For pilgrims to the uttermost part of the earth, mecca is Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego’s Bahía Lapataia, where RN 3 ends on the Beagle Channel’s north shore. It’s a worthy goal but, sadly, most visitors see only the area in and around the highway because most of the park’s mountainous interior, with its alpine lakes, limpid rivers, blue-tinged glaciers, and jagged summits, is closed to public access.

Information

At the park entrance on RN 3, the APN has a Centro de Información where it collects a US$6.50 pp entry fee. Argentine residents pay half.

Several books have useful information on Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, including William Leitch’s South America’s National Parks (Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1990), which is now out of print; the fifth edition of Tim Burford’s Backpacking in Chile & Argentina (Bradt Publications, 2001); and the third edition of Clem Lindenmayer and Nick Tapp’s Trekking in the Patagonian Andes (Lonely Planet, 2003). The latter two are hiking guides, but locals criticize the Lonely Planet guide vociferously for inaccuracy.

Bird-watchers may want to acquire Claudio Venegas Canelo’s Aves de Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego Chileno-Argentina (Punta Arenas: Ediciones de la Universidad de Magallanes, 1986), Ricardo Clark’s Aves de Tierra del Fuego y Cabo de Hornos (Buenos Aires: Literature of Latin America, 1986), or Enrique Couve and Claudio Vidal Ojeda’s bilingual Birds of the Beagle Channel (Punta Arenas: Fantástico Sur Birding & Nature, 2000).