In the year 1584 the explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founded a settlement in the southernmost tip of the American continent which he called Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, in honor of its sponsor, the monarch Felipe II. The location in the center of the Strait of Magellan could not have been worse chosen: it is a stony place, beaten by the wind, shrouded in mist and dotted with sparse and stingy vegetation that did not bear any edible fruit. It is not surprising that the place became depopulated over time and came to be called in a much more accurate way: Puerto del Hambre.
There are not many travelers who today come to that place. In it, however, the traces of the first colonization attempt by non-aboriginal people in this area of ??the extreme south of Chile are still preserved. The ruins of the original fort remain, and some stone walls that barely raise two handspans from the ground. A monument with a plaque eaten away by lichens speaks of the “unfortunate Spaniards who suffered and perished” without food to eat.
There is only one way to get to Puerto del Hambre: from the city of Punta Arenas, which was the direct result of the evacuation of the first place. A relatively comfortable road, close to the sea for 60 kilometers, joins both historical points.
In the struggle between Chileans and Argentines to see who could get the southernmost city in the world up and running, the former have undoubtedly taken the upper hand. Not only because they brag about having Puerto Williams –geographically the southernmost, even if it is only a detachment more military than civilian–, but because there is no color in the comparison between Punta Arenas and the famous Ushuaia. The latter is little more than a succession of souvenir shops. Punta Arenas, on the other hand, is a well-structured city and in which there are a good number of attractions to discover.
Today Punta Arenas is a city where scientists dressed in state-of-the-art anoraks roam, waiting to embark for Antarctica; hikers who want to see with their own eyes the beauty of the sub-Antarctic forest; nature lovers who go in search of penguin colonies and whale watching; sailors who yearn to anchor at Cape Horn and thus be able to place an earring in their left lobe that accredits them as authentic sea lions; crazy cyclists who ignore the Patagonian winds and are ready to start the Trans-American Route that leads to Alaska in a relaxed pedaling of 30,000 kilometers…
They all look for the pole where the distances to different places on the planet are reflected: to Rio de Janeiro, 4,101 km; to Budapest, 14,042; to Istanbul 18,429; or to Barcelona 12,609, which reinforces the idea of ??being in a remote place.
By itself, Punta Arenas is a colorful city. It climbs up some hills that allow you to get a nice view of the Strait of Magellan. And various mansions speak of the prosperity brought by sheep cattle at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. And of the emigration that dragged. You only have to visit the municipal cemetery and read the tombstones. They are full of Croatian, German, Welsh, Scandinavian surnames.
The end-of-the-world environment has also attracted artisans and artists. Thus, the center of Punta Arenas is dotted with galleries and workshops that are inspired by the indomitable Patagonian nature and the drawings of the Fuegian Indians.
In the Naval Museum there is a good recreation of the expedition that rescued Ernest Shackleton and his crew from the most famous of the failed attempts to reach the southernmost point of the planet. In the Salesian Museum, on the other hand, the honors are reserved for Alberto de Agostini, a missionary but also a mountaineer, geographer and photographer who documented like no other with his images the life of the original Selkman peoples.
With these points of interest plus the flourishing of a hotel and restaurant industry that have put an end to the austerity of yesteryear, Punta Arenas becomes a destination in itself, as well as a point from which to jump to desolate places. The airport connects daily with the capital, Santiago. The closest city of reference is Puerto Natales, a three-hour drive away on the Ruta 9 highway.
