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Travel + Leisure
6 days ago
- Travel + Leisure
This Ultra-remote Destination in Chile Has Stunning Vistas—With Snow-covered Peaks, Fjords, and Lush Forests
After Germán Genskowski and his family decided to set up a homestead on the island of Tierra del Fuego in 1985, it took him four years to build a cabin using hand-sawn timber from the surrounding mountains. He brought tools and appliances into the area bit by bit, traveling two days by boat from the port city of Punta Arenas, on the mainland, to the jetty at Caleta María, where his father, an immigrant from Poland, had worked as a logger in the 1940s. From there, Genskowski would lug materials another full day east along the Azopardo River, nearly to the border with Argentina. From the cabin, the nearest settlement was a three-day horseback ride away. His wife and children would return to Punta Arenas each winter, but Genskowski would remain at the cabin, often cut off from the world by several feet of snow. Today, he is considered one of the last settlers on the sparsely inhabited Chilean side of the island, part of the rain-lashed archipelago where the South American continent ends. I met Genskowski, now 80, on a weeklong trip across Tierra del Fuego led by Explora, a company that leads expeditions throughout South America. He told me how, when a gravel road finally reached his property in 2004, he met the change with a shrug. 'I didn't like it much,' he said. 'I was happy with things as they were.' From left: Germán Genskowski at his home in Tierra del Fuego; the port city of Punta Arenas. From left: Explora; Matthew Williams-Ellis/Alamy Things have gotten easier in this isolated part of the island, certainly—a welcome development for Genskowski since a riding accident a decade ago left him unable to mount a horse—but ease was never the point. Our expedition leader, Nicolás Vigil, summed it up when he recited an old Chilean saying before we embarked on our journey: Quien se apura en la Patagonia, pierde su tiempo —'who rushes in Patagonia, wastes their time.' On the first night in Punta Arenas, at Hotel La Yegua Loca, our group of four travelers gathered around a map of the area while the Explora team discussed what the upcoming days would hold: crossing the Strait of Magellan (which separates Tierra del Fuego from the rest of the continent) on a small ferry, a long drive through open pampas, a ride on a fishing boat into the fjords off Admiralty Sound, and hikes up snow-covered peaks and through sprawling forests in Karukinka Natural Park. The latter is a 735,000-acre conservation area that receives just 900 visitors each year. Each excursion would take us deeper into the scarcely touched landscapes in this part of the world. Explora opened its first lodge 30 years ago in Torres del Paine National Park, in Chilean Patagonia, and has since expanded into northern Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Rapa Nui, often called Easter Island. The company quickly gained a reputation for nature-forward design and a commitment to ecological conservation. In 2023, it launched Explora Expeditions, which aims to take small groups into some of the world's least-populated environments. The Tierra del Fuego itinerary was the first of this kind to launch; Sebastián Navarro, an expedition manager with the brand, worked on it for more than a year. Gnarled trees above Lake Fagnano, near Germán Genskowski's home. Early the next morning, we took a ferry two hours east to the fishing town of Porvenir, the principal settlement on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego (the other half is part of Argentina). We then drove south through austere countryside, where llama-like guanacos grazed in grassland beside the slate-gray water. I saw tortured ñires, a native shrub, bent over sideways, as if pushed into place by the wind. Before long, colors bloomed across the landscape; it felt like stepping out of a dark room into obliterating sun. Forests of lenga beeches blazed in auburn and ocher—it was autumn in the Southern Hemisphere—and wisps of lichen, draped over their branches like gauze, glowed celadon green. Just below one rocky summit, Roberto de la Cerda, one of Explora's guides, showed us how to read the mountainsides as open ledgers of geologic time. Twilight lasted hours. Even the grayscale of distant fog seemed luminous. As the landscape came into focus, so too did its contrasts—between the ageless and the ephemeral, an ancient topography and a changeable climate. The green clover, purple lupine, and bone-white yarrow that grew along the roadside, Vigil explained, had been introduced by sheep farmers in the 19th century. Within decades, the settlers' brutal expansionism had decimated the Indigenous Selk'nam, who'd arrived some 10,000 years before. Guanacos grazing in Karukinka Natural Park. We arrived at Genskowski's property and settled into one of the three cozy timber cabins he had built by hand, which Explora staffer Ariel Ramirez had spruced up with sheets, towels, and toiletries from one of the brand's lodges. Over the course of three nights, Emanuel Mellado, chef at Explora's lodge in the Atacama Desert, prepared decadent meals of seared guanaco steaks and snow-crab pasta. The next morning, in the slow inky hours before dawn, we boarded a repurposed fishing boat, the Alakush, and sailed west against the wind into Admiralty Sound and down into Parry Bay, both lined with snowcapped peaks that looked as if they had been thrust up from the water's edge. The sky, miraculously clear all morning, clouded over as we veered into a narrow fjord where frigid winds gusted off the barricade glaciers at its southern end. Stepping ashore, we followed the banks of a rushing river, opaque with minerals and sediment, until we reached its glacial source; I could see the ice calving into a metal-gray lagoon. Back on the Alakush, I stood on deck with Danilo Bahamonde, who assists on chartered excursions from spring through fall. When he first came to this area as a teenager some 40 years ago, the glacier extended as far as the fjord, about half a mile away. 'This place changes every year,' he said, stoic about the obvious impact of climate change but still unmistakably awed by a landscape he's known most of his life. 'You get used to seeing things disappear.' That evening back at the cabin, Genskowski told us about a time, not so long ago, when it wasn't uncommon for heavy winter snows to begin in April; that April, autumn foliage had just started to emerge. An autumn landscape in Karukinka Natural Park. Not all change means loss. In recent years, new national parks have opened in the archipelago. In September 2023, the remaining descendants of the Selk'nam finally won formal recognition as one of Chile's 11 First Peoples, a profound reversal of the narrative. That gravel road near the Genskowskis' property is still advancing, albeit at barely 3,000 feet per year. He fears the influx of tourism it might eventually bring. Still, on our final night, gathered around the fire where he had spent the better of the day spit-roasting a lamb culled from his flock, that future seemed mercifully remote. The next morning, we headed back north, crossing the winding mountain passes that separate the Genskowskis from the rest of the world, past the rocky summit where, the day before, we'd climbed through fresh, ankle-deep snow under a blazing sun and bright blue sky. Back down in the pampas, we boarded a turboprop to return to Punta Arenas. During our brief 40 minutes in the air, I kept my forehead pressed to the window, watching the mountains as they dissolved into grassland. The hours and days that had dilated so spectacularly on the ground snapped into metronomic order—too fast, too rushed, each second a lost opportunity to look more closely. Below, rivers so blue they were almost black meandered across the pampas: a reminder, perhaps, that the long way is always more beautiful. A version of this story first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Living on the Edge."
Washington Post
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Live updates: Israeli ministers sanctioned by UK and other countries over West Bank incitement
International pressure has increased again on Israel. Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway say they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly 'inciting extremist violence' against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich face asset freezes and travel bans. They are champions of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Settler violence there has spiked since the start of the war in Gaza , where the ministers have been the most vocal in support of hardline policies.
Russia Today
07-06-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Israeli cabinet minister tells banks to ignore EU sanctions
Israeli banks should provide services to settlers whom the European Union has slapped with sanctions, despite any potential repercussions, the country's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has insisted. He warned that those failing to comply could be made to pay out hefty compensations. Last July, the EU for the first time in its history imposed punitive measures on five Israeli settlers and three groups over 'serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians' in the occupied West Bank, which is considered part of Palestine under international law. Apart from an EU-wide entry ban and an asset freeze, the sanctions prohibit the 'provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly,' to the affected Israeli nationals. In a post on X on Wednesday, the official, who is known for his far-right views, said that he had sent a letter to the banking supervisor, Dani Khachiashvili, in which he demanded an end to 'the 'zero risk' policy on the part of banks, which leads to the abandonment of Israeli customers under the guise of compliance with foreign sanctions.' Smotrich accused Israeli financial institutions of 'small-mindedness' and unquestioning compliance with 'unjust' EU sanctions. He argued that banks in fact 'have a significant ability to act against' Brussels' punitive measures, by taking legal action and wielding their 'global economic connections.' The official threatened that if his call was not heeded, he would push for legislation that would force Israeli financial institutions to pay out sizable compensations to the affected individuals. The Israeli finance minister further wrote that he could also promote legislation that would require the Bank of Israel to 'open and manage bank accounts for citizens on whom sanctions are imposed.' Speaking to AFP last month, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that Stockholm would 'push for EU sanctions against individual Israeli ministers' since there was no 'clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza.' At around the same time, her Slovenian colleague, Tanja Fajon, announced that her country was 'looking into the possibility of sanctions against Israel, alongside France and Ireland.' Also in May, the UK and Canada, which are not part of the EU, along with France, issued a joint statement condemning the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza. The document accused the Israeli government of denying 'essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population' of the Palestinian enclave. London, Ottawa and Paris threatened to 'take further concrete actions,' including 'targeted sanctions,' should 'egregious actions' on the part of Israel continue. The statement also demanded that Israel halt settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.
Al Bawaba
04-06-2025
- General
- Al Bawaba
Israeli settlers launch major attack on Deir Dibwan, injuring 35 and causing widespread destruction
ALBAWABA- Violence escalated across the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday, as Israeli settlers launched a large-scale attack on the West Bank village of Deir Dibwan, injuring at least 35 people and causing widespread destruction. According to Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses, dozens of settlers stormed the village, located east of Ramallah, setting fire to homes, vehicles, and agricultural land. The attack included the burning of the "Abu Shahada Farm" at the western entrance of the town and targeted homes belonging to the Abu Kaid family. Mayor of Deir Dibwan told Al Jazeera that 35 residents were injured, with Red Crescent emergency teams reporting several cases of physical assault. Two individuals were transferred to the hospital, while five others were treated at a local medical center. Eyewitnesses reported that families were besieged inside their homes as the settlers carried out arson attacks across the town. The violence in Deir Dibwan adds to a growing number of settler-led assaults in the West Bank, amid rising tensions across the region. Meanwhile, in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm, Israeli forces conducted a raid in the Kuttab neighborhood, reportedly assaulting residents and searching numerous buildings, according to local sources. In Gaza, the situation remains dire as Israeli troops opened fire near food distribution centers for the second time in three days. Palestinian health authorities confirmed that 27 people were killed in the latest shooting near an aid site, part of a contested humanitarian initiative backed by the U.S. and Israel. Dozens more have been killed across various parts of Gaza since the morning. The repeated targeting of aid areas has drawn sharp criticism from humanitarian groups and raised urgent concerns over the safety of civilians relying on food assistance in the besieged enclave.
Al Bawaba
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Israel: 3 rockets fired from Gaza, 1 intercepted
Published May 26th, 2025 - 07:12 GMT ALBAWABA - The Israeli army revealed that three projectiles were launched from Gaza on Monday, and the defense forces intercepted one. It is worth noting that Israelis will be marking the "Jerusalem Day" march. Al-Jazeera said, citing sources, that at least 880 settlers have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem since Monday morning. "A short while ago, three projectiles were identified from the southern Gaza Strip toward the communities near the Gaza Strip," a statement posted by the Israeli army read. "Two projectiles fell in the Gaza Strip and one additional projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory," it added on Monday. A large number of Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas in Jerusalem, waving Israeli flags, chanting, and performing Talmudic rituals to celebrate 'Jerusalem Day'. 🔴 LIVE updates: — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 26, 2025 © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
