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Our base of operations will be the small locality of Puerto Edén, located inside Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, the largest park in Chile and the last shelter of the alacalufe or kawésqar natives of Tierra del Fuego. During one week, we'll travel through the Patagonian channels joining Puerto Natales with Puerto Montt. Our main endeavor will be to visit the indomitable Pío XI glacier, the largest glacier of South America, located in Campo de Hielo Sur and try to establish new tourism routes contributing to disseminate the majesty of our Chilean Patagonia. However, the adventures of our expedition will begin in Puerto Natales when boarding the Magallanes ferry heading towards the magical shelter of the first inhabitants of the southern channels.

The avenues of Puerto Natales have little to envy those of the mountain centers of other latitudes; foreigners, especially Europeans and North American citizens, fill inns and adventure tourism agencies. Just like us, many people wait the departure of the Magallanes ferry of Navimag Ferries shipping company from the city's pier. During three days, the ship will cover the Patagonian channels heading for Puerto Montt, with a short sight land in Puerto Edén bay, where our expedition will disembark to stay one week in the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park area, visiting several channels, glaciers, fjords and forests.

At five in the morning, the Magallanes sets sail from Puerto Natales, sailing through the Última Esperanza inlet. It is announced that passengers who wish to watch the sea voyage through the narrowest area of the route, the White pass, must report on deck at seven thirty in the morning. All the expedition members were there, Jorge Guevara and Daniel Zamudio of the special interest tourism agency Cumbre Andina, in charge of the logistics and organization of our adventure, Guy Wenborne, professional photographer and this enthusiastic journalist. The White, which is not more than 80 meters wide, is a traitorous pass that requires the full expertise and experience of the ship's crew to avoid an accident. In our case, captain Marcelo Sánchez Alcázar domains the situation and has been crossing it for more than three months twice a week with no setbacks. It must be noted that the Magallanes vessel has a length of 127 meters.

Ship passengers have various alternative activities on board, in charge of the guides who make sure the trip is pleasant and relaxed. Generally, tourists travel on deck admiring the magical Patagonian landscape, but when the first rain drops start falling, they prefer to watch that beautiful sightseeing from the inside, since the heavy Magellan wind accompanied by rain is not very friendly.

Although the Magallanes is mainly a cargo ship, it was reconditioned for passenger transportation. It counts on cabins with private bathroom, others with outside bathroom and a mass berth area where local and foreign backpackers are lodged.

Captain Sánchez tells us an interesting data. The ship's background music was interrupted mainly because passengers complained that it disturbed the silence of nature and polluted the landscape noise wise. We fully agree with them.

The magic of the Brujo glacier

The heavy swell beats upon the Magallanes while the wind punishes without consideration those who challenge it on the first deck. We are told through the speakers that the ship is already sailing through the Asia estuary towards Brujo glacier; therefore, passengers must be attentive, with their cameras on hand. Our case is different. We are authorized by captain Sánchez to disembark in a small zodiac boat to approach the glacier and take pictures from its base. Tourists look at us disconcerted, wondering who are these lucky people who can get close to the glacier, are they relatives of the captain?, have they paid for it?. They do not understand the privilege.

The zodiac is slowly lowered, with us on board, to travel at maximum speed to the base of the Brujo glacier. We are able to disembark in a small island only a few meters away from the huge wall of bluish ice. In spite of the pouring rain, we feel the silence of nature, only interrupted by the noisy detachment of huge ice blocks falling into the sea. An indescribable and sublime spectacle evidencing how small human beings are when compared to nature's largeness.

We are told by radio that we must embark quickly because weather conditions are getting worse and escape maneuvers from the Asia channel can get complicated.

From now on, a lot of people know us as "the lucky ones"; however, others call us in other ways that cannot be reproduced.

Arrival to Edén

After a few hours sailing through the Concepción channel, a route parallel to Campo del Hielo Sur, we enter into the Grapper channel. It's early in the morning and gusts of wind tell us that we are in Paso del Indio channel, a place where the small village of Puerto Edén is located, our base of operations.

It is early and the sun has no intention of going up, the wind is always with us and from time to time, rain warns us about its presence. The ship makes anchoring maneuvers, so passengers can visit Puerto Edén during one hour, buy kawésqar crafts and share some minutes with the community. Our expedition will stay there for one week, visiting the Patagonian channels, having as main goal staying two days in the proximities of the Pío XI glacier (also known as Brüggen or Anna María). This glacier, together with Trinidad glacier, are the only ones that go forward instead of going backwards.

The heavy ramp of the Magallanes opens slowly while small vessels of Edén inhabitants come all at once to transport tourists to the island. Among so many vessels I'm able to see one with a great sign. It's the "Poderoso" (powerful) owned by Hugo Zuñiga, fisherman and character of Puerto Edén who is waiting for us to take us to Hostería Yekchal, which will be our home during the next seven days.

Don Hugo, how we will call him from now on, is a sea man who will be an important featuring star of our adventure. We will sail in his vessel through the channels, fjords and estuaries to Pío XI glacier and its surroundings. As a long-time inhabitant of Puerto Edén, he knows this area to perfection and he knows how traitorous the weather is in this region. "It's true that the sun comes up, but it hides within seconds and you can never trust it because just as weather can be nice, it can be bad". We'll always remember this introduction sentence by don Hugo during our exploration.

From the huge ferry, Puerto Edén looks like a set of small live-colored houses grouped in the bay on Wellington island. When disembarking, I can confirm that the 250 inhabitants of Puerto Edén communicate through the Guaitecas cypress wooden pedestrian footbridge. Thanks to this corridor that is only approximately 15 years old, the life of natives from Edén has been significantly improved since before they only could travel through swampy and slippery paths.

In our new home, "the Yekchal", two sea kayak sailors are waiting for us. They will join the expedition for the purpose of accompanying us in our journey and confirm on field, or better said, on water, the possibility of joining, by means of sea kayaks, Puerto Edén and Pio XI glacier and adjacent routes, as well as promoting the route, in said ships, across the channels joining the Tortel small bay, located at the outlet of the largest river of Chile, the Baker river, with Puerto Edén.

The last kawésqar

Puerto Edén is inhabited by 250 people; however, the existing kawésqar community accounts for 15 people, out of which 7 are pure kawésqar natives. I must confess though, that my eyes focused from the beginning on the history and life of Gabriela Paterito Caak, doña Lela, the last kawésqar native.

Mi first meeting with doña Lela was cold and distant, she examined me with one glance and I understood that I was not welcomed to her territories. She is small and her age is undecipherable, but when seeing her cutting wood with fierceness I understand the force and courage developed by the kawésqar people of Tierra del Fuego to resist the indomitable Patagonian territory.

In a second meeting, I talked to her again and let her make the questions, and I'm more lucky and she accepts me in her house. Mi biggest wish is to hear her talking in kawésqar dialect, guttural language that is basically extinguished and that will die for sure when they are gone.

Inside their houses, given by the government to those few indigenous families, is María Isabel Tonko, daughter of doña Lela, as well as her granddaughter, María José. It is difficult to describe this moment, but we are in front of three kawésqar generations and doña Lela does not want her roots to get lost, and so she is teaching the alacalufe language to her daughter.

From the footbridge, don Hugo tells us that we are setting sail next day to Pio XI glacier, so we must prepare our luggage. Weather conditions seem nice and we are to take advantage of them.

I stay with doña Lela while I drink bitter Paraguayan tea prepared by her daughter. While we talk, she is making a mañío and ñapu (jonquil) canoe with her own hands, which I promised to buy. "I'm going to make it bigger", she told me, "but it's going to cost you more", and laughs.

I feel we are friends by now; her tiny eyes fade away every time she smiles. She has lived all her life in this place, although her people was characterized for being nomad. "My family used to live in that little hillock that can be seen from here", she explains. "We lived in an AT (hut) made of mañío and cypress sticks with sea wolf skin and the kitchen range was always on".

Regarding my question inquiring whether the kawésqar people used to dive naked or not, she does not remember it and prefers to tell me that her parents used to wear seal and wolf skins, her mother collected clams and mussels, while her father used to haunt yekchal (southern Andean deer), sea wolves and birds, and children had to collect water.

Guy does not stop taking pictures, and he asks doña Lela to stand by her daughter and granddaughter for a family picture. It is a historic moment, and at this point I ask her to talk in the kawésqar language. And what do you want me to say?, she asks. "Well, what is your wish?, I ask. She says an undecipherable sentence, but I get touched when I hear her talking.

She has told me in kawésqar that she doesn't have television and that she would like to have one to watch the news. "Well, sir, you ask me to request something in kawésqar and I did. Now you have to make it real", she laughs again.

We say goodbye to doña Gabriela and her family with the commitment of coming back to visit her at the end of out expedition. This time, we'll take her to collect ñapu for her baskets.

Setting sail towards Pio XI

Hugo Zúñiga is an experienced fisherman and sailor of Puerto Edén, but the morning we were to set sail he was nervous and was walking anxiously from one side to the other of the footbridge. It was raining and the sea was not calm. That made him nervous. We were waiting for don Hugo's instructions to set sail inside the Yekchal inn.

"La Moraleda" ship was ready with all luggage on board and with the zodiac boat tied to pope. We would use this boat to approach the glacier and thus be able to gain time in case of bad weather conditions.

The rain stops for a minute and don Hugo informs the expedition that it's time to set sail.

"La Moraleda" will be our shelter during the next three days. Jorge and Daniel from Cumbre Andina, have to travel across and acknowledge the routes to be explored in order to develop new trekking and environmental tour oriented programs. On its part, Andrés Cox and Pablo Butazzoni, from Dos Patagonias, will travel through some channels and the Pio XI glacier by sea kayak, for the purposes of promoting new Patagonian routes.

We left behind Paso del Indio channel to penetrate into the Grapper channel. From now on, we will sail without the companionship of merchant ships, tourism ships and ocean yachts because we are deviating through the Grapper channel to the Eyre fjord and from there, we will travel to Elizabeth bay where we will set our base camp.

Grey clouds finally leave us for a few moments giving rise to a weak sunlight that will shine all day long. Wind increases quickly, and therefore, don Hugo recommends us to board the zodiac boat and cross from the Eyre fjord to the Falcón estuary to get to the glacier bearing the same name.

Our photographer, Guy Wenborne, will be in charge of the trip by zodiac. Equipped with a fifty horse motor, we move away at a speed of 25 knots per hour leaving behind La Moraleda. The landscape is impressive; here, time has not passed by and the only featuring star that keeps asking us to go away is the heavy wind beating upon the hull of the fragile rubber vessel. The toninas (Chilean dolphins) flank our ship on both sides and encourage us to keep going, they are real dancers that get surprised by our presence and show us the way.

However, the Falcón estuary is awkward, furious and willing to show us its least friendly face. We decided to anchor in a small bay and wait for the arrival of don Hugo's La Moraleda.

Due to bad weather conditions, we must set sail very close to the bank, so in case of capsize, we are able to make it to the land. The first ice floes cross our route and far away the ice wall of the Pio XI glacier can be seen. Weather changes again and the sun fills the landscape with sun, the ice mantle is crazily lightened; we are a few kilometers away from Elizabeth bay.

Face to face with Pio XI

Simply, there is nothing more radical than being in a tiny wooden vessel only a few meters away from the 80 meter high and 6 kilometer long ice wall. It's true that there silence is beauty, but it's also true that the noise of the ice blocks falling into the sea tingles the senses. That's Pio XI glacier; the wildest and most inhospitable place of the Chilean Patagonia. Its rapid movement has been ruthless with the millenary coigüe forests that have been crushed by its ice tentacles. Because as mentioned above, unlike the majority of the glaciers, Pio XI goes forward instead of going backwards.

Its approach to the ice mount has been extremely difficult and slow because ice floe pieces become more numerous as we get close to the glacier.

Pablo and Andrés decide to continue in their sea kayaks because they are faster as compared to icebergs that insist on blocking our way. They move away quickly and ice cathedrals come close dangerously. We revive the history of the first inhabitants of the channels with these fragile row boats. Exactly, the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego sailed through fjords, channels and estuaries in their wooden canoes looking for seafood and animals, struggling against a devastating weather and an abrupt and wild topography.

We disembarked in a small beach adjacent to the glacier to carry out a short trekking that leads us to a lookup. From there, the real magnitude of the ice mass can be appreciated, which as result of its advance has eaten up native forests from the banks giving rise to an incredible tree cemetery.

From the high point of the mountain, landscape is frightening; the ice tongues coming from Campos de Hielo Sur that give rise to Pio XI glacier do not stop moving forward. Recent studies by Chilean glaciologists (1996) have shown that the advance rate is approximately 1 meter per day.

But once again, rain and wind force us to leave the place arguing that maybe we have stayed there enough time and that is time to leave towards Puerto Edén. Don Hugo understands nature's message immediately, so on board of La Moraleda we will begin our return trip with upwind and swells that are difficult to handle.

Sailing across Eyre inlet is slow and stormy; there is enough room for everybody inside the cabin. However, the majesty and beauty of Pio XI glacier is such that we rather stay on deck under a pouring rain with the glacier as background of a natural scenery that is still known by few people.

After long ten hours of sailing, the small barge returns us safe and sound to Puerto Edén. We are exhausted, wet and hungry. But the exploration was a success, we were able to know and travel across Pio XI glacier. We were accompanied by the weather, toninas, cormorants and the magic and indelible spirit of the first inhabitants of the southern channels. Indomitable Patagonia.

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