Puerto Eden Wellington Island Chile
Chile
22
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
HX Expeditions (4 Cruises)
Frequently Asked Questions
By small boat. Expedition ships anchor off the shore of Wellington Island: there is no road and no cruise pier. Only boats reach this hamlet in the channels of western Patagonia.
None. Wooden walkways link a few dozen coloured houses set between soaked forest and the water of the Messier Channel. No road, no cars: the boardwalk network is the only route there is.
A people of sea nomads who travelled these channels for millennia in bark canoes, keeping a fire burning on a clay bed aboard the boat. The hamlet is home to one of the last Kawésqar communities, settled during the twentieth century.
Rush-woven baskets and miniature replicas of the old canoes. Buying one directly supports the transmission of a culture that UNESCO and Chile are working to document. Bring Chilean pesos in cash: there is no card terminal for hundreds of kilometres.
Follow the walkways, quite simply. They hug the coast, cross the inlets and serve the school, the chapel, the health post and the harbourmaster's office. A lookout at the top of a steep staircase takes in the hamlet, the grey bay and the mountains of Bernardo O'Higgins park.
It is raining, probably. This is one of the wettest inhabited places in Chile, and the drizzle can last all day without ever turning nasty. Waterproof boots and a wind shell are essential, not optional.
They climb, descend and get slippery in the rain. Hold the handrails, as the villagers do. The walk stays accessible, but shoes with grippy soles make all the difference.
From fishing, from harvesting cholgas, the large mussels smoked using a technique inherited from the Kawésqar, and from the ferry linking southern Patagonia to the Lake District. The community numbers some 250 people.
Only with their consent. The community is small and everyone knows everyone: a photo snatched on the sly is noticed immediately. A few words of Spanish are enough to ask, and often enough to start a conversation about the weather.
The name puzzles you on arrival in the rain, then it makes sense. Between squalls, when light breaks through the clouds and sets the channel alight, the place suddenly lives up to its name, and you understand why some never wanted to leave.
