Hello, ladies and gents, this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Tierra del Fuego Archipelago
Situated across the Strait of Magellan and at the very tip of the South American continent, the Tierra del Fuego archipelago is often described as the “uttermost ends of the earth”. But besides being home to Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city, this land of windswept steppe, gleaming glacial lakes and craggy mountains has plenty of other interesting characteristics and history.
The Tierra del Fuego archipelago is the southernmost part of South America
Situated at the very far end of the continent, Tierra del Fuego is shared between Argentina and Chile. Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Beagle Channel in the south and the Strait of Magellan in the north, this archipelago’s southernmost part is Hornos Island, the location of the legendary headland, Cape Horn, which sits at a latitude of 55.9˚ S.
The name “Tierra del Fuego” comes from the Spanish explorer’s first sight of the archipelago
Meaning “Land of Fire”, “Tierra del Fuego” was the name given to the island when the first European explorers to venture here saw fires flicking in the darkness. These belonged to the native Selk’nam and Yaghan people who wore little clothing and instead used fires to keep themselves warm.
The Tierra del Fuego archipelago has been populated for thousands of years
Anthropologists believe that the first indigenous groups arrived here around 8000 years ago, with the Yaghan and Selk’nam the descendants of these initial inhabitants.
The Yaghan (only a number of whom now survive) lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers and traversed the area by canoe, while the Selk’nam, a now extinct ethnic group, instead hunted on land. Both populations declined significantly when the first European settlers arrived in the region.
Ushuaia is the largest city in Tierra del Fuego
Most visitors to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago make pilgrimage to the southernmost city, Ushuaia on the Argentine side of the island and from where the most accessible day trips and other tourism in the region are located. Fewer visitors venture to the Chilean side, where Bahía Inútil has the only king penguin colony in the Americas and where a road is currently being built to better connect Chile’s southernmost settlement, Puerto Williams with the mainland via a new ferry route.
In 1884, gold was discovered at Cape Virgenes in Argentine Tierra del Fuego
In the late 1800s, the Tierra del Fuego archipelago was the site of a gold rush, as thousands of immigrants from many European countries, including a large number of Croatians, arrived here to seek their fortunes. Gold had been discovered underneath the sands at Cape Virgenes and this unleashed a search for gold across all of the beaches on the Atlantic side of the island.
The gold rush only lasted until 1984 when the majority of the resources had been depleted, however, it helped to economically strengthen Punta Arenas and significantly increased the number of inhabitants in the region.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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