Introduction
HMS Endurance has now reached Punta Arenas in Patagonia on her 2006/7 deployment.
Squeezed between two oceans and split by the end of the Andes, Patagonia
stretches roughly from Rio Colorado (39º) to the Magellan Straits and covers
some 780,000 sq km. Located at the southern end of South America, the
Patagonian region embraces partly the territory of Chile and Argentina and
remains one of the world’s last great wildernesses.
At the southern end of Patagonia is the island of Tierra del Fuego. The eastern
half belongs to Chile and the western half with the city of Ushuaia belongs to
Argentina. Ushuaia (pronounced oo-SWY-ya) is the southernmost city in the world
and the provincial capital of the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego.
Populated until the early 20th century by four indigenous groups the Selk-nam,
Alakalufe, Haush and Yamana, the city’s name comes from the Yamana, and means
the `bay that faces the west’.
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