Beagle Channel Vacations, Beagle Channel Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Beagle Channel Vacation Guide

The Beagle Channel is a strait separating islands of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, in extreme southern South America. Its eastern portion is part of the border between Chile and Argentina, but the western part is completely within Chile. The west end is the Darwin Sound and the east end is Nueva Island.

The Beagle Channel is about 150 miles long and is about three miles wide at its narrowest point. To the west the Darwin Sound connects it to the Pacific Ocean.

Several small islands (Picton, Lennox and Nueva) up to the Cape Horn were the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina; by the terms of a 1984 treaty they are now part of Chile. Ships of other nations can navigate from and to Ushuaia through the Chilean part of the channel with Chilean Pilot and 48 hours advance notice.

The biggest settlement on the channel is Ushuaia in Argentina followed by Puerto Williams in Chile, which is also the southernmost city of the world.

The channel is named after the ship HMS Beagle which was involved in two hydrographic surveys of the coasts of the southern part of South America in the early 19th century.