Navarino Island

Navarino Island. First destination.

The ship lays at anchor at Puerto Williams where we arrived late last night.

The southernmost town on Earth. Even though located just 30nm from Ushuaia, the settlement and the island as a whole get much less attention from tourists and visitors, remaining a wilder area in southern Patagonia.
A large Chilean Navy Base combined with a bit of tourism and the fishing industry keep the town alive. Also, due to its prime location at the southernmost tip of the Americas and the Cape Horn Archipelago, it attracts scientific projects and studies, housed by the University of Magellan and NGOs.

Environmental conservation efforts and sustainable development plans are always ongoing, framed by the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, of which the town is an important part. A UNESCO figure where the human population and its history are taken into account as part of the ecosystem.

From the island, looking southwards lies the Cape Horn archipelago, a maze of rocks, islets and islands at the end of the known world until the second half of the 16th Century.

To the north, the waterway that in the 1800s saw the HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Fitz Roy and with Charles Darwin aboard. A whole world with a history that dates back to 7,500 years ago when the native Yaghans, nomads of the seas, navigated its waters in their canoes made of Magellan’s beech bark, held together with animal tendons.

A species of tree that, despite being in use by the local population for thousands of years, was made known to the Europeans when in 1769 the naturalist Joseph Banks collected a specimen in Tierra del Fuego during Captain Cook’s first trip. A voyage on board the HMS Endeavour that circumnavigated the globe on a three-year scientific expedition. The main goal was to observe a transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti to collect data that helped to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun and with it the size of the solar system, which assisted in nautical navigation. An additional objective, outlined in secret orders, was the search for the most sought and legendary southern continent, Terra Australis. Antarctic lands that resisted his efforts and those of many others until the merchant Captain William Smith was blown off the Horn and discovered the South Shetland Islands in 1820.

We use the morning for a bit of a hike, first coming across a setup of cannons, tanks, amphibious vehicles. Military equipment left behind here in 1978 that now lies half hidden amongst the growing vegetation slowly claiming back the territory that once was the scenery of a war that actually never happened between two neighbouring countries.
A walk in the forest follows. Old trees covered in moss and bryophytes. From the canopy hang mistletoe and long “old man’s beard” lichens. The path is muddy, getting off it means a fight in an untouched mess of tangled fallen trunks and broken branches.

Apparently quite messy woods, which with a closer look reveal a pattern. Along the coastlines the dominant forests are dominated by the evergreen Coigüe (Nothofagus betuloides) together with other species like Canelo (Drymis winteri) and Leña dura (Maytenus magellanica). Inland and higher over the hills, occupying well-drained terrains, we find the deciduous, high and straight Lengas (Nothofagus pumilio). In swamps and up the mountains the tough Ñirres (Nothofagus antarctica) can be found.

Over the trunks of those species a profusion of callosities grows, a defense mechanism against the parasitic fungus Indian’s Bread (Cytaria darwinii), used by the natives as a supplement for a diet that was based mostly on seafood. None were found fresh on the trees at this time of the year, but on the ground some dry ones could be seen.

The afternoon we spend visiting the settlement and exploring its surroundings.

Puerto Williams was founded in 1953, originally as a Navy Base. Still at the present day, half of a population of over 2,000 inhabitants are from the Chilean Navy.

The picturesque small town differs substantially from the more populated, touristic Ushuaia. It is divided into sections, with the descendants of the native people mostly housed on the eastern side, and then the officials, researchers, permanent population and navy personnel occupying different zones. Not long ago, a Subantarctic Research Centre has been built as well. Modern facilities and space for exhibitions are available now for researchers that are interested in studying this area.

The bow of the ship “Yelcho” is now a sort of sculpture close to the settlement center, as a memory of her adventure down south under the command of Piloto Pardo. An expedition that finally could reach Elephant Island and rescue the men of the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton, who were stranded there for more than four months after one of the most famous Antarctic stories of struggle for survival.

Many fishing boats are alongside the town’s jetty or awaiting repairs out of the water. From here they depart and return with the loads of their main catch, the Centolla (King crab), but also scallops, hake, sea urchins and the algae Luga roja (Gigartina skottsbergii).

In town also there’s a couple of small supermarkets and shops, a post office and a few restaurants and bars. A cup of coffee at one of the few cafés is always welcomed, as it is also the chance for internet and phone connection for the last time in a few days.

Not much later than after dinner, the Europa heaves anchor and sets course westwards towards tomorrow’s destination. About 60nm away lies Caleta Olla.