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It dawns in the middle of a leaden darkness when the emotion of yesterday afternoon, when embarking in the Argentine city of Ushuaia , is revived. By public address they indicate wind in favor to disembark. On board the Ventus Australis , the only ship that crosses the Chilean Patagonia and Fuegian channels, we have sailed the Beagle Channel during the night to anchor in Caleta León, the most sheltered cove on the island of Hornos.
A small pier at the foot of volcanic rock cliffs welcomes the arrival of the zodiac to this island that houses the southernmost place on the planet, Cape Horn . The calm waters bless this landing in one of the most angry oceanic places, a wind blower where the Atlantic and Pacific waters converge. The rain does not stop our impulse to step on the end of the world and we ascend a narrow path until we reach a panoramic view of the upholstered island of peat bogs.
Without damaging this fragile wetland, we walk on a wooden walkway. To the right of the path a large metal albatross looks out to the ocean. The great sculpture of this seabird so characteristic of the southern sky pays tribute to the intrepid sailors who found a grave in these stormy waters. On the left, the mythical lighthouse that guided commercial ships for three centuries, until the Panama Canal changed the great oceanic routes.
To guarantee its operation in the face of storms, the lord Adam Otaiza is in charge. Together with his wife and two daughters, they are the only people inhabiting the southernmost place in the world. They welcome in several languages and give hospitality while the conversations overlap with the photos they request. "Even in a place where rain is a regular companion, climate change is already felt. It rains less and less, " says this environmental friend. Rainwater is essential for your day to day, although a ship of the Chilean Navy supplies them every month.
Back on board the VentusAustralis , built in 2017, the northbound navigation becomes light and cheerful. It seems that the ship wanted to get away from the dreaded freezing cape. It does not take long to anchor in the beautiful bay or Caleta Wulaia, like the Yámanas Indians, nomadic inhabitants of the Fuegian channels, they named this calm cove of the Navarino Island , which they went seasonally to collect wild fruits and fish.
Its mountainous profile can be conquered in a trekking accompanied by the expert guides of the cruise. His reward is the first contact with the great trees of the Patagonian cold forest. Southern beech and lengas embrace the path that culminates over the bay with a breathtaking panorama.
We descend again to reach the beach, where the old radio station now houses a museum. Here the yámana life is revealed rooted in the natural right to take what is found in its surroundings, which caused serious confrontations with the colonizers. Ventus Australis's counterpart Sergio Ruiz, an artisanal fisherman from Valdivia, has been in the company for 22 years. In command of the sailors of the ship and the maintenance of the boats he remembers one of his men, a yámana who did not take pride in his culture. Not so her children, the last indigenous who defend her as a sign of identity: "I am and will be a yámana."
No chapter of the southern exploration can light up so much with its landscapes like the Darwin mountain range , the spectacular end of the American continent, north of the Beagle Channel, where the Andes end. Between its peaks there is an ice field of 2,300 km2 that descends to the edge of the fjords.
Although the first impression is unique, from the ship you can see more than six glaciers at the time during the crossing on the Avenida de los Glaciares. Among them, the Pía stands out, with figures of vertigo: in the middle of Agostini National Park, it culminates its 20 kilometers in length and more than 100 meters in height with immense blocks of ice of an intense blue and thousands of years old.
It shakes to hear the rivers of the thaw, hidden among the glacial cracks. Or have the Garibaldi glacier practically at your fingertips from the upper deck of the ship, operated with expertise and agility. The mountains surround us in the heart of Agostini, where other glaciers like the Eagle or the Condor, which takes its name from the flock of birds that fly over it.
"It is surrounded by great beauty and high mountains covered with snow. I think there is no more beautiful country in the world ..." So described the Strait of Magellan the Italian noble Antonio Pigafetta , crew of the expedition that offered his pen to narrate this adventure in search of a new commercial route to spices.
The dawn of the fifth day surprises Australis in the wide passage of 558 kilometers that the spherical world made. We have entered the Strait of Magellan . A magnificent brooch in the south of the American continental mass where Punta Arenas stands out, a city that reached its splendor by supplying coal and food to the ships that arrived at its port. Meanwhile, the Magellanic penguins that supplied the two naos' need for food five hundred years ago still inhabit Magdalena Island.
A nature reserve protected by the Conaf (National Forestry Corporation) in which the veterinarian Cristina Godoy works for its preservation. Not without alarm, because "of the 40,000 couples censored a decade ago there are 12,000 left , the climatic alteration has a good fault and the penguins no longer choose the island to nest and travel further south." To those landscapes that we will not forget: the most southern and unaltered Patagonia has been recorded in our memory.
PRACTICAL GUIDE
How to get. Iberia, with Latam Airlines and Aerolineas Argentinas, fly with stops to Punta Arenas and Ushuaia.
Crossing. Five-day cruises from September to April. Australis's ships have a hundred cabins, all with windows and views. Rates include visits, meals and drinks. From 1,400 euros.
More information. In Australis and in 93 497 0484.
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