4 minCoyhaique
Coyhaique on foot, in six stops
A five-sided plaza, a shepherd pushing into the blizzard and a giant hand offering a mate. A half-day loop that tells how the capital of Aysén came to be.
Travel blogStories, routes and things worth knowing
Everything a destination page can't hold: when to come, what's on the plate, why the wind runs the show, and where to watch wildlife without disturbing it.
Photo: Mayita42 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Mayita42 · CC BY-SA 4.0
3 minCoyhaique
From Coyhaique to Cerro Castillo: the first day south
Some ninety-six kilometers between the city and a village at the foot of a fortress-shaped mountain. What to sort out before you leave, and two stops worth not skipping: a school its neighbors built and a wall with hands painted thousands of years ago.
3 minPunta Arenas
Memory among the cypresses: the Cementerio Municipal of Punta Arenas
More than six hundred clipped cypresses, a gateway donated by Sara Braun and the grave of a nameless Indigenous man that never stops receiving candles. A slow walk through the place where the story of immigration to Magallanes is written.
3 minPuerto Aysén
Puerto Aysén, the port town that lost its port
It was the region’s gateway and its first capital, until the river silted up and ships could no longer get in. The bridge, the old Land Office and the fifteen kilometers out to the fjord tell that story.
3 minPuerto Natales
The Cueva del Milodón, minus the legends
A giant sloth, a hide that ended up in London and a Bruce Chatwin book that made it world famous. What’s actually known about one of Patagonia’s best-known caves, 25 kilometers from Puerto Natales.
3 minPorvenir
Porvenir wasn’t born of gold
The Fuegian gold rush came in the 1880s, but the town was founded in 1894 to serve the sheep estancias. Between those two stories lies the story of the Selk’nam people, which deserves to be told in full.
3 minPunta Arenas
Four ships, four voyages: the story of the Strait at the Museo Nao Victoria
North of Punta Arenas, beside the Strait, stand four full-size replicas: Magellan’s ship, the schooner that brought Chile to the Strait, Darwin’s Beagle and Shackleton’s lifeboat. Each tells of a voyage tied to these waters.
3 minPuerto Williams
Yagán voices and territory
More than six thousand years navigating the southern channels, a language the community is working to keep alive, and a museum that changed its name at the community’s request. What’s worth knowing before visiting Puerto Williams, and how to do it respectfully.
3 minPuerto Natales
Puerto Natales before the park
Almost everyone uses it as a base camp for Torres del Paine, but the town has a history of its own: a fjord named like a farewell, a meatpacking plant that once processed thousands of sheep a day, and a waterfront where the wind has its own monument.