The Museo Martin Gusinde, Aragay 01 (tel. 61/621043), features a good collection of Yaghan and Yamana Indian artifacts, ethnographic exhibits, and stuffed birds and animals. The museum's docent is an anthropologist, naturalist, and all-around expert in the region; he is usually on hand to provide tours in the area. The museum is open Monday through Thursday and Saturday from 10am to 1pm and 3 to 6pm.
About 3km (1 3/4 miles) southeast of Puerto Williams on the main road, at the La Virgen cascade, is a medium-level hiking trail with an exhilarating, sweeping panorama of the Beagle Channel, the Dientes de Navarino mountain range, and Puerto Williams. The hike takes 3 hours round-trip. One of Chile's best backpacking trails, the Dientes de Navarino Circuit, is here, thanks to an Australian who blazed the trail in 1991. The circuit is 53km (33 miles) in length and takes 4 days minimum to walk, with a difficulty level of medium to high, and the mountains are very remote. The trail is open only from late November to April; otherwise, snow makes this walk dangerous and disorienting. The best map is JLM's Tierra del Fuego map, sold in most shops and bookstores. The last descendents of the Yamana Indians live at Villa Ukike to the west of town. Attempts are underway to rescue what can be salvaged of their culture, including their language. They sell crafts in the Centro de ArtesanĂa Yamana Kipa-Akar. A little farther west are the Omora botanical gardens (www.cabodehornos.org), a project to study and protect the world's southernmost forests.
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