Beagle Channel By Boat

The town of Ushuaia sits on the north side of the Beagle Channel, a strait that separates the islands of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It stretches 150 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific and is named for the HMS Beagle, a ship in the British Royal navy that did a hydrographic survey of the area in the 1830’s. Beagle is most famous not for charting the coastal waters of South America, but for its passenger, a naturalist named Charles Darwin.

With the cloudy skies overhead looking ominous we ate an early breakfast at our hostel before strolling down to the port. Today’s adventure: to take a boat tour of the Beagle Channel. Our small vessel pulled out of the port at 9:30am sharp and we headed out into the channel, our first stop: Isla de los Pájaros (Bird Island). Here we saw hundreds of birds including several different varieties of cormorants (which look a bit like penguins, until they flap their wings and fly) and gulls. We then continued on to Isla de los Lobos, where there are lots and lots of sea lions. I’m a fan of sea lions, as long as I remain upwind of them. They are quite odorous, and a bit loud, although I don’t mind the noise so much. We hung out there for a little while watching the aggressive sea lions push each other around trying to find a nice piece of rock to get some sun.

Our third stop was the iconic Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse (French for “The Enlighteners”), pictured below. Standing 33 feet high, the red and white lighthouse has signaled ships in the Beagle Channel since 1920. Today it is powered by solar panels and can be seen up to 8.5 miles away. Kate took one of my favorite Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse photos and turned it into a December calendar. It is a spectacular sight.

Before returning to Ushuaia we stopped at Bridges Island. Here we learned about the Yamana (also known as Yaghan or Fuegian), the indigenous inhabitants of the Tierra del Fuego Island. They didn’t wear clothes, and instead rubbed sea lion oil on themselves to stay warm and dry. We then hiked to a viewpoint near the western end of the island to get a different view of the channel. Facing west, looking down the channel you can see Chile on the left and Argentina on the right. You can’t see Antarctica, but it’s only 600 miles away!

We had a fantastic time, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It only rained for about three minutes, and we spent most of our time out on the top deck, despite the wind. I especially enjoyed the lighthouse, and don’t remember taking this many photos of a lighthouse since the Oregon segment of our roadtrip. A second favorite of mine was Bridges Island, to see the flora and fauna up close. One plant in particular interested me: the cushion plant. Cushion plants look like large solid clumps of moss, but they’re a plant. They grow at a rate of approximately 1 millimeter per year, and some of the plants we hiked past were at least a few hundred years old based on their size.

Details: There are several tour operators that offer similar tours but we chose Patagonia Adventure Explorer because of their small boats. Most of the other tours run on massive catamarans packed full of people. Our tour consisted of 19 people on a 40 foot boat with an enclosed main level (and large windows) and open top deck, where we spent most of our time. The only downside to the small boat experience is that they sell out quickly, so if you can, book a day or two ahead. In addition to the 180 Argentine peso per person cost, you’ll have to pay 6 Argentine pesos per person as a port tax.