The Strait of Magellan: Gateway to Patagonia’s Legends

The Strait of Magellan is imbued with centuries of history. Much like the Beagle Channel and the Drake Passage further south, this strip of gunmetal grey has played a significant role in maritime and colonial history. It’s largely due to its location: this navigable channel slices between the southern tip of mainland South America and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Measuring roughly 350 miles (570 km) in length – and just two miles (3km) at its narrowest in width –  it connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.

This passageway was once one of the world’s primary maritime highways for global trade – although the digging of the Panama Canal in the early 20th century shortened the sailing distance ships between the two oceans by thousands of miles, making it obsolete. However, for visitors to Patagonia, this body of water has its own allure, as an important refuge for wildlife and the location of consequential moments in human history.

The “discovery” of the Strait of Magellan

Since the turn of the 16th century, Europe had had an inkling that a navigable channel existed through Tierra Firme (the South American mainland). However, it wasn’t until 1520, a year after departing from the Spanish port of Spain to survey the Atlantic Coast of South America and surviving a mutiny by his crew, that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan struck lucky. His fleet of four ships had sailed into a narrow channel, which curled around what he would later realise was mainland South America. But, due to the network of channels that radiate from the main passage, navigation was challenging; it would take a total of thirty-eight days of scouting a route out of the maze before they finally reached the Pacific.

As a result of this “discovery”, the strait was named after Magellan. However, Magellan was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Mactan Island in the Philippines, and so didn’t make it back to Europe to celebrate his accomplishment. Instead, his ship, the Nao Victoria, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano, finally returned to Seville in 1522 as part of the first circumnavigation of the world.

The Strait of Magellan’s human history

Of course, the Strait of Magellan was only a discovery for European explorers. Humans had inhabited this remote region for millennia, and Magellan’s crew encountered the Indigenous Aónikenk (also known as the Tehuelche) earlier in their journey in what is now the Argentine port of San Julián. This meeting between Europe and the Americas would embed itself in European imagination for the next two and a half centuries.

Prior to meeting them in person, the explorers had been struck by the size of their footprints: enlarged by the animal furs they used as footwear, the Aónikenk’s feet appeared much larger than those of the Europeans. But, when they finally laid their eyes upon the people they would name “Patagones”, the expedition’s chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, described men of extraordinary stature or “giants” that measured up to ten feet (3m) tall – a myth that would last for nearly 300 years.

Claims that they were double the height of the Spanish were, obviously, overblown, and an account of a later British voyage in the 1770s settled the truth: they were tall but certainly not the mythological giants Pigafetta’s account had suggested, standing an average height of around 180cm (5’11”).

Global trade and colonization

Following Magellan’s passage, the strait – alongside the Beagle Channel – became the center of global trade for more than three centuries, offering a reliable route between Europe and its colonies in Australia, California, and the Americas.

It was also the site of an ultimately catastrophic attempt at establishing a settlement on the northern shores of the Strait of Magellan. Sixty years after Magellan’s successful traverse of the strait, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa of Spain arrived, intent on founding a new colony at Punta Santa Ana, 37 miles (60km) south of the present-day Chilean city of Punta Arenas. It quickly became apparent, however, that the location was far from hospitable. When an English privateer landed there three years later, he discovered just one surviving resident, and the settlement acquired the name Puerto del Hambre (Port Famine).

It would take a further 250 years, and the founding of Punta Arenas, before the Strait of Magellan was successfully colonized. Sadly, the populations of the Aónikenk and the three other Indigenous groups of Patagonia – the Kawésqar, the Yaghan, and the Selk’nam – were subsequently driven to near extinction by disease and violence from the colonizers.

What to see and do on the Strait of Magellan

Today, it’s possible to navigate the strait far more easily than it was for Magellan and his crew. Small ship Patagonia expedition cruises ply its waters, landing on islands inhabited by colonies of squawking penguins before heading deeper into Patagonia, while its main city bears testament to Patagonia’s often outlandish history.

Explore Punta Arenas and the Nao Victoria Museum

The largest city on the Strait of Magellan, Punta Arenas, is a place steeped in history. Its Plaza de Armas features a bronze statue of Magellan; local legend has it that by kissing one of his toes, a visitor guarantees they will return to Punta Arenas. Housed nearby in a striking neoclassical palace built for a prominent wool-producing family in the 1900s, the Regional Museum of Magallanes covers Patagonian history and Indigenous culture.

The most compelling stop for maritime history enthusiasts, however, is the Nao Victoria Museum, a short drive outside of the city centre. Located on the shore of the Strait, it houses full-scale replicas of four ships that defined exploration in these waters: Magellan’s Nao Victoria, the HMS Beagle, Shackleton’s lifeboat the James Caird, and the Ancud, which claimed the Strait of Magellan for Chile in 1843. Visitors can board and explore each vessel to appreciate how tiny these ships were relative to the seas they crossed.

Meet the penguins of Magdalena Island and Useless Bay

The most famous island in the Strait of Magellan lies just 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Punta Arenas and has a huge appeal for those interested in Patagonian wildlife. Between October and April each year, Magdalena Island is the location of one of South America’s largest and most accessible Magellanic penguin colonies, with an estimated 60,000 breeding pairs.

Landing on the island is a unique experience. A marked 800-meter path winds between the burrows, where the penguins – largely unbothered by curious onlookers – are busy building nests or raising their chicks. Speedboats from Punta Arenas or cruise ship itineraries connecting the port with the Argentine city of Ushuaia will stop here en-route.

Further south, the U-shaped Useless Bay is carved into the western flank of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago and offers protection to a population of some sixty king penguins, who spend the whole year in residence at what is the only colony of this species in the Americas. Visit the penguins with an overland tour from Punta Arenas.

Sail through the Strait

Modern Strait of Magellan cruiseships pass through with GPS and weather forecasting that the 16th century could not have imagined, but that doesn’t mean a journey along this fabled stretch of water has lost its magic. Because of the narrowness of the channel, it’s possible to observe both shores of wind-ravaged Patagonian steppe at once, and the most dramatic navigational moment on the strait comes at the Primera Angostura – the First Narrows – where the channel tightens, and the Patagonian steppe appears on both sides. These are the waters that brought Magellan’s crew into the channel in late October 1520 as they ventured into a strait that no European map had yet recorded.

While the Indigenous people who once roamed the shores of the strait and paddled along it by dugout canoe are no longer visible, wildlife accompanies visitors on the passage. Look out for black-browed albatrosses and giant petrels that follow in the ship’s wake and the Commerson’s dolphins that leap and play in the foam at the bow.

How to visit the Strait of Magellan

Thanks to its well-connected airport, Punta Arenas is the gateway to Patagonia for most visitors, with flights into the city offering astounding bird’s eye views of the strait on clear days. Overland itineraries to nearby attractions such as Torres del Paine National Park can easily be arranged from Punta Arenas; however, for the experience of sailing through the strait itself, there is no match for a multi-day expedition cruise between Punta Arenas and the Argentine city of Ushuaia further south.

Operators such as Australis offer five- to nine-day itineraries that sail both the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel, stopping at Magdalena Island, a string of tidewater glaciers known as Glacier Alley, and Wulaia Bay, where Yaghan archaeological sites and a small museum offer context on the region’s indigenous history. Some Antarctic-bound cruises departing from Punta Arenas also transit the strait.

This storied body of water has been many things over five centuries: a navigational breakthrough, a trade artery, a place of mutiny and survival, and a setting for some of the era’s most consequential human encounters. Sailing it today, even in the relative comfort of an expedition ship, travelers should expect to be connected to a body of water that has played a fundamental role in global history.

An expedition cruise along the Strait of Magellan offers a unique insight into Patagonia – and one that’s enhanced by the addition of a private overland extension deeper into the region. Our destination experts can help you design a vacation that combines the best of both.