Chile's wild and shaggy southern outpost is almost the end of the line. A wind-wracked former penitentiary, Punta Arenas has hosted tattered sailors, miners, seal hunters, starving pioneers and wealthy dandies of the wool boom. Today, this enigmatic city is a confluence of the ruddy and the grand, geared toward tourism and industry.
Regarded as the world's southernmost city, Punta Arenas looks across the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. However, this remote city is also cosmopolitan, with its surprisingly energetic nightclubs, Chilean air force personnel, centolla (king crab) fishermen and suit-clad businessmen.