Punta Arenas and Ushuaia

After my trek in Torres del Paine I headed a few hours south to Punta Arenas, also in Chile. The city itself is not that attractive and fairly business-y, but I did get to go to a nature reserve to see penguins!

Next I crossed the border back into Argentina to Ushuaia, hyped up as the southernmost city in the world. Ushuaia is located on Tierra del Fuego, which I learned is the biggest island in South America and also the last inhabitated place on earth. It didn't feel like an island seeing as it's so big, but we did get to cross the Strait of Magellan by ferry to get there. Ushuaia sits on the edge of the Beagle Channel, so named for the HMS Beagle boat that Captain Fitz Roy sailed along with Charles Darwin. As important as many of Darwin's theories are, he had strong opinions about the superiority of certain human beings over others. During this voyage of the Beagle, Darwin and Fitz Roy were returning three Fuegians that they had captured and "civilized" in England. Of one of these Fuegians, Darwin remarked, "It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here." Just what was needed: more people to exploit the native peoples living in the area. The main indigenous groups were the Selk'nam (Ona), Yaghan (Yamana), Aonikenk (Tehuelche), Kaweskar (Alcalufes), and Manekenk (Haush), some being land dwellers and some canoe dwellers. When missionaries and other colonists arrived things went downhill, to say the least. Between hunting the local animals (primary food source), bringing new diseases, and s, they caused the indigenous peoples to cease to exist. Today there are only a handful of descendents. It was interesting to learn about the history of Tierra del Fuego and hike around the national park which the indigenous peoples once inhabited.

Right now I'm in Buenos Aires and will post about that soon. It was a big change going from Patagonia to this huge city, but I've gotten in my groove and am having a fun time!