Traveling in Style : This is How the World Ends : Blustery Days in South America’s Tierra del Fuego

We had a scene of savage magnificence,” wrote Charles Darwin in 1832 after he first saw this most southerly of the globe’s inhabited land. “There was a degree of mysterious grandeur in mountain behind mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail and sleet, seems blacker than anywhere else. . . . The distant channels between the mountains appeared from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world.”

There has been some change in the intervening century and a half, but the visitor to this underside of paradise can easily ignore the few trappings of modern society and revel in the savage magnificence, the mysterious grandeur and even the unending gloominess that still pervade Tierra del Fuego.

During the past few years, the Argentine government has been trying to promote Tierra del Fuego as a tourist and commercial destination, which is a little like trying to put a Club Med next to a few oil refineries in Sitka, Alaska.

Ushuaia, the small city at the foot of Tierra del Fuego, is the southernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. It sits on the Beagle Channel--named after the ship that brought Darwin on his voyage around South America--and stretches along the shore about two miles. The mountains come so close to the channel that even in the small downtown of Ushuaia, the sidewalks are equipped with steps and handrails just three blocks from shore. A mile away is wilderness, with glaciers, brooks and, with luck, eagles soaring close.

Argentina has made Ushuaia a duty-free port, which means tourists can traipse along the Avenue San Martin and buy perfume, clothing and fancy chocolates without tax. Of course, in true Argentine governmental tradition, the effectiveness of this move as a tourist spur is quite dubious. Since it costs so much to ship the stuff to the edge of the inhabited world, there are about as many good deals there as at Sotheby’s during a Van Gogh auction. Brazilians, though, who will apparently spend anything to get a souvenir, are frequently seen trudging along Avenue San Martin with armloads of treasures.

What makes buying something in Ushuaia (pronounced Oosh-WHY-ah ) distinctive is that the town is at the bottom of the world. Going to one of the world’s extremes gives tourists a vibrant, surging, positively Hillaryesque feeling. Like Sir Edmund climbing Everest, part of the point of going to Tierra del Fuego is because it is there. Despite its amazing natural wonders, Tierra del Fuego would be less attractive if it were a thousand miles farther north. When visitors watch an albatross swoop here or see a sea lion wiggle there or just fly into the rudimentary Ushuaia Airport, they have the added feeling of “Wow! I’m really in someplace different! “

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago separated from the rest of South America by the Strait of Magellan. In 1520, when Ferdinand Magellan sailed around Cape Horn, the craggy tip of the archipelago, he saw the residue of dozens of Indian fires. He called the land Tierra del Humo, or “Land of Smoke.” King Charles I of Spain, Magellan’s financier, pumped that up a bit, changing his new acquisition’s name to Tierra del Fuego, “Land of Fire.”

Few--save adventurers, the Bounty and its mutinous crew among them--sailed through the area for the following 300 years. When they did, they usually encountered some type of disaster. The Beagle Channel and the Strait of Magellan are littered with wrecks of dozens of ships that failed to ply the seemingly deep and wide waters--which are frequently battered by rain, wind and sleet. And if these are not sufficient hazards, the course itself can be daunting: The strait is far from straight.

Roughly the size of Massachusetts, Tierra del Fuego has three common climatic zones: crummy, severe and downright rotten. The northeast, by far the most hospitable weather-wise, is nearly always wind-swept, but at least it doesn’t rain or snow much and the temperatures usually stay above zero degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. In the central mountains and in the south around Ushuaia, the winds subside some days, and there is usually a little bit of rain every day. In the western part of the archipelago, which is part of Chile through a series of treaties in the last century, the average day is sub-antarctic, with 60 m.p.h. winds common and clouds and ice storms the norm. Needless to say, the Chileans have not done much to settle or adapt their part of Tierra del Fuego for the Knott’s Berry Farm trade.

Early explorers noted that four different Indian tribes settled in Tierra del Fuego; by 1925, most had been killed by white settlers or hunters or had perished in epidemics of measles, typhoid or whooping cough. Darwin couldn’t figure out what brought the Indians there in the first place. “What could have tempted, or what change compelled, a tribe of men to leave the fine regions of the north,” he asked, “and then to enter on one of the most inhospitable countries within the limits of the globe?”

Still, while it might not be the place Darwin wanted to live, he, as more modern adventurers have, found it a wondrous place to visit. Few bodies of water its size hold the scenic rapture of the Beagle Channel, which our correspondent Darwin called “a most remarkable feature of this, or indeed of any other country: It may be compared to the valley of Loch Ness in Scotland, with its chain of lakes and firths.”

The Beagle is about as pure a channel as the Earth provides. A steady two miles wide for nearly its entire length, from just west of Ushuaia to the Atlantic 120 miles away, it is bordered by mountains of a uniform 2,500-foot height. The channel itself is a steep trough reaching down several hundred feet, making sailing seem, on a rare calm day, like a piece of cake--until you pass a wreck or two on an outcropping.

Most of the outcroppings near Ushuaia--with or without wrecks--are filled with extraordinary fauna. During late spring and summer (November through March), large catamarans that charge luxury-tour prices (about $70 per person per day) skim down the channel for a peek at the indigenous animals.

Isla de Pajaros (“Bird Island”), a few minutes out of port, contains an endless swarm of birds, most of them species of cormorants and petrels. The island, about 200 yards long, is topped with a thick white glop--apparently the droppings of the Fuegan birds don’t fall far from the nest. A few miles downstream is Isla de los Lobos, on which dozens of sea lions and seals soak up the sun (what there is of it), sleep and, often, mount. Tierra del Fuego is nothing if not a biology lesson.

Other islands in the channel are home to the Magellanic penguin, the toughest and runtiest of the penguin family. The Magellanic penguins stand only about 30 inches tall, showing a predominantly white belly with several bands of alternating black and white feathers around the neck and head. Should you ever meet one, don’t try to touch it; you’ll probably get a vicious bite, which is, however, not as bad as the bird’s bark. Magellanic penguins are often called jackass penguins because of their cacophonous braying.

Other amazing birds live by the channel. Inspired by Darwin’s writings about the strange and gloomy land, Samuel Taylor Coleridge modeled his “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” albatross after a Fuegan bird. But the albatrosses seen along the Beagle Channel today are more magnificent and less threatening than Coleridge’s apparition. Their wingspans often reach five feet, the wings hooked at the end for balance as the birds float in the air and then dive abruptly at a 90-degree angle, splashing into the channel for fish. Steamer ducks seem to be lifted from a Disney script. Twirling their webbed feet at a frantic pace, they are a cartoon version of a miniature paddle-wheel boat. Crested ducks, speckled teal, kelp geese and all sorts of gulls, terns, hawks and falcons accent the sky.

West of Ushuaia to the Chilean border lies Tierra del Fuego National Park, about half an hour’s bus ride out of town. It is incredibly organized by Argentine standards, with a few nature trails, some pleasant guards and the southernmost snack bar in the world.

The park’s unspoiled rills, lakes and plant life make Yellowstone look like a smog-ridden megalopolis. No one will be bothering you while you stare at fawn-colored guanacos--long-necked, pony-size llama relatives that must taste good, since nearly ever predator in southern South America stalks them. The snowcapped mountains that plunge right down to lake shores seem more like movie backdrops than anything real. For those lucky enough to get to the park on a sunny day, the clarity of the air gives every duck and tree a vibrant sparkle.

That same sparkle also appears in the lakes and mountains of the interior of Isla Grande, the largest of the islands. Lake Escondido and Lake Fagnano are spectacular glacial formations found amid peaks that seem much higher than they are, an illusion fostered by the 4,000-foot peaks’ rise from valleys that are almost at sea level. It is a surreal vista: Each individual mountain is a nearly perfect isosceles triangle, with the next peak and the next and the next lined up like so many cones a few hundred yards apart. Little industry of any kind exists in the heart of Tierra del Fuego, save for some of the most extensive beaver dams on the planet. A guide will take visitors to a husky-dog breeding farm just south of Lake Escondido, and there are small mining and forestry interests near the huge Lake Fagnano. Basically, though, this is the kind of wilderness Jack London wrote about and anyone who buys an expensive backpack dreams of hiking.

Of the communities on Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, with a population of about 17,000, is the only town that can tempt most tourists to stay for more than a few minutes. Rio Grande, in the north, has only a meat-packing plant to recommend it, and Porvenir, on the northwestern edge of the Chilean part of Isla Grande, is little more than a transfer point for goods from the Chilean mainland.

Ushuaia is trying to be a bit upscale, but it isn’t working. The newly built Hotel Ushuaia, where the most expensive rooms in town go for about $100, has a huge picture window in the lobby for the view down the hill to the harbor. Unfortunately, there is a tin-roof-shack slum visible from that picture window. Visitors can find a dozen smaller places closer to Avenue San Martin or the harbor for a half to a third of the price. The best rates for U.S. dollars are found at the bank with the you-know-you’re-not-in-Kansas-anymore name of Banco del Territorio de la Tierra del Fuego, Antartida e Islas del Atlantico Sur.

Down on Avenue San Martin are a few cute little restaurants that would not be out of place in the crevices of Melrose Avenue. Tante Elvira, Moustacchio and Masciocchi are three similar 10-table joints along a five-block stretch. They all specialize in seafood, lamb and pasta, since Tierra del Fuego is about the only place in Argentina you can’t get cheap high-quality beef. People eat centolla (giant orange crabs) and cholgas (giant mussels), but centolla is expensive and not very unusual and cholgas are rubbery and tasteless. Mejillones are smaller mussels, cheaper, sweeter and less tough. Any vegetable you eat in Ushuaia probably flew in on the plane before yours. A dinner costs $12 to $15 without wine.

Getting to Tierra del Fuego, for lettuce and for humans, is a bit of a schlep. Aerolineas Argentinas, the Argentine national airline, schedules one flight daily in season to Ushuaia from Buenos Aires, but it is a five-hour, four-stop trip without assigned seats and usually booked at least a week ahead. Passengers flitting around during an Aerolineas stopover conjure up a Hispanic version of the Marx Brothers playing musical chairs.

A better choice if you are already in southern Argentina is to fly with the army’s airline, LADE (Lineas Aereas del Estado) in its souped-up Fokkers. The rates tend to be half that of Aerolineas, and, because the flights double as army missions, the planes fly much lower, so passengers can see the sweep of the land more easily. Show up at any municipal airport in southern Argentina and ask for information about LADE flights.

Going by land is a dicey proposition. There is no way to cross into Isla Grande from the rest of Argentina. Visitors have to make it by bus to the Chilean port of Punta Arenas, then ride another bus for a couple of hours to the ferry to Porvenir. Of course, the ferry is often inoperative, since the Strait of Magellan can be too strong for sea travel. If tourists do get across, they must then take a six-hour bus ride, sleeping over in Rio Grande and waking up at 6 a.m. to catch the eight-hour bus to Ushuaia. Because even that connection runs only twice a week, passengers who take the bus to Ushuaia have to be either penniless or addicted to diesel fumes.

Getting to Ushuaia by sea is also difficult--unless you own your own yacht. Expedition-minded tourists will find a number of Fuegan sailors willing to take them out into the waters that almost scuttled Darwin and his beloved Beagle. Some visitors take three-week excursions to the Antarctica coast several hundred miles south. Perhaps, on their way, they daydream of seeing one of the tribes Darwin writes about in “The Voyage of the Beagle”:

“When pressed in winter by hunger, they kill and devour their old women before they kill their dogs. (Asked) why they did this, (a boy) answered, ‘Doggies catch otters, old women no.’ This boy described the manner in which they are killed by being held over smoke and thus choked . . . and described the parts of their bodies which are considered best to eat,” Darwin wrote. “I believe, in this extreme part of South America, man exists in a lower state of improvement than in any other part of the world.”

And that may be the best reason to go there. Or anywhere.

GUIDEBOOK: TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Getting there: American Airlines has one flight a day from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, stopping in Miami en route; Varig Brazilian Airlines has three flights a week, stopping in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, Brazil, or Lima, Peru. The 14-day round-trip advance purchase fares range from $999 to $1,381 for a 21-day-minimum, 90-day-maximum visit. Aerolineas Argentinas has four scheduled flights per week, stopping in Mexico City or Lima, Peru; 14-day round-trip fares range from $1,167 to $1,317, depending on the season.

The round-trip air fare from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, is $488. A better way to travel around massive Argentina is on an Aerolineas Argentinas air pass, which costs $359 for four stops, $409 for six. If you are already in southern Argentina, you can fly LADE, the military airline, to Ushuaia at a vastly discounted rate, sometimes as low as $35 in local currency one way. Unfortunately, LADE does not publish flight schedules, so you have to wait until you get to a southern Argentina municipal airport to check flight availability.

When to go: Summer in the Southern Hemisphere is from December to March. Tierra del Fuego will definitely be warmer then, but planes will be fuller and accommodations scarcer. Better to go in October, November, April or May. The weather will be passable, the tourists fewer, the prices lower. Plan to spend about four or five days.

Tours and cruises: There are several tour operators on Tierra del Fuego. One, Rumbo Sur, San Martin 342, Ushuaia, offers all the Beagle Channel cruises and can arrange trips on the mainland as well; its local telephone number is 0901-21139. For something more unusual--a seven-day sail to Cape Horn--contact Onas Tours at 25 de Mayo 50, Ushuaia; telephone 0901-23429.

Where to stay: The Hotel Ushuaia, corner of Lasserre and Leandro, is the newest and most expensive place to stay in Ushuaia, but it’s about a mile away from the harbor. Rates are about $100 per double room; telephone 0901-22024. The nicest hotel close to the water is the Albatros, corner of Maipu and Lasserre, a winter-lodge-like building with Spartan but clean doubles for $65; telephone 0901-22504. The Cesar, Avenue San Martin 753, has small, well-heated rooms and a little coffee shop; telephone 0901-21460. The local tourist board, which is situated in the ballroom of the Hotel Albatros, will supply loads of maps and call around to reserve hotel rooms for visitors on their arrival.

For more information: The Argentine Government Tourist Office, 3550 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1450, Los Angeles 90039; (213) 739-9977.