Puerto Natales

The Kawésqar, canoe people of the channels, and the Aónikenk, or Tehuelche, hunters of the steppe, lived around the sound long before Europeans arrived. The Spanish navigator Juan Ladrillero entered it in 1557 while searching for a western approach to the Strait of Magellan and called it Última Esperanza, his "last hope". Nearly three centuries later, in 1830, the British survey ship HMS Beagle charted these fjords, and its officers are remembered in local place names. From the 1870s explorers and travellers ventured inland, among them the English writer Lady Florence Dixie, who described the first tourist journey to the Paine towers.

Sheep transformed the area at the end of the 19th century. European immigrants — Germans, British, Croats, Greeks, Italians and Spaniards — were followed by Chileans, many from Chiloé, and the town was formally founded on 31 May 1911 as a port for the sheep industry. The Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego built a cold-storage plant at Puerto Bories, about 5 km away, which froze and shipped meat and wool to Europe until 1993. In 1919 a strike by the Magallanes workers' federation briefly put the workers in control of the town before it was suppressed by the government.

In the second half of the 20th century the sheep industry declined, and many people from Natales went to work in the coal mines of Río Turbio, across the border in Argentina. Tourism to Torres del Paine, and later aquaculture, revived the town, and its population has grown again since 2002.

Puerto Natales is above all a Chilote town at the far end of Patagonia. Migrant workers from the island of Chiloé arrived in large numbers, drawn by the sheep industry, and their cooking, building style and customs still mark the town, alongside many families of British and Croatian descent. The town also has strong left-wing political affiliations.

The town's culture reflects its double life as a working port and a trekking base. The municipal museum keeps the memory of the Kawésqar and Aónikenk and of the pioneer era, the Bories plant preserves its British machinery as industrial heritage, and craft shops sell sheepskin, woodwork, wool sweaters, and mate gourds with bombillas.

Life faces outward to the landscape. Boat trips sail the fjords to view glaciers and icebergs, horse rides visit the estancias around town, and kayaks explore the sound. Above all, Puerto Natales is defined by Torres del Paine, whose three granite towers rise 2,500 metres and draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, many of whom pass through the town on the way.

The city had about 21,500 people at the 2017 census, and it is the only city in the vast, thinly populated province of Última Esperanza. The commune of Natales covers nearly 49,000 square kilometres, larger than seven of Chile's regions, and men outnumber women noticeably. Growth since 2002 has been tied to the expansion of tourism and of aquaculture.

Tourism is now one of the most important industries, with dozens of campsites, hostels, hotels, restaurants and transport services, but cattle farming and fish farming also matter. Despite wind, cold and thin soils, a little local produce is grown, including courgettes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and carrots.

The year swings between a busy summer, when outfitters, guesthouses and buses fill with trekkers, and a quiet winter of short days and rain or snow. The town has more rainy days than any other Chilean city. Supermarkets supply trekkers and residents alike, and the regional capital, Punta Arenas, lies 247 km to the south-east.

Puerto Natales shares the cooking of Magallanes. Cordero magallánico, lamb raised on the steppe and roasted for hours beside an open fire, is the centrepiece of gatherings, and grills in town serve lamb alongside beef. From the cold southern waters come centolla, the southern king crab, its smaller cousin centollón, sea urchins, mussels and southern hake.

The Chilote heritage of many families shows in the town's home cooking, which draws on the traditions of the archipelago far to the north. Calafate, the dark blue berry of a thorny Patagonian shrub, flavours jam and ice cream, and local legend says that whoever eats it will return to Patagonia. Mate is common in homes.

Trekking shapes how the town eats as well. Supermarkets stock dried fruit and nuts, soups and noodles for days on the trail, while the restaurants and pubs around the plaza serve hearty meals and beer to walkers returning from the park, and beer has long been brewed in the region, where craft labels have joined the old brewery in Punta Arenas.