Day 4 - Cape Horn

Dawn.

The Ventus churns its way to the bottom of South America through semi-rough seas. As the sun emerges over the horizon, the channel’s waters look like they’ve caught fire. I think of Homer’s descriptions of sunrise in the Odyssey - “the rosy-fingered dawn” and “the wine-dark sea,” except that rather than sailing the Aegean Sea we are at the edge of the Drake Passage and I am looking at a place where all of the land we call South America disappears. Excepting Antarctica there is no land on earth farther south.

It’s 40° when we strap on our lifejackets to head to the zodiac. Cyn and I have already pulled on our waterproof pants and two layers of shirts, rain jackets and boots. The water is choppy but serene enough by Cape Horn standards and the zodiac speeds us to the bottom of the continent.

Until this morning this rocky promontory was something I had only seen on maps, a dream, a land that so many adventurers had experienced and written about; a place where so many had died. Names like Magellan, Darwin and Fitzroy came to mind. Was I really here?

The zodiac brought us to a pebble-strewn beach. From there we climbed 270 wooden steps to Cape Horn’s highest peak. Other passengers on the ship had their pictures taken by the giant metal monument at the top of the promontory, its battered arms spread-eagled like a cart wheel. They grinned and posed in joy and pride.

The monument wasn’t the only proof that humans had found their way here. A tiny chapel, and a battered but working lighthouse with a post office manned by two Chilean parents and their tween daughter, Sophia, stood at the edge of the wild cliffs. It must have been a lonely place for a young girl to live, but she found ways to amuse herself. Inside the lighthouse building she stood behind a small counter selling stickers and her own hand-drawn cards of penguins and cormorants. They were quite good. Price one dollar for the stickers. Five dollars for the drawings. We took some of each.

Later that afternoon, after we had returned to the Ventus from the Cape, the ship sailed us to a place where one of Tierra del Fuego’s more famous people had lived and died: Wailua (meaning beautiful bay in the native Yaghan language). We hiked into the high woods above the bay, through stands of crippled trees and took in the sea and islands and high mountains around us. Rising through the trees, I would periodically turn to remind myself where we were, and simply had to grin. I had truly reached what Sir Walter Scott once called "the back of beyond."

Except for the small museum located near the bay, I saw little evidence of the Yamana (Yahgan) or Selk Nam people, the original inhabitants of this part of the world. All but a handful were gone now, worn down by pestilence and genocide. The museum told the story of Jeremy or Jemmy Button. His real name was O'run-del'lico an adolescent Yaghan who had been purchased with a mother of pearl button -- hence his name -- in 1830 by Captain Robert Fitzroy during the HMS Beagle’s first voyage to South America. In all Fitzroy had taken four native people from their homes in Tierra del Fuego back to England: an Alakaluf native named Yok'cushly, 10-years-old that sailors renamed Fuegia Basket; El'leparu, a man in his mid-twenties that Fitzroy renamed York Minister for a British Cathedral and Boat Memory who died of smallpox shortly after his arrival to England. His Yaghan name is unknown.

Together they learned English and were done up in British attire the better to “civilize” them. FitzRoy had taken them "to become useful as interpreters, and be the means of establishing a friendly disposition towards Englishmen on the part of their countrymen." He seems to have treated them well during their voyage and time in England, though it's not precisely clear how they saw the experience.

While in Britain the three were introduced to King William IV and his wife Queen Adelaide who took a particular liking to Fuegia Basket. York Minister later died but Jemmy and Yok'cushly were eventually returned to the Land of Fire on the Beagle’s next voyage along with another passenger who would become far better known than Jemmy - A 21-year-old Charles Darwin, just beginning to develop his theories on evolution. There is more to the story of Jemmy Button, but that will have to wait for the book. In the meantime ...

Recommendations

Patagonia is rich in wonders. We spent many days exploring by sea. If you’re considering an adventure of your own, here are a few recommendations for you. Please visit our Travel Recommendations page to see them all.