I also fished the famous Rio Grande River, before heading to Lago Blanco. The fishing was tough, just too windy for me and my light tackle. I did get some interest in the Russfin River, but just could not keep my fly on the water, wind kept blowing, picking the fly right out off the water, just crazy. The drive was not that bad, considering the fact that it was all ripio, dirt and gravel. And you are immediately struck by the desolate nature of the landscape on Tierra del Fuego, especially in Chile. Though it appears desolate, that does not mean that there is no life, as I think there are a billion sheep on Chilean Tierra del Fuego, they were everywhere. So again I wonder, what would this place have looked like before Europeans arrived and cut all the Southern beech forests down to graze sheep, and the occasional cattle? What is Tierra del Fuego "supposed to look like"? How beautiful might this place before "BE", "before Europeans" arrived? I do wonder, and am curious if much native vegetation exists anywhere in Tierra del Fuego, outside of a few small patches of woodlands preserved by chance, or the rare protected area or park. I do wonder.

The road to Lago Blanco was nice, lots of scraggly trees so characteristic of vegetation here, constantly buffeted by the wind. And the lake, was very beautiful, but wind was brutal. I hiked and biked a bit that afternoon before dinner, others showed up, including some fellow overlanders, both vehicles containing Swiss couples. I chatted with the younger Swiss couple the next day, always interesting to talk to others on the road, good source of information. I was now heading back into Argentina, driving east to Rio Grande, before then heading south and west to Ushuaia, 54 degrees South latitude.

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