Central and northern Tierra del Fuego Travel Guide

The second largest town in Tierra del Fuego, Río Grande is also the only town of significance in the centre and north of the island. The sterile-looking plains that surround it and stretch to the north harbour fields of petroleum and natural gas that generate over $130 million of wealth annually, with over 1.5million cubic metres of gas a year exported by pipeline to Ushuaia and as far away as Buenos Aires and Río Negro. To the north of town, the RN3 runs through monotonous scenery towards San Sebastián, where you cross the border into Chile or continue north on a dead-end route to the mouth of the Magellan Straits at Cabo Espíritu Santo. Heading south of town towards Tolhuin, the RN3 crosses the Río Grande, and soon enters the woodland scenery of the central region.

One of the region's principal tourist draws is its world-class trout fishing , especially for sea-running brown trout, which on occasion swell to weights in excess of 14kg. The Río Grande currently holds five of the fly-fishing world records for brown trout caught with various breaking strains of line. The mouths of the Río Fuego and Río Ewan can also be spectacularly fruitful; as can sections of the Malengüena, Leticia, Irigoyen, Indio, Claro and Turbio rivers; and lakes Yehuin and Fagnano.