Drakes Passage - Tierra del Fuego, 30th December 2019

We made surprisingly good time across the Drake Passage to reach Cape Horn by late afternoon. Cape Horn was first "discovered" in 1616 and was named after the hometown of the Dutch explorers who sailed around it. This "discovery" is an utterly bizarre concept to me considering that this whole area had been settled by indigenous Yaghan people for at least 8,000 years. These people have been virtually wiped off the face of the planet due to smallpox, measles, lack of food resources due to overhunting of seals and whales by Europeans and organised bounty hunting by gold miners and sheep farmers who settled the area during the proceeding centuries. The Yaghans themselves would have comprised of different groups each with their own language and traditions. Only one full-blooded and native speaker remains alive as of today, what a sad, sad state of affairs. As we sailed through the Magellan the following evening I was particularly struck at how empty and lonely the landscape appeared to be. Incredible to think that these same shorelines would have whole families and communities hunting and fishing here for countless generations, all gone now.

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Blue Petrel

Blue Petrel

Northern Giant Petrel

Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel

Grey-headed Albatross

Grey-headed Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Wandering Albatross

Chilean Skua

Imperial Cormorant

Cape Horn

Albatross memorial on Cape Horn.

Cape Horn lighthouse and research centre.