Patagonia is located in the south of Chile, where the American continent ends. It goes from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, continuing through the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego to the south until it reaches the Chilean Antarctic Territory.
Patagonia is located in the south of Chile, where the American continent ends. It goes from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, the Region covers 1,382,033 km, but only 132,033 of them correspond to continental Chile. The rest is the Chilean Antarctic territory, with an extension of 1,250,000 km, almost as much as the entire continental territory of Chile. According to the National Institute of Statistics, the last census conducted in the area shows that in Patagonia about 152 thousand people live.
In Southern Patagonia, at the height of Magallanes, the country connects with the Atlantic thanks to the Strait that gives its name to the region. Here, the landscape changes considerably, filling with fjords and channels, forming villages surrounded by water, where the strong winds give shape to the hills and mountains.
All of Magallanes, in addition, there is presence of glaciers and snowdrifts, thanks to the movement of these formations that began more than one million years ago. The glaciers, in their majority, recede and lose surface due to the temperature of the waters, product of global warming. It was they who, together with the winds, gave form to the landscape and today they are settled along the Andes in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
The Andes Mountain Range in this area changes completely. It arrives only until the 52nd parallel, where it meets the Smith Channel, and reappears in the Brunswick Peninsula, where it disappears again under water, to see the light again in Tierra del Fuego, where it is known as the Darwin Mountain Range.
The most recognized summits in this area are the Murallón Volcano, with 3800 meters, the highest in the region, Lautaro volcano (3,380 meters), Mount Darwin (2,328 meters) and Mount Sarmiento (2,234 meters). The well-known Torres del Paine are also found in this area, with 3,050 meters in height.
In addition to the mentioned mountains, in Patagonia there are the Southern and Northern ice fields, which are the largest freshwater reserve in the world. They cover about 300 km south of the Baker and create an unparalleled landscape, surrounded by lakes, rivers, fjords, snowdrifts and mountains.
Further south, the land continues in dismembered form, giving shape to islands and archipelagos, which create a zigzag path to reach any place in Southern Chile. Many of the archipelagos are part of National Parks and are not inhabited, except for animals that seek shelter and food on their surfaces.