Where I'm taking you tonight,
there are no concessions.
Nature here is like the first morning on earth.
The journey's departure point is Punta Arenas and its harbour
on the Strait of Magellan, at the southernmost tip of Chile.
Good evening and welcome to an extraordinary journey
in Chilean Patagonia.
An 18-hour flight from Paris,
a scent of the world's end.
Patagonia is first of all
a series of breathtaking views.
(Patagonia, Extreme Nature)
Extraordinary landscapes!
We will follow Rodrigo
on board his hydroplane,
but also Esteban,
the ferry's commander.
In Patagonia, the sea is everywhere, dangerous,
despite appearances. A maze of majestic fjords.
Patagonia also means
traditions.
On Chiloe Island,
the whole village is coming together
for a minga.
Here, the word solidarity has a real meaning.
Coming to Patagonia
means enjoying an exceptional nature.
Accompanied by Juan, we will go dance with the whales.
Glaciers as far as you can see.
Patagonia is
the world's 3rd biggest freshwater reserve.
We'll follow those who manage
this precious resource,
and after intense effort,
an elegant reward.
It's very good.
It's the same as in our bottles.
Living in Patagonia means accepting isolation
like Gabriel and his wife.
Our four-star hotel.
They live here
for a month.
They pick giant mussels defying all danger.
When everything goes well and we catch good products,
I do a somersault.
Travelling in Patagonia,
sometimes means taking
risks like Marco,
truck driver and philosopher.
Whoever is in a hurry in Patagonia loses time.
Anything can happen on the road.
Taking your time to benefit from the scenery and dream.
Like this millionaire couple from the US.
Their project: returning to the origins of Patagonia.
Our journey will end not far from the mythical Cape Horn
with the last Chileans at the edge of the world.
These are the last islands of Chile.
I'll even dare say the last islands on earth.
Before beginning our journey, it's impossible for me
not to talk about Magellan.
He discovered Patagonia 500 years ago and offered to
the world this new passage between the Atlantic and Pacific.
The Strait of Magellan
on which I advance with difficulty today.
Opposing winds,
in gusts of 50 km/h, and the rain which complicates
our navigation a little more.
Through the 5 centuries since Magellan's accomplishment,
Spanish maritime maps have displayed a note:
In English: Here, there are no good seasons.
Chilean Patagonia doesn't offer itself. It has to be earned.
On the borders of the South American continent,
a long strip between land and sea.
In the south, Tierra del Fuego.
In the north, Chiloe island, the size of Corsica.
Chiloe where there's a certain excitement this morning.
Music and happy people today
in this village.
The residents gathered around this young woman,
Marisol, because it's the great day of the minga.
What's a minga?
It's when someone who needs a hand
asks the community for a favour.
The person organizes everything.
Marisol just bought this house.
She wants to move it to her land, on the other side
of the beach. She called on her neighbours,
and in the blink of an eye,
2 tree trunks appeared under the foundations.
We'll pass the chains around these pillars.
And then we'll lift this part to attach it here,
and it will all be pulled
by animals.
Here, moving has a particular meaning, unique in the world.
Moving your house
has been part of the island's traditions for a long time.
When a family moves,
it's easier to move the house rather than
building another one.
Chiloe is a land where houses travel.
Don Jose, the chief carpenter,
is anything but a beginner.
Everything is well thought out. All you have to do is wait.
Veterans like him know how to do everything.
But I'm not saying you're old, Don Jose.
Well! You haven't seen my ID card.
You don't know my age, Marisol.
The minga tradition dates back to the period when the
inhabitants did the harvests all together.
During these several days of collective work,
we share our meals,
and we finish with an asado, a huge barbecue.
- Hey! You owe me 3000. - I'll bring it over.
He's preparing the pig.
I'll go get the meat a little later.
The time has come.
On the beach, it's arrival time for the athletes.
The bulls
are indispensable
to accomplish a minga.
This one is Recuerdo.
The other one, Muchacho.
You're the strongest, Recuerdo.
You need 16 like these to pull the house.
But Don Jose, the carpenter, is always worried.
The weight of the house is a problem.
It's on a beach of pebbles, the trunks can sink in.
Since we're not on solid ground,
we need the force of all the animals.
Let's go.
To spare the animals, we need to make pauses.
Everyone benefits from it.
Serving drinks to everyone
is part of the tradition.
Cider and beer.
For the time being, nothing is broken.
Everything went well.
At 11am this morning, the little village stopped
in order to follow the event.
300 meters more to cover, half the way.
So where do we put it now?
Bring the house over here. We'll turn it around.
There. Up to here.
Then we'll put it back up.
Minga, a Chiloe speciality,
is carried out by real experts.
The manoeuvre is almost perfect.
This is the most complicated part.
They align it and bring it closer to my fence.
The house found its place facing the sea.
Hello.
My name is Rodrigo.
I'm a pilot in Patagonia.
Rodrigo settled in Patagonia
20 years ago.
He left everything in Santiago,
the capital, to come build his life
in this nature. This is where he learned
how to fly and became a pilot.
What I like the most
is that everyday is different.
One day, it's one flight.
The next day, another.
Yesterday, I flew in difficult conditions.
There was no visibility.
The conditions were extreme. And today, it's fantastic.
I can go land anywhere.
The lakes here in the South are inaccessible.
There's no road to drive here.
The hydroplane is ideal.
With his hydroplane, thanks to the small tires
installed under the floats, Rodrigo can land
in the middle of the fields.
Rodrigo spends the summer with his wife and children
in this house which is accessible only by plane.
A life choice shared
by all in the family.
It's the tranquillity,
the forest, the nature.
It's the harmony that pleases me here.
It's a chance that my children can grow up here.
Rodrigo's work is incredible.
Imagine flying here
everyday.
He has the world's greatest job.
It's morning, the start of a new work day.
I plan my flight, and then I send my plan.
It's easy with Internet.
Before, we had to call by radio.
We asked whether the peaks were visible in order to assess
visibility, whether there was rain, or lots of wind.
These are photos of the family that's growing.
This is Ricardo, my instructor friend. He died
in a plane accident.
The weather.
It's part of the job.
Are there a lot of plane accidents here?
Every 2 or 3 years.
They are all caused by bad weather.
You really have to be careful.
That's how it is. It's the profession.
There are statistics.
You should not go into statistics.
Meanwhile,
in Puerto Montt,
Another departure is underway.
Destination the Big South in this faraway Chile.
Away from the city centre, a ship prepares to leave.
It's the Eden.
During the southern summer,
the ferry takes to the sea on Fridays, late afternoon.
It transports cargo
and some sixty passengers.
Dear passengers, hello. We inform you that
in a few moments you ll have an information session
about our journey and our shipping route.
My name is Esteban.
I'm the commander of the ferry Eden.
I'm a little over 50.
This ferry transports merchandise and passengers
from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales.
4 days, 3 nights, and more than 1000 km
across the canals of Patagonia,
that's the Eden's road map.
-Come in. -May I, commander?
The cruise manager is finding out about the
shipping route.
Passage through the canals is close.
It's important to choose an exit to the high sea
before nightfall.
This is our position.
We'll skirt the island from the south and exit via this canal.
It will take us 4 hours.
Then we'll be in the sea.
We'll go back to the canals tomorrow at 5 in the morning.
How is the forecast for the sea?
The forecast is good with improvement expected.
The success of the crossing
depends on the weather.
Percival can now inform the passengers
in every language or almost.
No, I don't speak French.
We are in the Chonos archipelago.
Imagine yourself in this canal.
Currents are so powerful
that on stormy days, you can have waves that are
5 to 10 meters high, right here.
We are very lucky then.
Come on, smile. you're the boat's captain.
These passengers are from the Americas, Asia,
or Europe,
but also from Chile.
More and more Chileans are discovering their country
by making this trip to the South. For most of us,
Patagonia is still a very faraway land.
As kids, they used to tell us: When God created
the earth, he took care of this part last.
So, God only dropped off the earth's dust here.
It's a nice Chilean proverb.
The story of the Eden started
in other latitudes. At the time, it was called
the Montecinto and connected Corsica
to the continent.
10 years later,
there are still a few signs
of its French identity: the engine room
and its 2 engines of 5000 watts.
We the engineers here
we say this engine
is the boat's heart.
This is what we say.
And those on the bridge
up there say they are the brain.
The Eden, the unique sea link
with the Great South is a lot more than a ferry.
It's also a strategic link
in a huge region.
An indispensable link where certain horizons
remain unexplored.
Since the 1980 s, we extended our presence
in the canals.
We now go all the way to Punta Arenas
and Puerto Natales.
The entire Chilean territory is now connected thanks to us
without passing through Argentina.
Last technical controls
on the airfield's runway.
Rodrigo is a taxi-plane. This morning
he's urgently transporting customers 200 km to the south.
Schedules change every day.
New flights,
a capricious weather.
A daily adventure
that he would not change for anything.
I am autonomous,
I take my own decisions. I don't have a co-pilot.
I can't stand taking orders.
I have a problem with authority.
So this is perfect.
Flying over the Andes mountain range.
A stunning view of millenary glaciers.
The glaciers are diminishing very fast here.
They are melting rapidly.
We are on top of the summits and it's 5 degrees.
For this altitude, it's too warm.
The ice can't hold up. We must protect what's left.
It's important. It has to be done fast.
This is an incredible water reserve,
all these glaciers.
A single block of mountains,
valleys and ice. It's very spectacular.
Magnificent landscapes!
With its 2 ice fields, 21,000 km2,
Chilean Patagonia is home
to the world's 3rd biggest freshwater reserve.
But for 20 years now,
the ice giants have been retreating and melting.
Under a glacier exactly.
That's where Carla meets the technicians
from the Ice Swan plant.
Once a week,
Carla's work day begins,
with a Tyrolean crossing followed by a 2-hour walk
in a primal forest.
For us, it's very special to come here.
This place is not touristic.
We do maintenance and installations.
Unlike other paths,
we move constantly with the
sound of waterfalls in our ears.
The work can finally begin
in pure water.
This water comes from way up.
Then it passes through this pipe which goes all the way down
and transports all the water from the mountain
to the factory.
It's very important to come
because it's a waterfall made of rain water
and melting ice.
I must control all the parameters
to know what reaches the factory.
This water is pure.
No human being comes all the way here.
We are the only ones.
There are no roads to bring anyone here.
There is no pollution,
no waste.
At the foot of the waterfall,
an ultra-modern factory built among the trees.
Water from the glaciers is bottled here.
Luxury water sold in flasks, precious water.
This is the marketing strategy:
to build on the purity of Patagonia
and to implement new age theories.
There's a speaker here, and another one on the other side.
This is the big difference of our product.
We put water in bottles to the sound of music.
We follow the theories of a Japanese professor,
Professor Masaru Emoto.
He claims that water has memory
and if we broadcast classical and mild music,
water molecules will line up
in a perfect shape.
The memory of water, all the way in Patagonia.
The first 2 containers of bottles have just left
for the Chinese market.
This work, it's as if we were sharing part of
our Patagonia.
In each bottle, there's something from us.
We like this, because we know that freshwater
is a very rare resource and not everyone has access to it.
In the north of Chile for instance, there is nothing.
This water is our privilege.
Look at all this water.
It accumulated up there for years and years.
It comes down and directly joins the sea at 300 m.
We are taking a very small part of it.
Ice Swan is the first factory to
put Patagonia in bottles. There is no legislation yet
to protect the waterways and glaciers
and prevent their privatization.
These are canals that join the ocean.
There are lots of fjords.
His name is
Fritz Oppenheimer. He's the plant manager. He lives in Puyuhuapi.
Puyuhuapi, founded in 1935
by 3 young Germans who came
from Sudetenland.
At the time,
settlers were the first to
clear out the forest. In the village, the houses
still look like chalets. The names, the language were
transmitted from generation to generation.
Ursula, Fritz's mother,
is one of those pioneers.
At home, we always spoke German.
And then Spanish at school.
My father, when he came to visit us from Germany,
said my children spoke better German
than the German children at home and that they were even better
at spelling than them.
We left Germany
with the idea of conquering new lands.
The first settlers were expelled Sudeten Germans
and they came here to start a new motherland.
But in fact, we weren't the one to conquer this land.
It was the land that conquered us. This land captured us.
Towards the south, Patagonia turns
more and more wild, among fjords, lakes, and mountains.
It makes me think that the planet must have been
like this, several million years ago.
A sanctuary,
like the one that I am about to discover this morning.
I am at the heart of the Francisco Coloane Marine Park,
accompanied by Juan, its founder.
A paradise for humpback whales.
Over there,
superb!
Is it normal that
there are so many whales?
Yes, we're in February, it's the peak of their presence.
We should be seeing a lot of whales today.
Over there, we have about fifteen. -Here, we have two.
Do they come looking for food?
Yes, this is the period when they find
abundant food.
Fish and krill.
Oh my.
The tail! The tail! The tail!
How many recorded
whales are there in the park?
We recorded 152 in 2014. You have to add
those we'll see this year. They re all coming towards us.
This photo is going to be great.
A new one?
No. But it's the first time
it reappears this season.
When you catalogue them, do you give them names?
Look, look.
3. 4!
If they are new, yes. Otherwise they already have a name.
To find a name, I use a particularity from
the animal's body. Either when I see them,
or when I look at the photos.
So it's very easy
for me to remember, according to the reason
why I called them that.
This one for instance, the one on the right
just coming up, it's Quillo.
It's because it has a cut
in front of the dorsal fin.
It must have been hit by a boat's keel
or something of that sort.
And every time
you look at your photos, there's
an emotion for each animal that you encounter again,
among those already recorded?
It's always very strange. On the one hand, I'm a scientist,
but I have a strong emotion when I run into whales
that I have known since they were babies.
I saw them arrive with their mothers years ago.
The Coloane park is the number one marine reserve in Chile.
Attention!
Over here!
But Juan and his friends are a bit alone in this adventure.
The Chilean state doesn't provide any subsidies.
Therefore,
in order to finance his project, Juan built this camp on stilts.
A dozen tents in the middle
of nowhere, on Carlos III island.
The nearest town is 8 hours away by boat.
Juan, this setting is splendid.
It's exceptional for someone discovering it.
You can tell the amount of work
that went into the steps that help cross this virgin forest.
It was tremendous work?
The first decision that we took
when we built all this, was to install these bridges,
and these platforms, planted above the vegetation
so they wouldn't be harmed.
As you can see, there's abundant vegetation.
It's typical of fjords. It's very fragile and very humid.
All this was built in stages.
10 years of work was needed
to create this 100% ecological living space,
which has total autonomy.
Tourists and scientists are welcome.
It's very important
that people come here.
Especially European visitors who love these isolated places.
It's not the comfort
of a 5-star hotel, but being in an unknown place,
at the end of the world, that people like a lot.
Particularly the French in fact, our top customers
right before the Germans.
The camp has finally started to make its first profits.
Just enough to allow Juan to continue
with his research on humpback whales.
And when he's not at sea,
his open air office is enough to make everyone jealous.
We arrive at my observatory.
A big part of the observation work is made from here.
We chose this spot on a hill because from here we can watch
The Strait of Magellan at 230 degrees.
We are surrounded by mountains.
Over there, the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, and here, the tip of
the South American continent. In between, Carlos III island.
We'll join Juan later, but for the time being,
let's return inland, with Rodrigo, the tireless voyager.
On Rio Baker, one of the big rivers
of the region, a dam project almost disfigured the landscape
and it continues to be a threat
at the border of the most recent private park
created in Chile.
It's the future Patagonia Park,
300,000 hectares, at the heart of Chacabuco Valley,
crossed in the past only by gauchos
and their herds of livestock.
That's it, we are at the estancia.
This park belongs
to two individuals,
Douglas and Kris Tompkins,
the world's biggest landowners.
Rodrigo works for them. Environmentalist US millionaires
nicknamed green barons
of Chile because they buy immense areas of land
with the goal of preserving and protecting nature.
Rodrigo is a great pilot.
He obtained his license when he started working for us.
He had very few flying hours and he started gently.
Then he acquired a lot of experience.
Before, I was the only pilot here.
I don't remember how long I have known Rodrigo.
15 years? -Nearly 20, no?
It's been a long time.
Before, in Chacabuco, there was
only 1 estancia and its employees.
No grass, no garden. But K. Tompkins took things
into her hands. Spending millions of dollars,
she started developing the area.
This former boss of a famous US brand
of clothing left California
for Chile 20 years ago.
She barely spoke Spanish, she learned it here.
In Chacabuco, Kris Tompkins remained herself.
Hello!
She's a businesswoman and
leaves nothing to chance.
It's very exciting.
The chance of a lifetime.
In the morning, she inspects the construction site.
A hotel, a camping ground,
an accommodation centre, and roads are being built.
Each detail is discussed, controlled.
We chose
an English style, old, original. It's the classical style
of an Argentine estancia. We chose stone buildings
for low maintenance. All the stones are from here.
The sense of harmony is obvious. You don't want
a post-modern building in a place so majestic.
I wanted the buildings to mix, their colours
and textures to combine with the landscape. We also wanted
to create in this park an architecture reflecting the
importance of the place itself.
Once completed, the park
will be handed to the Chilean state and become a national park.
This is an old road leading to the estancia.
Before, it was used to transport livestock.
When we bought the estancia, there were
3,000 cows. We tore down 675 km
of barriers.
That much!
It's really a lot of work.
There's always this religious idea that
man must dominate nature.
But it doesn't correspond to any scientific or
biological reality.
In its name, people continue wanting to dominate the world.
They make a lot of errors, commit crimes.
We are our own worst enemy.
Without barriers, without cattle,
the soil is taking over, slowly, in a wild way.
It's difficult to imagine what this place looked like
10 years ago.
There was nothing here.
It was eaten down to the ground.
It was incredible.
Every spring, the herbs grew again, ready to sprout.
But the cattle finished them all.
You would never have seen this.
Look at these seeds.
This is life.
The germination of life.
The first year I saw these seeds fly away,
I had tears in my eyes.
Nature without human beings,
for plants to grow and for animals in danger of extinction.
A sanctuary.
A few gauchos from the former estancia
are still here, after converting to new technologies,
like Daniel.
If there's an animal in the vicinity, there's a beep
that the collar transmits and I receive.
It goes like this. Beep. Beep.
Beep.
Here, we have more animals on the other side of the lake.
There are a lot?
They are on the other side, a male and a female.
Tracking the most symbolic
animal in Patagonia,
an endangered species.
The animal is called guemal.
When they hear a noise, they are scared.
They think we are hunters.
When you move gently, they remain calm.
I believe there are only
2000 guemals left in Argentina and Chile.
It's very little.
If they are protected,
the number can go up.
I write down everything.
GPS details, dates, times, everything, everyday.
At the Lodge, the setting is
luxurious, rooms are expensive. The price to pay
to discover the wild.
She is Californian, he arrived at the end of
of his studies in economics to work
with the Tompkins.
They have come a long way in Chile.
When the Tompkins arrived 20 years ago,
everybody was suspicious about them.
Nobody understood what they were trying to do.
They said they wanted to buy land, and keep it for themselves.
Philanthropy is
a new concept in South America.
The project
is still very controversial for the local community.
But at a national level, it's better accepted.
It's complicated for people to change mentalities.
It will take a long time.
Kris Tompkins owns many houses
like this one in Patagonia.
One in each park.
In Chacabuco,
she spends 6 months a year.
The first time I came to Patagonia was in Argentina.
And when I arrived, I thought: It's here.
This is where I want to be on Earth. I don't know why
you fall in love with a place, that's what happened to me.
I remember that moment very well.
Douglas Tompkins never stays in one place for a long time.
The park's construction is almost over.
With Rodrigo, he's flying to another project,
new property,
and business to take care of.
When it's all done,
the Patagonia Park will be over 300,000 hectares.
It will be
the size of Yosemite Park in the United States.
The border with Argentina is just there.
It's in the middle of the lake.
Everything to the left is Argentina, the right is Chile.
Of course, there will be
many more stages before it's completed.
It's everyone's dream to join together
the 2 sides, the Argentine
and the Chilean sides,
to have a single united sanctuary.
What if Patagonia is the land of all possibilities,
of all dreams?
The dream of Juan,
the scientist in love with humpback whales,
is growing at the heart of the Francisco Coloane Park.
He too
is proud of the work done, with new residents
this time.
Look, Georges, we are arriving at one of the most interesting
spots of the marine park. 2 islets where there are
2 species of sea otters. On the small islet,
there is the common sea otter, with babies.
It's the period of reproduction. And on the big one,
we have southern otters. They only come here to rest.
-How many of them in all? -Yes. There are about
400 common otters and 1800 southern otters. It's huge.
You see, it's funny. This group functions like a harem.
There is one male for an entire group of females.
In this precise case,
there are 2 males who share 18 females and there are 11 babies
right now.
It's all very well organized.
Yes, they reproduce, they eat, they rest.
If there are 2 males, there is a fight because only one will
be the harem chief. -There are 2 males
but here, they are not in competition.
They have defined their respective harems and
share their territory. Each is surrounded by his females.
You are showing us
all the animals in the park.
Are you proud of these 15 years of work?
Of course we are proud, along with everyone working here.
We first succeeded in collecting information
for four years and regularly
transmitting it all the way to the government
to obtain the creation of Chile's first Marine Park.
Yes, I'm happy but sometimes, I think these 15 years passed
too fast, that we need another 15 years. There is work to do.
This park is an enclave in a
universe where glaciers are melting.
There are also fisheries developing in the vicinity,
and mines which were opened and could affect all this.
We'll see what happens.
The ferry Eden continues its route.
It's the 3rd day of navigation.
49th south,
in this vast interior sea, all the reefs
have not been inventoried.
Yes ships have sunk here. It's a complicated route.
Operating a vessel
like this one is not easy. No book
tells you how to do it. You have to experience,
feel the navigation. You must be the friend of clouds,
rain, wind, and waves.
No crossing resembles another.
The ferry is reducing its speed
because the English Narrows
are in view.
The passage
must be made at daytime. The officers are on the bridge,
around commander Esteban.
The vessel slides through the rocks.
There's no more than 4m on each side.
It's perfect. A really good job.
Of course, we trust them, as if this manoeuvre
were easy, natural. Then you realize they calculated their
move so they wouldn't miss it. The space to pass through
is really very very tight.
On the Eden's route, there will be other straits.
But tonight, the commander can go relax.
It's bingo night,
just before the ferry's 1st stop.
That's Puerto Eden, and the arrival is tomorrow morning
before 9am.
When I travel by plane and I detect a lost house,
I think: What is it doing in the middle of nowhere? Same
for this village. What is it doing here?
The Eden is subsidized
by the Chilean state to stop by this village at the end of
the world, summer and winter.
A stopover of less than 1 hour,
indispensable for its inhabitants
who live off the sea.
The inhabitants of Puerto Eden drop off their products.
They are essentially seafood, as you can see.
And this is what we deliver them.
But we are only transporters.
What works well here, is bartering.
They exchange seafood with fresh products,
sometimes with money too.
But in general, they exchange goods.
On the one side, goods destined for civilization,
and in return, everything necessary for them to live.
The ferry's silhouette will not reappear before 5 days.
Puerto Eden, a village
on life support.
Those who live here are fighters.
My name is Gabriel Chigoi-Chigoi.
I'm 43 years old and the last mussel fisherman in the village.
I feel free here. It's calm and splendid.
I hope I will never leave this place.
This is the house I live in.
I built it with the force of my own arms in 10 days.
Alone, with my wife.
It's my little house.
In their little house, Gabriel and Lorena don't pay for water
or electricity which only works intermittently.
Here, the state encourages communities to stay.
But in Puerto Eden, there's still
no doctor, not even a nurse.
For us, this place is an extreme zone.
In other words, everyday
we take risks. We put our lives in danger.
A simple example: if I have a diving accident far from here,
what can I do? Return to the village and wait for assistance.
Nothing else.
So as it often happens
in distant lands, people get together around the fundamentals.
Come on, jump. Go.
The lancha is indispensable for moving around.
But the most important thing here is counting on people close to you.
A generous and united family
to take care of Gabriel,
the diver of Puerto Eden.
Route Nord, The Northern Route,
Gabriel goes gently into the heart of nature,
guided by his instinct
and his Indian origins.
I'm originally from Chiloe Island.
My family has been living there for 5 generations.
We are Huilliche Indians. In Mapuche language
it means Those who live in the south.
Yes, I am proud of my roots. I'm happy about it
even if today, I'm far from my island Chiloe.
Our 4 star hotel!
A makeshift camp where everyone
finds their place, their habits.
This shelter will serve to eat and sleep
for 4 or 5 weeks: nobody knows yet.
Today, we're enlarging the house.
The entire Chiguoy family is here: brothers, sisters, cousins,
have come to lend a hand
to Gabriel and Lorena.
And since it's vacation time in Chile,
little Jorge, the nephew, is also part of the expedition.
I like accompanying my uncle when he goes diving.
-So you enjoy it? -Yes!
And I d like to come back next time too.
-In the winter? -Yes.
-In the month of June. -Yes.
Sleeping in the cabin, preparing the fire, drinking maté at dawn:
a life style that's the dream of many a child.
But in the world of adults today,
a long day of work is about to begin.
This morning, they must read
the sea, interpret its reflections guess its dark spots,
imagine where colonies of shellfish hide
at a depth of 10 to 15 meters.
When I started diving, I was not at ease,
I felt squashed like a sardine.
But in 15 years, I got used to my work outfit.
At least it keeps me warm, it has the right temperature.
The compressor is indispensable.
And while the diver gets ready,
the family watches his gestures
so that nothing is left to chance.
Gabriel
looks for cholgas, the wild mussels
of Patagonia, the shellfish that Indian
communities have consumed for centuries.
The cholgas cling to rocks and often hide
under the algae.
On the surface, there is sometimes a surge, the boat moves,
but under the water, it's always calm.
It moves a little until a depth of 2m,
but once you're at 3 or 4m,
it's calm.
The most important thing for me is for air to arrive
in good condition, so that I can breathe.
When I work, I consume a lot of oxygen
and for my safety, the tube that connects me
to the compressor has to be unconstrained.
2 hours later, urchins, clams, mussels fill up the boat
and Gabriel is satisfied.
When everything goes well and we catch
such beautiful products,
to express gratitude, I always do a somersault.
Giant mussels: not far from 20cm.
But they are fragile and will not keep for
more than 6 days, and nobody will come so far to buy them.
So, it's time to go to the kitchen.
And it's time for cooking. It will take ½ hour.
Then we'll remove the shells for one hour
and then it's the smoking room.
Here, nature can prove dangerous.
But Gabriel and his family know how to protect themselves.
We also take a little cat with us to test the mussels.
We give it one or two to eat
and if after one hour the cat is still good health,
it means the mussels are not toxic.
We haven't found a better way of
protecting everyone.
30 years ago, a toxin dangerous for humans
fixed itself to the shellfish.
We call it the marea roja.
Many cases of mortal poisoning were recorded
in the area.
The toxin fixes itself here,
and here too, on the body.
My uncle was one of the first to be poisoned.
When he got back from fishing, he ate 4 of them.
At 2 in the morning, he felt that his mouth,
his nose and his hands were paralysed.
He couldn't breathe, he couldn't get up.
We left the camp early in the morning,
and he died on the way, not far from here.
Today, health authorities
allow fishing again in the north of Puerto Eden.
But most of the divers left, leaving this activity from
another time, to a few stubborn divers like Gabriel,
the last cholguero.
Tonight, when it's time to rest, the cabin will serve as
a smoking room through the night.
This one we sell for 8 euros. Yes the work is insane!
We must tolerate the smoke on our clothes, on our bodies.
But you see, this is what I do.
Hello! My name is Marco Regular Salazar.
I'm a truck driver in Chilean Patagonia.
On the Carretera Austral, the only road in Patagonia,
1 240km from north to south. In a place
where land transportation was impossible
until recently, Carretera has become a legend.
We'll descend all the way to the village of Tortel.
This is where I learned how to drive.
I drove the first bus that took
the Carretera. I was lucky to discover the road.
I was lucky to discover the road
as it was being built.
Driving a truck has always been my passion.
I would have never imagined that I would one day
drive on the road where I learned how to drive.
Look this way: it's a double lane.
In winter, it's always frozen. There's only one lane.
And if I pass first, there's only room for a small car.
I cannot stop and let someone else
pass.
Construction began under the military dictatorship
of Pinochet, in 1976.
The first segment was inaugurated in 1988.
Soldiers died building this road
because in some places, they had to use explosives.
Today, more than half the road is still unpaved
and it's still a difficult and dangerous road.
Here, there's a saying which goes, whoever is in a hurry
in Patagonia loses time.
Anything can happen on the road.
On the Carretera, there is no telephone network,
very few points for food or refueling,
one village every 80km only.
So when you pass in front of Sole's buses,
taking a break becomes mandatory.
Soledad was born and grew up on the edge of the Carretera.
She saw the first trucks pass by,
the first buses.
When she was little, she sold sandwiches to passengers
and she decided to continue.
Here, you have Spanish people, English,
Americans, Italians, French.
And everyone tries to speak,
to communicate in whatever language they can.
We too, we try to make ourselves understood. Excuse-me!
This is the sandwich with palm hearts and this one,
with tomatoes and cheese.
I love it when buses
have a story. This one is the first bus
that rode in the region, the bus Liberty.
It carried high school students.
People here remember it and say:
Oh, this was the school bus!
There are even those who tell me: I married the man
that I had met here.
Back on the road with Marco.
He has an appointment in Tortel, but he never knows
what time he'll arrive.
Marco is transporting all the orders expected
in the last village.
He belongs to the small world of Carretera.
You know, we even
succeeded in organizing very powerful social movements.
We blocked the road in the whole region a few years ago.
We didn't let anyone pass.
We were all united:
truckers and fishermen.
We demanded a better road,
we wanted them to pave at least 100km per year.
But despite the difficulties
of driving on gravel, in clouds of dust,
Carretera became a myth.
Southern summer is the playground
of cyclists from the world over.
Yes, there is everything in this song, it's my favourite.
Bicycle, bicycle ! That's all I want, all I love!
I love this music!
I pedal and it's great!
Martin is Dutch. He's making a tour of South America
in a "fat bike".
My bike is a little special.
It has very wide tires, more than 10cm.
It's ideal for this type of road. It's a lot more comfortable.
I can maintain a good speed.
Coming from Ushuaia? That's far! -Where will you sleep tonight?
I'll go another 80km and camp some place.
80km!
A single road where everyone
meets and knows each other.
This is my neighbour.
Hi, how are you Luciano?
And sometimes, on the roadside,
you can get lucky enough to watch entertaining shows.
Competitions between gauchos.
The wind riders meet up
for great rodeos at the bottom of snowy peaks.
The end of the road with Marco is approaching.
The village of Tortel is in view.
The Carretera has been
linking it to the rest of the world only since 2003.
There we are, we arrived safe and sound, thank God!
There remains the last part, the most important: unloading.
They must work.
Maria Paz came to meet Marco.
She's been waiting for her orders for several days now.
But the truck can't come all
the way to her house, since after the car park, it's the sea,
there is no road left.
We still can't drive all the way to the village.
They say they will build a road in the future.
It's possible that there will be a road one day. Maybe yes,
maybe no. It will take a long long time.
Before, we had to transport everything by boat,
and before that, there was nothing, just a navy vessel
which would bring us goods every 3 or 4 months from Punta Arenas.
Maria Paz came from Santiago
one day and never left.
An architecture student,
she fell in love with this village
and its cabins on stilts. Even the rain didn't make her flee.
Because in Tortel, it rains 330 days a year.
Maria Paz lives in one of those houses clinging
to the mountain.
Today she runs a hotel which opened after
the road was built.
Here, we have to use a generator.
When the lights in the village are cut, we must turn on
our own generator to continue washing, drying,
ironing, and also for heating.
All this makes life a little complicated.
But this problem doesn't really concern our customers
because they are happy when we light the candles.
They love this completely disconnected atmosphere.
It's obvious. There are more tourists who arrive
by road, but I don't think this is the biggest danger.
The Carretera was not designed to develop tourism.
Industry is the biggest danger.
Companies will get installed here
thanks to the road. It will be slow
but it's certain that they will come to exploit
Patagonia's resources and this will change everything.
While Tortel sleeps,
worried about its future, we take the road again
towards the Strait of Magellan,
to discover a whole different setting.
Shipwrecks. And here is the most famous of them all:
the Lord Lonsdale, which ran aground in the late 19th,
a few 100 meters from Punta Arenas.
Far from the atmosphere in Tortel or Puerto Eden, Punta Arenas,
with its 140,000 inhabitants, is a megacity.
I love this city's atmosphere and its wall paintings
along the harbour. They tell the
story of the city.
On one of them, an inscription:
Hotel de France, as if to remind everyone that Punta Arenas
was built by successive waves of immigrants.
From the north of Chile of course,
but also from France, Germany, Italy, and Croatia.
Have a good day!
Good bye!
And they all came from the sea. Punta Arenas is the last
big harbour of the South American continent,
a unique quay where Germain awaits me. He's a guide.
Germain? -That's right.
-I'm Georges. -Nice to meet you!
Thanks for being here.
Germain,
a laid back man in his thirties. He moved to Patagonia
6 years ago out of love for nature and open spaces.
There's more and more activity at this harbour.
Yes, in the past 20 years,
tourism has increased considerably and then,
today many cruise ships arrive to the region.
Regional cruise ships
which pass by Cape Horn or which do tours between
Buenos Aires and Valparaiso passing through Patagonia.
Not to mention Antarctica!
Yes, we have departures, like this boat behind us,
with scientists, who go study the movement of glaciers.
So Punta Arenas is one of the important points of departure.
The harbour of Punta Arenas
is essential for the survival of the region. It's open 365 days
a year, regardless of the weather.
And here, weather conditions are often extreme.
There is a lot of wind
in the region,
in spring, summer, and fall. It's calmer in the winter,
but we can have winds of 180km/h on the main square.
It's a particular life.
One thing is essential, it's the word Patagonia.
It's a name that attracts.
A bit like Cape Horn, these are words that make people
dream and draw them here.
That's also why there is a lot of tourism here,
including lots of French.
Punta Arenas
is the capital of the Magellan region.
At the heart of the city, the statue of Magellan.
On the stele, another figure
intrigues me:
a Patagonian Indian,
representing indigenous people exterminated by the settlers.
Irony of history, today touching his foot
brings good luck. Punta Arenas is also
a surprising architectural heritage in Patagonia.
Like this host house classified as a national monument.
Here, the house of Sara Braun
and Jose Nogueira, with columns
and flags from the region.
A lot of wood! Is it wood from the region?
It's French wood!
A lot of marquetry! -Wonderful!
Inside, the décor hasn't changed in over a century.
On the wall, portraits of Sara Braun and her husband Jose Nogueira
They are the first Europeans to settle in Punta Arenas,
the first to have made a fortune with wool trade.
Jose Nogueira was a rich ship-owner
and his ships also served to satiate
his wife's vagaries.
In houses like this,
the forged iron grill found in Paris
was sent by boat. The furniture comes from France,
the piano from Germany.
You had to have the most affluent house possible to impress
your guests.
The idea of European chic had to be integrated
into Patagonia,
in a competition among big families
to have the most beautiful house around the square.
There's a beautiful clock!
And the piano!
It's useful to be a ship-owner! Can I, just for pleasure?
You just played the best piano in Patagonia,
tuned by the best ears
in the region and rarely used: only the best
musicians in the conservatory
have the right to use it and they come to practice on it.
The false note, it's me!
Punta Arenas is an exception in Patagonia.
And you don't have to go too far to find
nature in its untouched state.
51st South, 4th and last day
of sailing on board the Eden.
It's now heading for
Puerto Natales. The logbooks
are written, the maps memorized,
heads full of memories.
If you want to travel, you must see a change
in the landscape, in water, in people, in the environment.
With the boat, it's great!
Yesterday, I was sick. I took medication
and then I fell asleep. I missed a day.
But today, the weather is beautiful.
At the first gust of wind, other passengers deserve
particular attention. They too can get sick.
I give them a straw hat and water 3 times a day.
And it's the same thing with cattle.
In the morning, the transporters give something to eat
and in the afternoon some water throughout the entire trip.
But they have to be supervised. If the sea is bad,
the horses may get entangled in the barriers
and then it can be very dangerous for them.
Puerto Natales, the final destination.
The trucks take the road all the way to Tierra del Fuego.
For others the adventure continues
in the mountains or in the national parks.
and for some, it's time for family reunions.
It's been 28 days since I last saw my son.
He's here for the holidays. The ferry is much awaited here.
At the end of the week, people find out about arrival time.
Puerto Natales, a meeting point, yes, but the town is also
the capital of wood.
New departure, destination further south
in the company of these 2 men
united for years now in an adventure
due to their job.
Hello, my name is Robinson Angel Diaz.
My job is to log cypress trees and I'm 38.
Robinson and Carlos are "cipreseros" and there are
only 10 teams like this authorized to make use of
the planet's southernmost conifer.
You have to go look for them on distant
archipelagos. -When the sea is calm,
we travel for 14 to 16 hours.
If the sea is against us, it takes us
at least 2 hours more.
We sail the old way, no radars,
and this is not a problem at all.
We have our own tricks. For instance, in a tight passage
at night, we always find
a reflection on the water and this is what we follow.
If you are in the shade, it means you're too close
to the side. You have to be in the middle.
Caught up by nightfall, the two men
have to make a stopover. 4 m2 to eat, sleep,
tell each other the same stories
or listen to the radio on nights when there's full moon.
Between us, there is no boss.
We are equal. We are in the same hell
and we have to make the best of it.
What counts is being good friends.
Friendship is what keeps this duo going.
On board or on land, each does the work of the other without
thinking, without calculating. Robinson is sensitive to this.
We've known each other since the age of 5, since kindergarten.
We are from the same neighbourhood, from the same family.
We've done everything together.
Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes!
Excuse-me, It's pure emotion!
Let's move on:
I want us to go look for logs in the forest.
It will be
on this little island enveloped by a spongy carpet.
It's the turf that nourishes the cypress.
The wood remains humid thanks to this natural fertilizer.
Here, let me show you.
When you twist it, normally water comes out,
as the ground is always humid.
The cypress of Guaitecas is one of the most sought after trees
in the region. Rot-proof, it grows straight and is resistant to time.
For Patagonia's estancias, it's an indispensable accessory.
Here's a gate stake.
And when you plant it in a hole like this,
you only need to put a wire here, a 2nd, a 3rd, 4, 5, and 6
and you leave this part with nothing.
Carlos and Robinson cut 40 trees a day
with no assistance, no engine
to transport their load. -No need for a lot of force,
but you must load the logs in a stable way
on the legs and shoulders.
I've been doing this for 20 years
and I have something like a turtle shell here!
Each trunk
weighs about 8 kilos.
They have to make many breaks before reaching the lancha.
This island is a natural reserve.
So we make use of the wood in a controlled manner.
Today, we can only work
with a permit.
We have to pay to be able to cut a certain amount of logs.
Before, we d come back with a loaded boat,
nobody supervised us.
Regulations were not this tough.
Patagonia
tries to protect its forests
but it also need stakes for the gates of its estancias.
In late afternoon, Robinson and Carlos take to the sea again,
in search of other archipelagos.
In the meantime, a lot further south, at the bottom of Chile,
where the continent breaks up into the ocean
like thousands of confetti until Cape Horn,
fishermen of Terre del Fuego
navigate the southernmost seas of the world.
His name is Enrique and he's been fishing here for 30 years.
Navigating means having
experience, having sea experience.
It's very special here.
What I'm looking for here is my dose of adrenaline.
The fishing campaign has just started.
It's very particular.
It's a particular place. 2 oceans meet here.
Atlantic on the Argentine side, and Pacific on the Chilean.
That's why this has nothing to do with fishing
in the rest of the country.
This is the female, the mom.
She's the reproducer. And this is the male.
He's the one we catch. Him, we can fish, but not her.
The red gold of Tierra del Fuego. We call them centollas,
little spider crabs
that we only find in the cold water of the Big South.
Fishing crews catch it for 3 months,
3 months of intensive fishing in the middle of nowhere.
When the wind blows too hard,
the lanchas come take shelter here,
in the continent's last harbour in Puerto Toro.
New boats have just
arrived from Punta Arenas.
We are in the last little village here.
This is San Pedro, the patron saint of fishermen.
We all believe in Him.
We never know whether we'll come back alive.
We all have companions
who never came back.
We ask Him to protect us.
This flag means
that the navy is here,
that Chile is present
until the southernmost point of the earth.
Only 18 people live in the village during the year.
Argentina, the historic rival, is only a few kilometers away.
Puerto Toro, the sentry village inhabited since the sixties
to occupy and control the entire Chilean territory.
Since then, the navy, the police,
a school: all that the state represents has been present.
One teacher for the village's two children,
Camillo and Benjamin, aged 13 and 9.
Maintaining a school here today
is expensive for the government. But it's a way of asserting
that Chilean territory stretches from the Bolivian border
in the north, to Antarctica in the south,
and that presence is crucial.
This is not a place that we can abandon.
If only 3 inhabitants are left, the school will maybe close.
If Puerto Toro is still holding up,
it's thanks to the school.
The school maintains everything, it's resistance.
In the summer in Puerto Toro, the wind can blow over 130km/h.
A sergeant from the Chilean navy
arrived here with his wife and 2 children
only 3 months ago. The family will spend
an entire year in this distant land.
We have a lot of free time.
So we make cakes, biscuits, tarts.
We try all sorts of recipes.
We invent, it helps pass the time.
I knew the family that was here before us
and they had told me how life was here.
They had two little children.
They told me everything was very calm,
but that I had to take advantage
because time passes too fast in Puerto Toro.
The navy officer is in charge of surveillance and the security of
all the boats that come to the region.
It's the last fishing zone before Cape Horn.
The fishermen who come here are old and experienced.
They know what they re doing, they know the place well,
but you never know: a gust of wind, a wave.
There can be an accident.
It's the country's most dangerous zone.
After us, there's nothing.
We are the last, the last at the end of the world!
It's true, and we are kind of proud of it.
We boast about it even.
Not all Chileans can navigate in this area!
There's only us!
Sometimes, Enrique and his team remain
at sea day after day in an environment which can be hostile,
where they don't have the right to be scared.
Tonight,
the centollas will leave on a big journey.
The boat arrived from the Strait of Magellan,
after 2 days at sea,
to pick up a delivery of one week's worth of fishing,
load up with Chilean crabs
that are still alive and already sold on the Asian market.
Here, we must have at least one and a half tons!
Entire crabs like this.
A rubber band around them and they leave for Japan.
The shell is removed but the crab is entire.
-It all goes to Japan? -All of it!
-And why? -That's where the business is!
Enrique, Roberto and the others can smile:
in Puerto Toro, the season was good
and there was no accident.
At the Tompkins place,
Patagonia Park is ready.
Official opening
in a few weeks. -We hope for the future
that all the world's national parks
continue protecting what remains of biodiversity.
We'll do everything so these examples survive.
A lot further south, economic logic
continues to prevail
and to enclose big spaces reserved for breeding,
stakes picked by the cipreseros of Puerto Natales are planted.
After 30 years of sailing in the canals, commander Esteban
is still enchanted by the landscape.
For me, Patagonia is a passport, an immersion
into prehistory. Here, there are still territories
and forests totally untouched
as well as vestiges of glaciation.
Here, you have the impression that you hold your destiny
in your own hands.
And that's not bad in a world where we're all numbers.
Free as a bird, Rodrigo continues flying over the glaciers.
On land, Marco, the truck driver continues with
his round trips
to bring supplies to Tortel always.
Lost in vastness, Gabriel, the diver of Puerto Eden,
dreams of sharing his seashells with the rest of the world.
I d love to see other people get interested in my work.
Maybe in your country!
Why not in France?
In Chiloe, Marisol's house is well placed
on the seaside and the whole village is partying.
A reward
for this nice act of solidarity.
Mingas are all like this.
To make them every better, I throw a party
and thank all those who came to help me.
Our journey ends
where it began: along the Strait of Magellan.
Nature is powerful here, the inhabitants are warm:
we will come back to Patagonia.
You know this year Thalassa celebrates its 40th birthday
40 years of reporting across the world,
stories which made you stop and question, sometimes even more.
So I'm inviting you to meet
television viewers who said one day:
"'Thalassa' changed my life",
like Monique and Michel, who live in Roscoff, in Brittany.
Here we have dulse, the bean...
And this is surprising.
It's called nori.
It's the algae that serves to make sushi and maki.
We can make our Breton-style sushi and maki.
This story was born
thanks to Thalassa, through a show more than 20 years ago
when Michel saw a story on edible algae
at its very beginning.
Out of the hundreds of algae species
that flourish on the Finistere coasts,
only about 15 are made use of.
Nobody found a way of making use of the others.
I remember that!
While Breton algae are widely used
in cosmetics, medication, and industrial components,
the food section was yet to open to them.
At the end of the program,
I thought: Why not create an entire algae sector?
It was really action-reaction! Let's go!
It's right away, not tomorrow!
He kept algae from Brittany in his fridge:
Here, with this, you can make this, cook it like this!
It was quite surprising!
We were looking for a new direction
and thanks to your program, we thought:
Why not rise to a new challenge? And arriving in Roscoff:
We went for the adventure! And today, we are satisfied.
We started out as two, and today, we have a team of 25 employees.
People talk about sea parsley, marine beans, mustard with
algae, salt with algae, there's an association
with a known base in a way
not to disturb the consumers
and tell them they can use algae as easily as herbs
or land vegetables.
We often watch Thalassa together.
Out of professional interest. -I have proof! Algoplus was
born 22 years ago and new ideas can
still be born, we hope!
Algae have such nuanced shapes!
Open sea algae, with its nice kelps. You can make long dresses
with it, cut it up, make a short dress!
I never thought I could find happiness through a craft,
a region. I pinch myself everyday.
I want this dream to continue.
Goes to show, algae, in all senses of the word,
gave us a lot of inspiration!
Thalassa gives rise to ideas everyday.
If there hadn't been this program, we wouldn't have been here today.
Having found the right
vein through Thalassa, it's true that we are united
for life with Thalassa"!
For life!
Fair winds!
If you too would like to demonstrate your attachment
to Thalassa, see you on france3.fr or the social media.
Thank you for your loyalty,
see you soon and fair winds!
Subtitles MFP.