It is believed that the term "Patagon" had its origin in the Spanish navigators whom, at San Julian, thought the native hunters they saw had big feet (which is not true). Gradually it has been prevailing the logical interpretation that the term comes from the giant PATAGON, a character from "Primaleon", a cavalry novel to which captain general Fernando (Hernando) de Magallanes was very keen. When he met the first aborigine at San Julian, he saw him as frightening as the novel character and called him "Patagon", and the Land of Patagons or just Patagonia.

Torres del Paine National Park covers 181.000 hectares on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Inlet). The park is located 150 kilometers from Puerto Natales. There are many hiking paths that cross widely differing types of terrain, such as pampas and thick Magellanic forests, and run along lakes with huge glaciers and icebergs.

Punta Arenas, the capital of the Magallanes region, sits alongside the Straits of Magellan at a southern latitude of approximately 54º south. J. Byron discovered this location on the Brunswick Peninsula in the 17th century and named it "Punta Arenosa" (Sandy Point).

The Penguin Colony is located 65 kilometers north of Punta Arenas on Seno Otway (Otway Inlet), along the northwest of the Brunswick Peninsula. The Magellanic Penguins return annually to this spot between October and March to lay eggs and raise their young.

The San Rafael Lagoon National Park, which has a surface that reaches 1.742.000 hectares, was declared as a Worldwide Biosphere Reserve in 1979. The Park covers the whole Northern Ice Fields (440.000 Hectares), a place where some of the most important glaciers are originated: San Quintín, San Valentín and San Rafael.