Page 263 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Argentina

A r gen T in A regi O n b y regi O n  261

tierra del fuego

and antarctica

The remote archipelago of Tierra del Fuego really does feel like
el fin del mundo – the end of the world – where the great Andean
mountain range finally meets the sea. Only the continent of Antarctica
lies beyond, and the area serves as the main jumping-off point for
intrepid travelers eager to glimpse this sparkling, shifting mass of
blue and white ice, the world’s last great wilderness.

Tierra del Fuego is separated from the rest Darwin, before Anglican missionaries
of South America by the Strait of Magellan. became the first outsiders to settle the
The archipelago consists of a main island, region in 1871, near the present-day city
Isla Grande, and a group of smaller islands. of Ushuaia. Sheep farmers followed,
Its land mass is divided equally between together with further missionaries in the
Argentina and Chile, the border between form of the Salesians of Don Bosco, who
the two countries running from the Strait established their mission near what is now
in the north to Canal Beagle in the south. Río Grande, the region’s biggest city.
The Strait is named for Portuguese Antarctica, the world’s coldest and driest
explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who continent, sits 620 miles (1,000 km) across
became the first European to discover the Drake Passage from Ushuaia. For
the archipelago, in 1520. He called it centuries a source of mystery – the ancient
Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) for the Greeks thought it a populated and fertile
numerous fires he witnessed along its land, only blocked by monsters – the
coastline, warning signals from one continent was not discovered until the
indigenous tribe to another that 1820s. Today, Antarctica is experiencing a
something unusual had arrived. tourist boom, with up to 30,000 visitors
The Selknam, Kaweskar, Manekenk, drawn each year to its silent world of
and Yámana tribes would later draw the icebergs and glaciers, a haven for an
attention of English naturalist Charles astonishing array of marine fauna.

Cormorants crowding the rocks on an island in Canal Beagle, near Ushuaia
Ice cave formed by collapse of a glacial wall

AR_260_AD321_TierraIntro.indd 261 15/08/2014 10:58