From the southernmost mainland of South America, we can drive a few kilometers further south with our campervan Ben. Not that far compared to the length of the entire continent of South America, but still a few hundred kilometers. From Punta Arenas, a ferry takes us directly across to Porvenir on Tierra del Fuego. We are really looking forward to the southernmost section of our journey.

An auspicious name – Tierra del Fuego

We’ve already heard a lot about Tierra del Fuego. And thanks to its special name, we had always hoped for a special landscape or geological peculiarities. None of this corresponds to the historical record. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to sail through the Strait of Magellan, saw many fires on the southern island, which is now called Tierra del Fuego, from the strait. Quite simply, he named this land mass Tierra del Fuego after this observation.
The landscape of Tierra del Fuego is naturally beautiful: lots of steppe, few trees except in the south-easternmost part of the island and rugged mountains with snowfields in between. There’s something special about that, but you can find similar landscapes further up in Patagonia, which we already know a bit about.

King penguin reserve

On the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, about 2.5 hours south-east of Porvenir, there is a king penguin colony. The king penguins otherwise live in isolation on hard-to-reach islands in the middle of the sea. In contrast, visiting the king penguins here on the Baha Inútil is downright simple. To protect the animals, visits to the colony are only permitted under the supervision of a park ranger and with a reservation in order to limit the number of visitors and prevent them from encroaching too much on the king penguins’ habitat. We can view the king penguins from around 15-20 meters, but it feels like more. The characteristic yellow markings on the side of the head and at the top of the chest give this penguin species its familiar appearance. And the surroundings are also perfect. There is a small river behind the embankment to the sea where they can roll around in the water despite the change of feathers and the food sources are right on their doorstep in the Magellan Strait. As a result, the colony is gradually growing – hopefully or perhaps precisely because of the conservation efforts of the national park.
We take a few souvenir photos and are soon on our way again – right across Tierra del Fuego.

Fin de Camino

The route takes us to the southernmost point we can reach on the Argentinian side of Tierra del Fuego. At just under 55°S, we find ourselves at the end of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere with a magnificent view over the Beagle Channel. Perhaps we will soon be sailing through the Beagle Channel with an Antarctic expedition. In search of even more south in South America. The only guarantee at the moment is that nothing is guaranteed. We will report from Ushuaia whether we can make the exciting additional loop to Antarctica or whether all places are fully booked.